How many have to die before people learn? Again!

STORY at the Christian Science Monitor

At the age of 48, I grew up during a period in our country during which people had learned the follies of speeding cars. During the late 60's and through the 70's speed limits across this nation had been scaled back to a maximum of 55mph. It had been the costly lessons of the 50's that had taught us that speed equals fatalities. High death tolls during the 50's, coupled with the rising cost of gas and shortages of fuels during the early days of OPEC together encouraged our nation's leaders to set strict speed limit rules on our highways. Almost immediately this resulted in fewer fatalities, fewer multi-car crashes and better gas milage for motorists.

So what happened? The excesses of the 80's happened, that's what. Spurred on by Reaganomics, our nation's leaders, (mostly the same ones that fixed things two decades before!), started repealing laws on curbing highway speeds because WE as a nation demanded more, more...more! It wasn't enough that lowering the speed limit caused fewer traffic fatalities, the reasoning went that since cars were being built with more safety measures installed in them, it was therefore safer for cars to travel at higher speeds. That's like saying that since we have better medical procedures now, it's safer to run with scissors!

Now here we are again, looking at high gas prices, huge multi-car pile-ups on the freeways and more fatalities involved with car crashes than anytime since the 50's. It's time once again to put on our common sense caps and lower the nations speed limits. It doesn't have to go all the way back to 55mph, although I'd be okay with that myself. I think setting a speed limit on all of our nation's highways to 65 mph would be enough to turn back the clock on death by automobiles!

Flight plans will be optional today!

My new ride...not so new now!

Well, I don't have a picture of it to show you, but I managed to have a wreck on my new scooter Sunday afternoon. I'm just now feeling well enough to sit at the computer and type this up. I lucked out and didn't break anything, or worse yet, die! I did get pretty banged up, and my scooter isn't in such mint condition anymore.

I was going around a corner that I'd negotiated four or five times in the past week with no problem. I swung out a little wide to avoid a depression in the intersection and wound up losing control on some loose gravel left behind by snow-melt. I hit the curb, the scooter flipped around 180 degrees and I flew off and slid about five feet along the ground. Thank GOD, there were several wonderful people in the traffic around me. One gentleman stopped, got out of his car and after checking to see if I was all right, helped me get the scooter out of the street. Several other motorists and one policeman stopped and asked if I was ok. I'm really grateful to each of these people who took time out from their commutes to help me / check up on me, I didn't think people would do that anymore.

I was hurting badly, but was able to pick up all the pieces lying along the street, get back on the scooter (after assuring myself it was safe enough to ride) and continued on home. My wife was none too happy with me (she didn't like the fact I'd got the scooter in the first place), but she was more concerned about my health. After a couple hours at home, I decided that my wife was right and that I should go to the E.R. and get checked out. Long story short, I had no serious damage, but it was going to be a couple of rough days while recuperating. I feel better enough now, I should be back to work tomorrow, (minus the scooter). I guess I'm going to buff the scratches out of it the best I can, and put it up on the market. I promised the wife that I'd not ride it anymore, it's not worth the worry and pain I'd be putting her through, just to ride the scooter back and forth to work.