Will Government Bear the Responsibility When Someone Dies?

I saw it happen again this past weekend and it perturbs me at government.After all, can you really fault the stupid for being stupid?

Here’s the story:I am driving north on Riverside Drive.I am approaching a standard intersection with no traffic control for traffic on Riverside.The side streets have a stop sign.There is a crosswalk.

On the west side of the road is a young mother.I know this because my powers of deduction tell me the baby carriage she is pushing likely contains an infant.Could she be a babysitter or older sibling, sure, but what teenager is going to go walk or jog with a baby carriage in tow when there are video games to be played and friends to text?

As the two vehicles in front of me- traveling at 35-40 miles per hour- approach mom’s intersection, mom steps into the road pushing the carriage in front of her.As she does, mom raises her right hand at our line of traffic as if she’s a traffic cop telling us to stop.Fortunately for her there was no southbound traffic or she and baby would now be greasy spots on the road.

Driver 1, the lead car, heeds mom’s instructions as if they actually mean something and stops, waiting for mom and baby to cross.I am not sure how close Driver 2, the vehicle between us, was to Driver 1.I can imagine squealing breaks and skid marks, but there was no accident.I was a sufficient distance behind the second car and coasted to a stop wondering just how stupid mom was.

She’s got zero authority to stop traffic.She has no sense for trying to do so and she’s lucky I wasn’t the lead car.I’d have waved hello and kept on trucking.She’s also lucky to have had attentive drivers.

One of these days some duped pedestrian will not be so lucky and the real responsible parties won’t be held accountable.No, some poor sap driver who has someone stupidly step out into traffic will pay the heavy toll.

The real responsible parties are those who created those extra intersections beachside, others like them and the ones with the cute little orange flags farther south on Riverside.Both styles serve to convince the susceptible walkers that they somehow have a measure of control over those vehicles traveling at speed on our roads.What they have is a false sense of security that those cars are going to stop and they are crossing the road without consequence.Yet, no traffic engineer, Department of Highways, City, County or State officials who signed off on this stupid idea will ever even think that they were responsible.

After all, it’s not their fault that people are stupid!

CONGRATULATIONS Randy Bowness.YOU’VE WON THIS WEEK’S BML INSIDER MUG.

Email AidanSherman@iHeartMedia.com within 30 days of this email date to schedule pick up of your mug!


Sponsored Content

Sponsored Content