In an extremely short period of time—-hours—there have been 3 or 4 bad vehicle crashes in Fargo, ND.
Beginning with the one early Saturday morning when a car full of teenagers…driven by a probably inexperienced 16 year old….went off the road and hit a tree, resulting in the death of a 17 year old passenger. Hello? Wake Up! Speeding and inattentiveness is deadly. But will any of them answer the wake up call? You can be sure that all of them who lived are now in a state of shock….but will it last? Will it stop any of them from speeding, talking on a cell phone while driving or sneaking in a text message while driving? Their world came to a screeching halt the moment that car left the road and hit that tree…..but after the shock and grief have lessened, what then? Will any one of them stay awake to the dangers of herding a powerful engine encased in less steel and more and more plastic ?? Not likely.
Hours later in what authorities think was a drag racing incident, a 23 year old lost his life when he crashed into a concrete abutment under Interstate 94. Will all the red roses and candles left at the death scene cause anyone else to answer a wake-up call regarding speeding??? I wish.
At almost the same location on University Avenue south and Interstate 94 another multiple crash occurred during morning rush time today when a chain of cars ran into each other at a stop light. Does anyone besides me want to place a small wager that there were drivers in that lineup that were (1) speeding (2) talking on a cell phone (3) eating, drinking coffee or putting on makeup (4) texting even tho it is now “illegal” (5) slipping in and out of driving lanes in order to get somewhere more quickly (6) following the driver ahead of them way too closely? Highly probable.
Anyone who has driven in Fargo traffic at busy times of the day or night can easily see that there are hundreds of “ACCIDENTS WAITING TO HAPPEN” no matter where you are driving in heavy traffic. I have taken to praying for divine protection when I find myself in that sort of milieu. I cannot, by myself, avoid the many awful things that are going on around me in the traffic.
I do not have a cell phone, I do not try to eat a meal while I am driving…..I do not even know the first thing about texting (Thank Heaven!) and I really pay full attention to what I am doing……would to God that the other drivers would do the same….but they do not. I am sure younger drivers see me and think of me as a batty old relic slowing them down as they flit in and out of the lanes in a frantic effort to exceed all speed limits by at least 20 mph.
This series of accident so close together is not likely to occur soon but you can mark it down that there will plenty of other accidents, injuries and deaths in Fargo’s increasingly lunatic traffic situations….every single day of the week…..24/7.
I hate it but it is highly probably that it is true.
It seems like the FM driviers have become more aggressive the last couple of years. I used to be thankful that the drivers here were not like those where our children live, Rochester and Des Moines. There, people are quick to honk when a like turns green, always going through yellow/red signals, etc. Now, its like that here.