Bryan W. Alaspa 1An open letter (part three): to the old man driver
August 5th 2009 13:37
Dear sir, I would humbly express my heartfelt concern for you and your family after seeing you sitting in the left lane at the light as if that were actually part of the right lane. In short, you turned left and into oncoming traffic and, apparently, found this to be a normal thing. You see, the lane to the left was two lanes, both of them headed north, and just because you were to the right of the dotted line does not mean you were not headed straight on into oncoming traffic.
I would think that the concrete divider that was to your right would be the giveaway to you that you were in the wrong lane. However, I sat there and watched you and you seemed to not notice that you were about to become a deadly hazard to those in the opposite lane, looking at you with confused eyes, hoping that you would not spring forward and straight into the SUV that was directly in front of you. Did you not notice that there were two lanes of cars right in front of you? Did you think that the road suddenly, dramatically, and without warning suddenly reduced to a single lane headed north?
For a long time I have wondered if it might not be best for there to be some kind of age limit on driver’s licenses. I always thought it sounded like a good idea and then would think, well, what happens when I reach that age? Will I still feel that way? I have seen some elderly people do some amazingly shocking things with their cars. I witnessed a man barely able to walk take easily ten to twenty minutes just getting his seemingly useless legs in the car as he crawled behind the wheel. I then witnessed him nearly smash through a store window trying to back up out of his parking space.
Thankfully there was no tragedy yesterday, but it was a near thing. The fact that you just drove off, shifting to the correct lane, as if your way of driving was normal and you had not done something potentially deadly, made me reconsider that age limits might be a good thing. Of course, you were also lucky that no one coming from the cross-street turned into the lane you were in. Whoever coined the phrase that God favors the fool was obviously thinking of something like you and your driving when he or she coined that particular phrase.
Of course, there is never a cop around when something like that happens. They just sit there and do crosswalk checks and then chase after people who may be speeding a few miles over the speed limit. They just come along after the accidents and clean up the gunk left on the cement afterwards.
Finally, on another note and one just slightly separate from this one, is there nothing better that can be affixed to the ends of the legs of the walkers the elderly use than tennis balls? I mean, I guess there are worse things that being split open and jammed on the end of a piece of metal, but I cannot imagine what they are. Yes, I am also humanizing tennis balls, but at the same time you would think modern science would have advanced past the point where tennis balls were the height of floor maintenance.
I would think that the concrete divider that was to your right would be the giveaway to you that you were in the wrong lane. However, I sat there and watched you and you seemed to not notice that you were about to become a deadly hazard to those in the opposite lane, looking at you with confused eyes, hoping that you would not spring forward and straight into the SUV that was directly in front of you. Did you not notice that there were two lanes of cars right in front of you? Did you think that the road suddenly, dramatically, and without warning suddenly reduced to a single lane headed north?
For a long time I have wondered if it might not be best for there to be some kind of age limit on driver’s licenses. I always thought it sounded like a good idea and then would think, well, what happens when I reach that age? Will I still feel that way? I have seen some elderly people do some amazingly shocking things with their cars. I witnessed a man barely able to walk take easily ten to twenty minutes just getting his seemingly useless legs in the car as he crawled behind the wheel. I then witnessed him nearly smash through a store window trying to back up out of his parking space.
Thankfully there was no tragedy yesterday, but it was a near thing. The fact that you just drove off, shifting to the correct lane, as if your way of driving was normal and you had not done something potentially deadly, made me reconsider that age limits might be a good thing. Of course, you were also lucky that no one coming from the cross-street turned into the lane you were in. Whoever coined the phrase that God favors the fool was obviously thinking of something like you and your driving when he or she coined that particular phrase.
Of course, there is never a cop around when something like that happens. They just sit there and do crosswalk checks and then chase after people who may be speeding a few miles over the speed limit. They just come along after the accidents and clean up the gunk left on the cement afterwards.
Finally, on another note and one just slightly separate from this one, is there nothing better that can be affixed to the ends of the legs of the walkers the elderly use than tennis balls? I mean, I guess there are worse things that being split open and jammed on the end of a piece of metal, but I cannot imagine what they are. Yes, I am also humanizing tennis balls, but at the same time you would think modern science would have advanced past the point where tennis balls were the height of floor maintenance.
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