Pedestrian Crossing
I was stopped at a pedestrian crossing this morning, waiting patiently whilst a little frail old man with a walking stick crossed the road in front of me. To my surprise the car behind me hooted, and when I looked in my rear mirror I could see a middle aged man, red cheeked, shaking his hands, as if I was ruining his day by not killing the poor old man walking in front of of me, by running him over and clearing the highway for the rest of the traffic to zoom by. Last week 10 people were killed on Israeli roads; Is that not enough for those impatient and dangerous drivers?
Its strange, but I've noticed that if there is something alive and moving, crossing an Israeli road, for instance a dog or child or even a policeman, cars are almost certainly likely to speed up, even if they are stepping on pedestrian crossings, and if they don't kill whats there, its only because the creature or human managed to quickly get out of harms way. The odd thing is that if someone is dead, or injured, or a car is damaged by the side of the road, all these maniac drivers will suddenly slow right down causing enormous tail back traffic jams, and stare very observantly at the carnage, and just as they pass by, they immediately press their foot on the accelerator and speed off into the distance.
Nothing can stop this wild and illogical driving syndrome, than better education and better policing, ( I am always overtaken by a police car even if I'm driving at the maximum permitted speed). Older people need to set a better example, and very harsh punishments for drivers with a history of driving offences should be given. I believe drivers with more than 10 road offences in one year should not be allowed to ever have a driving licence again, because they obviously don't have the right personality or skills to drive safely. Its as simple as that! Every year there would be less and less dangerous drivers on our roads, and drivers with an accumulation of offences would begin to realize that they would need to invest in better training and would have to drive more carefully or they would not be able to drive any more.
Unfortunately there is nobody that has an real power that actually seems to care. Today $40 million dollars has been allocated to dealing with the threatening bird flu. Last week 10 people lost their lives on the roads and nothing has changed, same terrible carnage, same useless government officials that don't care about Israels greatest threat, its roads.
M.B.