I’ve driven through Penfield, N.Y.; Doylestown, Ohio; Reading, Pa.; Old Forge, N.Y., and Newport, N.Y., in the past month. I’ve driven from Utica to Morristown on Route 12. I’ve crossed St. Lawrence County on Route 37. I traveled on Route 11 to Malone and onto Plattsburgh along the Military Turnpike.
I’ve watched all kinds of drivers – men, women, old and young. Age, gender and experience don’t matter. They all have the same fundamental flaw. They often blow off stop signs and red lights.
I wanted to write that the stop sign has become the new yield sign, but that isn’t true. These scofflaws aren’t yielding; they simply don’t come to a complete stop, creating confusion among drivers and hazards for fellow motorists. Red lights create even more dangers because of the speed involved.
My angst developed from a persistent annoyance into a full-blown rant last month. It’s turning me into the cranky old guy with the “get off my lawn’’ mentality. I feel like I’m a driving errand away from telling the cops what I just witnessed when an accident occurs.
My turning point came at the narrowest, busiest intersection in my Rochester suburb last week. I saw the stoplight turn yellow from about 150 feet away and slowed my vehicle. I don’t speed up through yellow lights, hustle through “pink’’ lights, nor run red lights. The risk isn’t worth the minute or two of driving time I might save.
None of that could have been on the mind of the fellow in the pickup truck directly behind me. He switched to the right lane, stepped on it, and ran the light, now red. The cross-traffic had just begun to pull forward. I gulped. If he had a dashboard Jesus, it’s a safe bet the statue covered its eyes.
American Automobile Association, commonly known as AAA, polled its 57 million members in 2020. It found that 86 percent of drivers agreed it was dangerous to run a red light, but one-third admitted doing it in the past 30 days. Among traffic fatalities, 35 percent of people killed were the drivers who ran the red lights. It wasn’t a statistical anomaly. AAA conducted the same poll by telephone in 2021 and found similar results.
I looked up driving statistics and did the math for St. Lawrence County. It’s sobering. In the 2020 U.S. Census, 108,505 people lived in our spacious county. About two-thirds had reached driving age, 16 years and older. AAA’s survey of driving habits found that 95 percent of drivers spent 60 minutes in their vehicles covering about 30 miles each day. If you let your mind run wild, the percentage of red-light runners, fudgers and cheaters could be staggering.
There are plenty of reasons people do it. Some feel coming to a complete stop Is unnecessary. Some are running late. A few are inattentive. Others feel they won’t get caught. Some are high or intoxicated. In my observations, I have classified the cheaters:
The Rollers: They slow down, never stop and roll through the intersection, even though you have stopped completely and it’s your turn to proceed.
The Gotta Be Firsts: This maddening group sees the traffic, sees the sign or light, sees you, but decides they have to be the first one through the intersection.
The Sneakers: When a vehicle waits for oncoming traffic to clear at a light for a left turn, these motorists, sometimes two, must sneak through. They ride the bumpers of the cars ahead through yellow and red lights. Their impatience clogs intersections and halts cross traffic.
More phenomena we must deal with are impatience and road rage. My friend, Amy, a school crossing guard at a busy intersection, shared her story from last month about the driver from beyond purgatory.
“I’m in the intersection with traffic stopped,’’ recalled Amy, “and I hear this car laying on the horn. She is the fourth car back in her lane until she pulls into the right turn lane and tries to go through. Fortunately, my partner and I were standing there supervising. She stopped the car, got out and started swearing like crazy. She threatened us and kept screaming obscenities.’’
The story didn’t end there. Amy’s supervisor snapped a photo of the woman’s license plate and turned it over to the local police. When they tracked down the plate and visited the driver at her home, they found she didn’t live in the school district. No word on that result .
Sadly, the fallout of this bad driving registered three weeks ago within seven miles of my home. A driver missed a stop sign and crashed into a Wayne Central School bus carrying 22 juniors and seniors and three adults on a field trip. The sedan struck the side of the bus, damaged the fuel tank and sparked a huge fireball. The adults and students didn’t grab book bags or possessions; they smelled the smoke and immediately escaped through the front door and rear safety hatch. No one on the bus was injured seriously.
The sedan driver and his dog were both killed. Police had no immediate knowledge if a medical emergency or inattention caused him to miss the stop sign.
Morristown native Jim Holleran is a retired teacher and sports editor from Rochester. Reach him at jimholleran29@gmail.com or view past columns under “Reflections of River Rat’’ at https://hollerangetsitw rite.com/blog/
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