Accidents, they happen, but not all of them have to. This bitch is for the blond lady in the black 4 door who could have killed me Tuesday morning because she couldn’t wait her turn:
Maybe you don’t remember learning to drive, in fact I’d place a bet on that being the case after the skill level you demonstrated yesterday as you tried to cut across Oxford at Allan and Oak(?). If that’s the case maybe you should stay off the road… but I digress.
I was driving my son to school in my usual cautious manner when all of a sudden you darted off Oak(?) and tried to cross Oxford, your only problem being me. I was already heading your way and you DID NOT have the time to make it across the two lanes, yet you chose to go anyway. Luckily I was paying attention and slammed on my breaks. I skidded about 8 feet and squealed to a halt just as you did the same about 2 inches from smashing the whole drivers side of my car.
I was scared shitless and so was my 5 year old, and all you could do was give me a pissy look and a put-upon ‘I’m sorry’. You know what? Fuck you. If you had hit me it would have been bad. My son son may have been okay because I still keep his seat in the center of the back seat. Which would be to your benefit because if he was hurt there would be no mercy for you. That said, I would likely have been badly hurt, if not killed, and he would have been strapped in the back for the whole show.
Now, not that I want to die for any reason at all, but if I do I certainly don’t want him to witness it. Not only would he then have to grow up without his Ma, but the memories of what happened. Maybe you should consider things like this before the next time you decide to dart across a couple of lanes. Just like I tell him, look both ways BEFORE you cross the street.
P.S. To all the shitty and distracted drivers out there (and yes, I know, we all can get distracted): Stop being idiots, you’re driving a 2000 pound weapon. Don’t: cut people off, run red lights, block intersections, drive with excessive speed, change lanes, park inappropriately, or generally be an asshole. Do, however: Pay attention, be considerate, plan ahead and for fuck sakes get off the phone and stop texting! Seriously, for the benefit of all. —ms. birdie bent
This article appears in Jun 10-16, 2010.
I support this Bitch 100%. Too many people think that driving is a right. It’s not people, it’s a privilege. And it’s a privilege that is seriously abused by far too many motorists. People spend so much time behind the wheel of their vehicle that they start to get complacent and stop caring. In this world of “me me me” everyone thinks they have greater “rights” in their vehicle than anyone else. People need to slow the fuck down, pay attention and like the OP said, get the fuck off your cellphones. You are not that important people, you DO NOT need to drive and talk/text at the same time. It can wait. The safety of the people around you supercedes your timely arrival.
Blonde…..that sums it ALL up.
I support this too. My mother was recently hit by a little twat who couldn’t wait her turn and attempted to pass her on a double-lane, one-way street with parking filled up on both sides (which leaves a narrow passage in the middle).
Mom drives an SUV and was actually ahead of the 20-something gal when she saw a grey-silver blur out of the left corner of her left eye and knew she would be hit. Even in an attempt to clear more space she was still side-swiped hard, which put her up on two wheels and forced her to hit a parked vehicle which rear-ended another parked vehicle. From the description of things I don’t know what was going through the youngin’s mind when she attempted to pass a large SUV without any proper space and her justification for doing so. Don’t think the bimbo apologized either. Also, my mother has fibromyalgae (spelling) and arthritis in her hip and suffered bad whiplash from being rear ended at a stop-sign years ago.
you think that was bad, there was this little chevy the other day. he or she cut in front of the cab i was in, didn’t like where they moved to, cut in front of a few more cars. still not happy, they cut across 3 lanes of traffic, and almost got about 6 cars in a pileup. and this was on the fucking a mckay bridge.
I wish we had re-testing in this province. It’s really frustrating when you’re a decent driver than you get cut off by some dumb bitch who just passed the driving test to begin with.
This angers me as well, my friends car got totaled when a car cut across three lanes, it’s just not necessary. I’m pretty careful on the road, and I hardly ever take the highway. Don’t tell me I’m the only one who wishes they were a police officer when a car speeds past. God I would SO ticket their asses.
Here here. I learned how to drive for the first time only a few years ago and took the full driver training course offered by one of the local Halifax companies. I’m so glad I did. Now that I know how to drive – and the memories of my training are still fairly fresh in my mind – I notice bad (i.e., self-absorbed, reckless, dangerous) drivers everywhere.
Dr Fever: I support the sentiments behind routine re-testing but I seriously question the effectiveness of it. Point being, all the crappy drivers *already* passed one test, and odds are that when called upon to do so again, they will pass again. Thing is, most of the for-crap drivers can drive in theory, they simply choose not to: lack of concentration mainly. For a re-test they just muster up concentration and pass with flying colours, most of them.
A better idea would be to instrument spots with webcams. It almost wouldn’t particularly matter what intersections or stretches of road you picked, although some are more accident (or near-accident) rich than others. Sooner or later you’ll get your data, though. Well-placed cams in planned groups could have their feeds run through motion analysis (real-time or after the fact), and egregious violations of road rules could be flagged for analysis by humans…after which a driver could be ticketed, or called in for an interview.
A single well-placed camera would have flagged the scenario that the OP is describing rather easily.
If drivers started getting license suspensions in the mail due to a system like this, and once it became generally known, I think a lot of drivers would start driving a lot more carefully. Especially if the cams were somewhat unobtrusive, and were installed at quiet hours, and were frequently moved.
Cameras sound like a good idea but I seem to remember a lesson from a psychology class about the importance of timing in discouraging some unwanted behaviour. If you’re pulled over by a police officer and ticketed right after you’ve broken the law, you’re less likely to repeat the same mistake than if you had received a ticket in the mail a week later. However, there aren’t enough cops on the road for this to really work and cameras are cheaper. Dunno…..
yes… let’s adopt EVERY UK failure…
good call.
cause they LOVE their camera’s there….
The legal effectiveness of cameras has already been destroyed in Canada. There was a case in Calgary where they were ruled against.
Re-testing would be key, combined with more stringent regulations/standards/testing (perhaps I should have mentioned that as well).
Good point, zZz, the CCTV network in the U.K. gives the public a false sense of security. The cameras don’t seem to discourage crime and the footage is rarely helpful in court cases, from what I understand.
That intersection sucks! Turning left onto allen st from oxford is horrible! you can never see the far right lane coming towards you because of the cars turning towards connaught. There should definatly be a flashing arrow there. I felt horrible cause I did the same thing not too long ago, there was a truck turning and i couldnt see the right lane so I waited till I could see but by then I the cars behind the truck were going straight and it was a tight squeeze for them and me and others turning to get threw….All I can say is that at least you wernt hit….a bit drastic about the being killed part considering its impossible to do more then 45km/h through that intersection especially in the morning when theres so many cars. At least she appologised…everyone makes mistakes…Thats why accidents are called accidents. Glad no one got hurt though…
My proposal about cameras has nothing to do with real-time or near-real-time security. It has everything to do with obtaining the information necessary to levy a fine on a driver. As another poster mentioned, and as we all know, we don’t have enough cops, and never will have enough cops, to nail bad drivers that way.
As for effectiveness, the one thing that changes a person’s mind is having their bank account reduced. Nothing else is nearly as effective. It’s probably true that being stopped by a human police officer and having a ticket written on the spot sinks in more, but we’ve already determined that the odds of being observed by a traffic cop while you are perpetrating *anything* on the roads are pretty remote.
Dr Fever: as for court cases in Alberta, that’s Alberta. Case law on cameras being used to snap MVA violators is not as final as you suggest, not Canada-wide it’s not. And besides, if the f**kheads persist in their current defense that it’s not possible to prove who was driving the car, just amend the relevant laws so you can also fine the hell out of the owner of the car.