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Friday 4 March 2011

Red Is The New Green




I'm so angry right now.  New Zealanders have a reputation of being bad drivers and I'm not surprised. Recently, Whitesnake and I have noticed an increase in the amount of cars which go through red lights...not amber lights...RED lights. Red does not mean put your foot down and hope for the best, it means STOP. I'm so tired of having to triple check that there are no cars coming before I drive through a green light. What's wrong with you people? Why do you have to endanger the lives of others so you can reach your destination 30 seconds faster? Is 30 seconds really worth a person's life? Most of the time when a driver goes through a red light, we catch up to them by the next light anyway. They're not actually getting there any faster, they're endangering lives and they are using extra gas and for what...NOTHING!

Today, I dropped Whitesnake off at work and almost didn't make it home. I waited at the red light, it turned green and as I slowly made my way into the intersection, a Courier driver came speeding through and almost hit me. Luckily, I saw him out of the corner of my eye and managed to swerve into another lane and get out of his way. Not only did he almost hit me but he had to swerve out of the way of the car which was turning left (legally) into his lane. He couldn't brake because he was driving too fast...he had to swerve. My heart was beating so hard in my chest , I thought I would have to pull over and calm down. It could have been very serious because he was in a van and speeding and I was travelling slow and in a small car. I made it home and after a chat on the phone with Whitesnake, I'm feeling better.

This is the same intersection where I had my accident last year and the exact same thing happened but I didn't manage to get out of the way in time. This is probably the third time this has happened at the same intersection in a year. I think the problem is, that there is a green arrow for drivers to turn left but if drivers aren't paying attention they see the green for left and mistakenly continue instead of stopping for the red light.

Anyway, I have learnt my lesson. After my near miss this morning, I'll be taking the longer way home in future and avoiding the intersection completely. I think I'll write a letter to the Police too. When I reported my accident to the Police last year, the Policeman informed me that he had reports of many accidents at the very same intersection.

Righto, rant over. Please slow down and pay attention to what's going on around you when you're driving. Not only could you save your own life but those of others too.

See you tomorrow for Simply Delish.
Love KB
xxx

15 comments:

  1. KB: I agree 100%. I find bad driving to be highly selfish. It is the same in most of the states in the USA. Stop signs and red lights are treated like suggestions. In this country, I blame it on the same old societal changes that have plagued us for the last 50 years. They used to require drivers' education courses in school, but no longer. We don't want to upset the teenagers that can't drive. They might feel badly about themselves. So we let them drive with no training and they cause multitudes of accidents every day. Most of all, if they survive, they become lousy adult drivers, even more dangerous. Wake up world!

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  2. Thanks for your comments JJ. I was quite shaken at the time but feeling better now. I just want to shake some sense into some people sometimes. They will only learn how destructive their behaviour is when it's too late and they have killed someone. It's very sad.

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  3. Wow, people are crazy aren't they? I posted something a tad similar on my other blog the other day (maviefolle.com) about nutty drivers on the road while teaching my son to drive. I'm right with you with your opinion, and I think 75% of people should not have a license. :o)

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  4. There sure are some crazy ones. I know we all make mistakes but there seem to be more and more bad drivers on the road every day.

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  5. Rant away my friend - maybe someone will listen. People are so color blind obviously aka don't see much

    Hugs for your day

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  6. We have the same thing in the US, a blatant disregard for the rules of the road. It's frightening.

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  7. Thanks ladies. Hugs to you too Moonie.

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  8. That's insane! How can people not stop at red lights? It usually happens by accident here... actually once, Lucas was stopped at a red light and he had to go into the intersection to avoid being run into from the back because these two guys weren't paying attention to the road!

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  9. They should tak them all of the road yeh. Good post. Hugs marja

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  10. The whole trouble is they don't care. Most of the time it isn't actually Kiwi drivers but the immigrants that have come over to take over this fine land of ours!
    Was so happy that you were safe babe love ya xxxx

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  11. I agree KB, one of my pet peeves are people who are constantly speeding. It scares me that they're so willing to put both their life, and the lives of the people around them at risk.

    Also people who are IDIOTS around trucks!!! Having been in a truck a few times now, I can't believe how moronic people are - I once saw someone drive up, on to the footpath, at a school, on the trucks right hand side where the driver couldn't see it, just to get passed us. If they'd waited another minute or less, we would've been out of their way!

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  12. Poor you. I'm glad you weren't hurt, sounds like drivers in India and Italy! :O)

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  13. Thanks everyone.

    WS - me too xxxx

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  14. The only people over here who drive erratically more than anyone else seem to be Asian women. I don't understand it, how can that be?!?! Hopefully this is an immigrant thing and people who are raised in this country do not have the same problem! Same there!

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  15. Driving want more attention from driver in the night time, night time increase the risk of accident occurring due to darkness. When we can’t see the objects clearly on the road then we don’t know what to do anticipate towards the upcoming object. To avoid accident we should follow all traffic rules and also drive car on average speed.

    Safety Signs

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