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June 6, 2007
If you ever wanted to know what it's like to be in the middle of a pack of high-speed cars on a NASCAR oval, a very cheap way of finding out is to get onto I-95 in Connecticut, down toward the New York area, and wait.
You may be cruising along at a respectable 70 mph - 5 mph over the speed limit - along with everyone else, but it is only a matter of time before a car, usually driven by a young driver, sweeps past you at 90, 100, sometimes over 100 mph.
Listen, I know my time will come but if I am taken out by some little jerk playing NASCAR on the public highways, I am going to be extremely cross.
Give me an effing break.
These NASCARettes overtake you on either side, sometimes even at an angle as they weave their way through the traffic. You see them coming up behind and the only thing to do is to maintain course and speed. Trying to get out of their way could easily result in an accident because they are travelling too fast to adapt to 'moving' objects; at their speed, the rest of us are stationary objects to navigate around.
On my return from the Greenwich Concours d'Elegance on Sunday, a number of these young heroes flashed passed me but one whipped by on the inside lane so fast that my car - and it's a heavy Volvo station wagon - literally shook.
What can the police do? I presume most of the young speedsters are armed with radar detectors and so are practically immune from being stopped. Plus a police chase with one of these drivers in heavy traffic could easily lead to increased danger for all concerned.
Maybe the only alternative is having the public call in the license plates of drivers they consider to be particularly dangerous. But what can the police do then? I don't know, but its sounds like it may be worthwhile to find out.
Hoping that they will drive themselves off the road and into the oval in the sky may nurse a sense of outrage but is not a practical solution to a public menace.
Posted by 
at 10:29 AM to Safety
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