Driving Him Wild
To The Editor:

I have some gripes I'd like to air about careless drivers. To begin with, I was driving home to Bellerose and this guy was driving through a stop sign, saw me and was about to continue making his turn, yet due to my repeated honking of my horn decided he ought to stop. Well, I could be wrong, but I was taught that when you reach a stop sign, you stop. Also, when you are reaching a stop light, and it goes from green to yellow, you slow down and not go faster.

Here's another thing, although this has been beaten to death, and it is about drivers on cellphones involved so much with their conversation that they are not paying attention to their driving and I frankly don't care if hand held or not, these people are not paying attention to the road. The other day I was almost hit by a woman who was doing exactly that and she had children in the car. Now to make matters worse there are people who are now texting, which caused a number of deaths recently.

I have another thing about certain drivers that really kills me and that is people who don't signal, which some guy did to me yesterday and I was forced to stop short. Now what am I, a mind reader?

We need to get more people to take driving more seriously, and my suggestion is that [the state Department of] Motor Vehicles should force drivers to take a written and oral test, let's say, every five years. I think this will serve the purpose whereas drivers will have to show that they remember the rules of the road and an understanding of what to do while driving and also what they shouldn't be doing while driving. I think that way people might take driving more seriously or else lose their license and also we might have less accidents. Furthermore, fewer people will be killed, not to mention more children will live to be all they can be. I also believe driving is not a right but a privilege, which comes [with] great responsibility. Yet I could be wrong, you think?
Sincerely yours,
Frederick R. Bedell Jr.
Bellerose