Crazy Drivers

Because of a doctor's appointment later in the day, this past Thursday morning saw me driving to work rather than taking the bus. The road, which is a two lane highway through the Idaho High Desert, was slightly icy that morning while snow affected visibility. Of course, this slowed traffic down from the usual 65 mph to about 50 mph. Well, the more rational people slowed down to about 50 mph. Every few minutes some idiot who thought everyone else was going too slow would pull into the oncoming lane and zip by at almost 70 mph, leapfrogging in and out of spaces between cars. Of course this would happen after the driver had gotten tired of tailgating some slower driver for several minutes. Since us slower drivers were stretched out in lines about 1/2 of a mile long, these maniacs could travel for a couple miles before they could find a space to merge into. I hope that most of us recognize that this behavior isn't appropriate in the best of driving conditions, let alone on a dark, icy, snowy morning.

In the daylight you can often see the little white crosses that appear by the side of that highway, marking the place where a traffic accident had killed someone. Unfortunately, the ones who would most benefit from the lesson those crosses are intended to teach are too busy trying to pass someone who is driving at something approaching a safe speed. Most of these drivers are trying to get to work; why getting there a few minutes earlier is worth risking their lives and the lives of others is a mystery to me.