2003.12.23 : Annual Safe Driving Harangue
Just kidding; all I actually did was go to Birmingham over the weekend. And I'm not even writing about that. I just realised that if I'd advertised this as my annual safe driving harangue, I expect I would have gotten precious little return on my digital direct marketing dollar.
I've given offense in the past by seeming to suggest that the people in my life don't know how to drive, or need my driving advice. I'm so sorry for that, which isn't what I mean at all. Last year, Pops said it would be perfectly nice, and perhaps even well-received, if I just lightened up a little and maybe sent a brief note saying, well, saying:
"Hey, everyone, it's the holidays, so please remember to be extra careful on the road."There. Oh, and to really hammer home that I don't think you're a bad driver, I also dug up a special report on "How Good Drivers Get Killed". They analyzed the U.S.'s 41,611 traffic deaths in 1999 and assessed the most common way that drivers not at fault were killed. (Most common causes: head-on collisions from distracted oncoming drivers drifting into your lane (best defense - stay on highways, which are partitioned); and people blasting through stop signs and red lights (look both ways even when you have the right of way).)
Also, here's the old result of my safe driving research from back when.
Have a happy healthy holiday! – and please, please don't get hurt. You are too loved to be lost. 'Nuff said.
