My heart goes out to the family that lost their son in the recent accident at the intersection of Hall and Northlake boulevards. Sadly, this kind of thing happens all too frequently out here. However, with all of the recent demands for a traffic light there, I must step back and call a spade a spade. This woman was driving while distracted, and she blew past a clearly posted stop sign in broad daylight and into the path of a dump truck. It wasn’t the intersection’s fault, it was hers.
Distracted driving, especially texting while driving, is reckless and incredibly dangerous. Just three months earlier, another distracted driver in a large pickup going east on Northlake Blvd. inexplicably crossed the center line and pulverized an elderly couple driving west in their Camry. Ironically, it was near the same intersection. We don’t need extra traffic signals, rumble strips and speed humps to cure distracted driving. What we need are better drivers.
We have too many traffic lights out here in The Acreage as it is. Minto is threatening to add several more in front of Callery-Judge along Seminole Pratt [Whitney Road]. I came out here in 1988 to get away from the city and its traffic lights. Now it seems like there are people out here who want to make this into another New York City. To Minto, I say that if you planned your community properly, you’d only need one light, not five.
One thing that would help the bad driving problem overall is to pass a law prohibiting habitual accident causers to own, possess or drive vehicles that weigh more than 1,000 pounds and also from carrying passengers. Ever notice how the really bad drivers always seem to be driving huge vehicles? Such a law would force bad drivers to either become good drivers or die trying. Unlike adding more traffic lights, it would help cure the disease and not just treat the symptoms.
Dennis Hawkins, The Acreage
