10 Comandments for Drivers

[Aint Doody]

Is this really from the Pope? It's a good thing. I'd like to see it published everywhere. Our bicycle club is in the process of doing a ltr. to ed. in our area right now. The husband of a woman who was killed by an 18-yr-old driver in 2005 recently held a ride to honor his wife's memory and to remind motorists to share the road. The young woman who killed the cyclist has never said a word to the victim's family. Neither has any member of her family. They live like 2 houses apart! I truly believe it would help healing for both if she would speak to each the family of the killed cyclist (re:#8).

I sorta got off the track--anyway there was a ltr. to ed. in our paper criticising the paper for reporting on the ride. The writer entitled her letter Enough is Enough. The motorist got a $124 fine and that's all. The writer of the letter seemed to think enough had been said about the accident. I am sorry that the driver will have to live with what she's done, but the victim's family lost a wife, mother, grandmother, sister. The widower has been instrumental in passage of a new law in OR that ups the penalties for killing/injuring a "vulnerable user" of Oregon's roadways. And why shouldn't he be able to memorialize his wife in a way that he chooses to? He bore all expenses of the ride which even included each cyclist laying a rose at the spot where his wife lost her life. That part really gave cause for reflection. The shoulder was 8 ft wide there, there were no hills, no curves, and it was barely out of the city limits of the small town. No reason for it to happen other than total inattention by the driver. Y'all might can guess that they didn't let me write the letter--they wanted a letter that wouldn't be seen as "picking on the driver." I agree, but I have a hard time not pointing out that this cyclist has been regarded as little more than road kill.

[Deanna]

Is this really from the Pope? It's a good thing.

Yes, it was in the news last week, CNN has the full story:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe....ap/index.html

[Geonz]

Yup, from the man himself.

Sigh, we just had a letter to the editor describing a cyclist crawling up an overpass in the middle of the lane with no helmet, talking on a cell phone.

The fact that we need better access to get over our fearless interstates (all the overpasses are from pretty awful to heinous) is totally missed as everybody generalizes that we're all a bunch of yahoos. The fact that for every cyclist doing that there are 100 drivers on cell phones without seat belts endangering (But not inconveniencing as much... priorities! Priorities!) far more folks than themselves is beside the point