Monday, February 12, 2007

D.W.D.?!?

I just heard that NY is considering making Driving While Drowsy a crime, punishable by a $500 fine for a first offense.

FUCK YOU, New York.

This is disgusting. I have presonally witnessed ass holes driving while reading, eating, drinking coffee, fixing their hair, changing clothes, creating a tremendous hazard on the roadways and they are all activities that can absolutely be avoided. I myself have engaged in a few of them in my youth.

but come on, people. Yes, I understand that driving while drowsy can lead to horrific traffic accidents. But so can driving like an asshole in general, tired or not. So now, the father of three who has to work two jobs just to make sure there's enough food on the table can get fined $500 as he tries to get home after his night shift, but the douchebag in the Porsche checking his Wall Street Journal to see how his mutual fund performed on the S&P 500 who cuts off a van load of children is perfectly within his rights?

TRUE story; I once pulled over to the side of the road on a trip back from NYC. I was so tired I feared I would have an accident. I could not have been asleep more than five minutes when a cop rapped on my window with his flash light and asked me if I had been drinking. I told him no, I'm just tired, and he ran my license anyway. He left after my license came up clean, and I was left to try and go to sleep again. No luck. So he fucked me over, because I was just as tired as I was a few minutes earlier, except I had a nice little adrenalin dump keeping me awake.

So will police officers be more understanding when they see a car on the side of the road? Will they insist on waking a sleeping driver, when they're now actually preventing someone from trying to do the right thing?

I propose that rather than cracking down on tired drivers, we start cracking down on the real menace: STUPID drivers. There should be mandatory IQ testing required to get a driver's license, and none of this 8 year shit. EVERY birthday, you have to go down to DMV and display your marbles with a quick driver safety/I.Q. test. Fail EITHER half, and you're off the road for a year.