Tailgater's Remorse

One efficient way of dealing with some jerk riding right on your bumper!

Of course, that's not what the Times-Standard newspaper says happened:
Safety Corridor crash leaves one dead; wrong-way driving leads to head-on collision

What caused the head-on was the guy tailgating that couldn't get out of the way. This guy, Joshua Larson, wasn't drunk out of his mind. He was obviously just reckless, admittedly driving 55 mph in a 50 mile per hour Safety Corridor right on the other car's bumper and as a consequence responsible, at least as equally responsible, for this woman's death as she was.

Now to the potential death caused by another deliberately negligent driver as reported in the Saturday, January 7, 2012, issue of the Times-Standard: Family takes road worker off life support - "Arcata man's health unchanged since accident on Myrtle Avenue".

Arcata resident Martha Johnson, Newell's sister, said the family decided to take Newell, 68, off life support three days ago, after doctors explained that the damage to his brain is extensive. Johnson said all the doctors and family can do now is make Newell as comfortable as possible.
”He most likely will pass within a few days,” Johnson said. [Emphasis added.]

The newspaper account says Eugene Palmer, 17, a Eureka resident's "windshield fogged up and he was unable to see the roadway ahead of him. CHP said he continued to drive and went over cones and into the construction site, hitting Newell."

He is responsible for Kenneth Newell's imminent death because "he continued to drive" when  he obviously could not see. I've had my window fog up driving commercial rig when a heater hose broke. The moment I couldn't see, I stopped. When you're hauling 8,000 gallons of gas, you stop as fast as you can, regardless of the circumstances. The fact is you never start driving a commercial vehicle with a dirty, greasy or dusty windshield and mirrors.

Problem is, that was a cold morning and all the windows were frozen up. "He continued to drive" with a fogged up windshield, obviously, because he had been driving unable to see with a fogged up windshield all the time. That's why he didn't stop. Not even when he ran over safety cones.

What happened to Kenneth Newell was NO ACCIDENT. Eugene Palmer's actions were deliberate and purposeful making him personally responsible for Kenneth Newell's condition and eminent death.

It's time to reassess these so-called unavoidable "accidents" for exactly what they are - WRECKS.

PS. The next time you get right on someone's bumper trying to bully your way, you think about what might happen when that car suddenly moves over and there is someone coming at you 90 miles an hour.

--Joe