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Volume 71, Issue 93,
Monday, February 20, 2006
Opinion Laws are for safety, not a challenge Adil Saleem
We're all guilty of it -- some more than others -- yet no one wants to admit it. Most of us commute to school, and while for some it's a 10-minute drive, for others it takes at least an hour, sometimes more, to reach the University of Houston. What we are guilty of is reckless endangerment with heavy machinery, also known as our car. Day in and day out, we drive without paying attention to the road. I see people applying makeup, typing text messages, eating their breakfast and even people reading the paper, all while driving. Yeah, we're all crunched for time, and doing it in the car is the only time to do it. It doesn't make it the right time though. By eating that Big Mac, you divide your attention in two, and the only people who suffer are the people driving beside you. People speed -- it's a fact, and no one can change it. I wouldn't want to change it either. If I see an open stretch of road, the pedal goes down and doesn't come up, but it's reckless and sheer stupidity when one speeds in the presence of numerous other cars. But I'm OK with speeding, and I'm OK with eating while driving, but I still don't understand using the cell phone in the car. I understand how sometimes one has to make or receive calls while in the car. What I don't understand is how in this present day and age, with all the technology that is available, people still have to hold up that cell phone to their ears. It takes away one good hand, and if you're the type that nudges the cell phone into your ear, and cradles it on your shoulder, while still keeping two hands on the wheel, then you're being even more dangerous. There's a feature called "speakerphone" and it's not hard to use. Usually during an ongoing call, there's an option to put it on speakerphone. Its one button to push, then put your phone down, and talk as long as you want. And if your phone can't do that, then invest in a better phone for your own, as well as everyone else's, safety. Maybe I've been on the wrong highway at the wrong time, but a weird phenomenon has been happening to me. At least three or four times, I've seen traffic slow down because of a ladder on the highway. And twice, I've been the lucky guy that's in the same lane as the ladder. So if you own a ladder, and love to carry it around in your truck, please tie it up nice and snug so it doesn't accidentally smash my windshield on its descent. And probably the most important thing to avoid accidents is to signal. It seems that more and more people conveniently forget to signal nowadays. It's ironic how I'm writing about this, when I'm the one who got pulled over at one in the morning for not signaling on an empty highway. But it's so true, if you don't signal, then no one knows what you're going to do next, and all too often, the results are disastrous. I guess the point of my rant is that driving an extra 20 mph on top of the speed limit isn't really going to help you get to UH 20 minutes earlier. At most it'll get you a minute or two ahead of your scheduled arrival. Also, breaking lights to get to a destination is never a good option, but lately I've seen it exercised way too much. I could go and on about traffic violations, but we should realize why laws are in effect in the first place. The objective is to keep us safe. So next time you're doing 40 mph in a school zone, try to think about why that sign is up in the first place, and less about how many seconds earlier you can reach school. Saleem, an opinion columnist for The Daily Cougar,
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