Barb, the rationale for the Drivers License, I believe, was to prevent them from being used as identification for other purposes, such as voting, etc.. Most of those folks would still be driving without licenses, because they wish to avoid authorities. I do not believe these two things are related. Possibly the answer is to make it illegal to use a drivers License as identification. Of course it is also illegal to use social security numbers for anything other than social security purposes but what good has that law done? Even the government violates it own law, and try doing any business at a bank, a mortgage company, or credit card company without it.
Fully documented citizen students driving a full size Caprice ran the light at Chicago and 24th and T-boned my wife's small Dodge Colt. They were traveling at about 50 miles per hour while yakking away as they drove. My wife suffers every day and night because of it. The people in the car were 18 or 19 year old North Central Bible College girl students. Perhaps we should ban either Bible College students from driving, or maybe 18 year old girls from driving as pairs because they distract each other? One might use such as a "reasonable" correlation and make such an assumption, but I believe we might just be better off enforcing the law a little better. The fear of cameras catching them and an automatic ticket might have caused those girls to have paid a little better attention.
Twenty eight years ago a police cruiser doing approximately 60 to 65 mph (without lights or siren) on the way to a non-emergency burglary call blew an intersection, ran over my little Mazda, and changed my life. A fractured spine and twenty eight years of daily pain was my gift. Some said it served me right since I was always complaining about how slow police service was, even back then. So perhaps we should put governors on police cars so they may be driven at no more than 35mph? No, but we certainly should enforce the law. The law says a police car without siren or lights MUST obey the same traffic laws as other drivers. Do you really think a police car blowing a red light with a camera will be getting a ticket in the mail? Not in this lifetime, in this City.
My two sons had a similar T-Bone when a car blew a light. Fortunately the combination of driving a heavy van run into by a small car and the two being young resulted in them not being injured. This means that four out of the five members of my family have been in such accidents in South Minneapolis. Do we have a problem with cars blowing lights? You bet we do!
There is a reasonable expectation that people will stop at red lights, and not doing so threatens the lives and safety of people far more than people carrying guns do. Our penalties for running stop lights need to strong. And we need to create a culture of fear around violating such laws. The fear of a camera would certainly do that. Or at least make people slow down to see if their is a camera.
The story of rear end accidents being caused by the possibility of a camera is a joke. A driver should not hit another car even if the other driver steps on the brakes in the middle of the block. Let alone at a stop light where there is a reasonable assumption that a car might stop. Such logic suggests that we should reduce the law about running pedestrians down because drivers who suddenly brake for them might cause more rear end accidents.
Let's just enforce a law until it becomes a "Cultural" thing that we stop at ALL red lights. Drive carefully, because the life you save might be mine!
Jim Graham Ventura Village
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