I watch people drive under me year after year, and they never seem to learn. I watch them only put on their seatbelt when they are stopped at my intersection, or worse while they are driving past me! I may be a stop light, simply changing colors and watching cars drive beneath me, but I have the decency to know what matters. I cannot believe how many times I have watched people's phones light up and seen then shift their focus on that screen instead of what’s in front of them. It’s only a matter of time before they drive right past me when I’m telling them to “stop”! I believe that humans are far too social. They are always texting while driving. I don’t understand the obsession. I mean, I have bright colorful lights, yet they hardly pay me any mind. At least once a day someone will drive through my intersection even though I clearly showing red. I feel pity for those poor souls who learn too late the damage that using devices on the road have caused. It baffles me how humans are willing to take the risk of speeding under me or purposefully not wearing their seatbelts. They are only hurting themselves. I am beginning to see more ambulances than Tahoe's on my intersection. I try to flicker a light or two to warn them, I suppose they assume I have a broken bulb and ignore me further. You’d think adults would know better than kids, but adults are the worst. These adults think that simply because they have been driving for longer, they are exempt from making the same mistakes they harp their children for.
In my professional opinion, all cars should have a mechanism that won’t allow the ignition to turn on unless all passengers’ have their seatbelts buckled. The number of times I have seen people fly out of their car is heartbreaking! Are people too cool for seatbelts? How can people risk so much, knowing they could avoid injury or death by one small “clicking” action? If I asked someone to get on a rollercoaster but not where the harness, would they still do it? No. Driving may seem safer than a roller coaster, but it’s much more dangerous. Roller coasters are a controlled environment, driving is chaotic and unpredictable. Yet those same people that gladly pull down the harness on a roller coaster don’t wear their seatbelts on the drive home. In 2022, over 25,000 vehicle occupants were killed. Fifty percent of those occupants weren’t wearing seatbelts. Would those people have chosen to buckle up if they new that statistic? I think so.
Out of all the accidents and ambulances I’ve seen, it's the ones that don’t end in fatalities that scare me the most. One can’t help but wonder, “what if it didn’t end like that?” Because when your light goes out (Stop light pun) there’s no trauma to recover from its simply out. But the near death experience for some is worse. Several months back a young man had fallen asleep behind the wheel. He lost control of his vehicle and flew off the highway. His truck was totaled. When the paramedics arrived on the scene, they assumed whoever was in the vehicle was dead. The mangled hunk of metal couldn’t have protected anyone at that point. But they learned that the passenger had been ejected from the truck, because they weren’t wearing a seatbelt. His body was flung through the air and the impact from hitting the ground broke his back. He survived the crash, but he spent the rest of his life paralyzed from the neck down.
If I could drive, I would never do it while I was so tired that I might fall asleep behind the wheel. This isn’t something that many talk about, falling asleep while driving. Most people know they should drive while intoxicated, but do they also know that being awake for 18 hours without sleep can impair a driver's ability to the same degree as a blood alcohol content of 0.05%. I’m guessing the man who fell asleep driving his truck didn’t know that fact. If he had, perhaps he would have pulled over to rest or stayed until the morning from wherever he was driving from.
I see so many cars pass under me. Driving in America is a part of life. It’s built into the fabric of the country. But I think that we’ve taken for granted how dangerous it is. I get routine maintenance checkups just to make sure I’m working right. I think driver’s should do the same thing. They should have to take a class every year to renew their license. They can learn about seatbelt statistics or how driving tired can be as dangerous as driving drunk. Knowledge is power and I think the more people know the better than can be. But what do I know, I’m just a stop light. It’s not like the rules of the road are my job or anything…