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Unless you have a sudden physical impairment or mechanical failure or an animal darts into the road, there is no excuse for hitting something that is in front of you.
After the initial contact between the pickup and the semi in Franklin County, why couldn’t the bus driver avoid plowing into the mess? The fact that he didn’t proves that he did not have his vehicle under control.
Missouri law has always required drivers to operate their vehicles with the highest degree of care. Mouth-breathers who follow too closely or don’t pay attention violate this law constantly, and the Highway Patrol has been a miserable failure at enforcing it, so what makes anybody think another law will help? Of course the HP favors it. It keeps everybody convinced that their budget must be ever expanded so they can stare at their radar and harass taxpayers who are doing no harm. Pay no attention to the fact that we have failed again and again, citizen, just pay up and do as you are told! Now which way to the donut shop?
When a new law fails to achieve its advertised goal, it is always used as an excuse for some huckster to propose yet another one. And on and on. Behold the wonder of government (as in, I “wonder” why people put up with it).
Sorry Roland, having had multiple near misses with people texting, dialing phones, looking at GPS, putting on makeup, reading books, we need to do something. I hope no one loses there life due to the selfish negligence of texting while driving, but all the items noted above had caused loss of life already; why not try to prevent it?
I appreciate your concern, Chad, but your experience proves my point. Failure to pay attention while driving has been against the law my entire lifetime. If drivers were held responsible for the damage they do, we would not be threatened constantly by the kinds of behavior you describe. I’ve driven tractor-trailers professionally, and I’ve been observing this a long time. If you are sober and driving a car, you can maim as many people on the road as you want and there will be no significant penalty. “Boo hoo, officer, he stopped right in front of me; I just couldn’t avoid hitting him!” Pathetic. What makes you think that adding yet another “thou shalt not” will help when the most fundamental principles of safe driving are ignored with impunity?
Roland, you get a gold star. We have squillions of laws on the books forbidding all kinds of bad behavior. It’s not legal to rob banks but folks still do it even though there are laws that tell us we shouldn’t do so. Laws regulating driving behavior are pretty much a waste of time as a preventive measure.
Thank you, Water Bug. I can’t remember who said it, but one of the best comments I’ve ever heard about traffic laws is that the only thing they accomplish is to give drivers more reasons to become indignant.