Name: Hannah Elizabeth Cooper
From: Tigard, OR
Votes: 0
Hannah
Cooper
November 20, 2019
Red
Light; Green Light
“Crash!”
“Screech!” The sensation stunned everyone in the car, including
me. Once we got out of the car, we saw that the front of our car was
totaled. This happened when we were on our way to a barbeque at our
church, and we thought everything was fine until that crash. Everyone
was unharmed, though a little shaken, but we all wondered what
happened. Later, we found out that while we had a green light,
someone else who had a blinking yellow light ran through it without
yielding, causing the crash.
This
scenario is not uncommon, beings that according to
www.marksandharrison.com
in their article
“Causes of Car Accidents: Disobeying Traffic Signals in Virginia”
last accessed on November 20, 2019, “Reported in the findings of an
eight-year study conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration (NHTSA), there were on average 1,578 fatalities each
year resulting from two-vehicle traffic crashes at intersections
controlled by traffic signals.” This is 1,578 too many, and this
isn’t counting injuries! Yes, we might be running late to an
appointment or to school or what-have-you, but if we aren’t
careful, that number will rise. The flipside to this is that we have
a chance to lower that number.
Obeying
traffic lights will not only be beneficial to our fellow man, but it
will also be beneficial to us financially. According to Andy Medici
from the Washington
Business Journal in
his article “The District Raked In a Record $199M In Fines Last
Year. It’s Almost all From Traffic.” On January 6, 2017, “11.5
million came from red light fines…”, and according to
www.traviscountytx.gov,
the fine for
running a red light/stop sign is $149.90, and if you include this
with the court costs ($107.10), you have a whopping $257.00 to pay.
How many of us want to pay that
much for our actions? Unfortunately, as seen above, we do pay that
price. The good news is that there are things we can do to avoid the
fines and the fatalities, and they’re very simple.
First,
never be in a hurry!
If you have somewhere to be, leave the house early enough so that
when you’re hitting every red light on your route, you won’t be
freaking out and tempted to run the light. This will benefit you
financially, physically, and perhaps emotionally.
Finally,
be aware of your
surroundings! I can
speak from experience that if you aren’t paying attention to the
lights, you will not see them, and you will run the risk of running
through a red light. I was driving to my work in Sherwood, and I was
going through a school zone. Now, usually, there isn’t a traffic
light in a school zone, but this one was the exception. I had often
seen it, and it was always green, so I naturally assumed that it was
green this time. Unfortunately, it wasn’t, and my dad, who was
riding with me at the time, had to bring that to my attention
urgently. While it wasn’t an intersection, there was a crosswalk,
and if there was someone walking through it, I would’ve most likely
hit them. Being aware of your surroundings will make the difference
between life and death not only for you, but for a pedestrian or
another driver.
These two principles
will make the difference between you in the hospital or the court,
and you being safely at your destination. This understanding is also
applicable to everyone on the road. So the next time you’re tempted
to sneak through a red light, stop and think, because your actions
will determine whether someone else will get injured/killed or not.
Works
Cited
“Causes of Car Accidents:
Disobeying Traffic Signals in Virginia”. www.marksandharrison.com.
© 2019 Marks &
Harrison. Last Accessed November 20, 2019.
Medici, Andy. “The District
Raked In a Record $199M In Fines Last Year. It’s Almost All From
Traffic.”. www.bizjournals.com.
Washington Business
Journal.
Published January
6, 2017, 2:38pm EST. Last updated January 6, 2017, 2:54pm EST.
“Traffic Ticket Fines &
Court Costs”. www.traviscountytx.gov.
© 2019 Travis
County. Last accessed November 20, 2019.
