Althouse: "New memorial signs to mark deaths caused by distracted drivers in 2011."

September 18, 2010

"New memorial signs to mark deaths caused by distracted drivers in 2011."

But... signs are a distraction.

29 comments:

1775OGG said...: An insurance company used to post signmarkers where people died in car accidents. A road near Bloomington, IL, have a huge gaggle of such signs, the spot itself become a local legend.

To go past those markers was to court death.

Cheers.; 9/18/10, 11:45 PM
AST said...: There's a lawsuit by atheists against Utah for allowing the families of Highway Patrolmen and women killed in the line of duty to place small white crosses near the site of their deaths.

I'm pretty much indifferent to such things. There have been little memorials along our highways for years, flowers placed by grieving families that slowly fade and get weathered until someone picks them up. I don't object.

But if there's writing on them, that you're supposed to read, yes, it is distracting and it ought to be banned, even if it's placed by the all wise government.; 9/19/10, 12:44 AM
Bob_R said...: If they put up memorials to those killed in 2011 TODAY, I'd really be distracted!; 9/19/10, 5:24 AM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: Especially if one had your name on it.; 9/19/10, 7:47 AM
mythusmage said...: Illiterate? Call...; 9/19/10, 8:13 AM
sakredkow said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 9/19/10, 8:22 AM
TMink said...: Man, those athiests really know how to be charming don't they?

I think you should have to demonstrate a basic understaing of psychology before you can make a law. What happened? The founders really understood human nature. Oh yeah, they were Christians! And they read the instruction manual.

Trey; 9/19/10, 8:45 AM
HT said...: That is such a phenomenally bad idea. Down here people pretty much drive slow as Christmas, and I like it. There is one roadside display warning against speeding, I think it is. It is a totaled car with a placard saying something along the lines of "see what can happen?"

Then going south, there is a display featuring a large devil with his pitchfork warning motorists that they better go to church on Sundays.; 9/19/10, 9:00 AM
kentuckyliz said...: Just because you're sitting in the premises doesn't mean you're standing on the promises.; 9/19/10, 9:03 AM
DADvocate said...: Driving home from Bowling Green, KY last year, I saw at least a half dozen of overhead flashing signs that said distracted driving is dangerous. Very distracting.

Of course, in Kentucky this is doubly dangerous as most Kentuckians are slow readers.; 9/19/10, 9:05 AM
tim maguire said...: Most "drive carefully" signs, especially the electronic ones, are dangerously distracting.; 9/19/10, 9:13 AM
Fen said...: There's a lawsuit by atheists against Utah for allowing the families of Highway Patrolmen and women killed in the line of duty to place small white crosses near the site of their deaths

Why do atheitsts do this? It makes me hate them.; 9/19/10, 9:13 AM
DADvocate said...: Back in the 1950s and early 1960s when I was a kid, there were white crosses where ever someone had been killed in an accident along Hwy 411 south of Maryville, TN for about 100 miles. It was considered one of the most dangerous stretches of highway in the nation. I was always scared to death when we traveled it.

Another thing along the highways that always scared me as a kid were the concrete crosses that said "Get Right With God" and such. These were always strategically placed before a bad curve or something. I just knew I was going to die in the next few minutes. It turned out these were the work of one man.; 9/19/10, 9:16 AM
DADvocate said...: There's a lawsuit by atheists against Utah for allowing the families of Highway Patrolmen and women killed in the line of duty to place small white crosses near the site of their deaths

It seems to me the atheists' lawsuit is in direct conflict with the first amendment, "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,"

Why are atheists so anti-freedom? They're as bad as any other religious group for wanting to ram their belief system down other people's throats.; 9/19/10, 9:28 AM
Anonymous said...: I saw these types of signs all over this summer while taking the family thru South Dakota. Yes, distracting.

Perhaps in 20 years we can have new signs to memorialize those killed due to distraction from the old ones?; 9/19/10, 10:47 AM
Jason (the commenter) said...: The safety experts are so worried about drivers being distracted, yet they insist on having speed limits and forcing drivers to take their eyes off the road to look at their speedometers.; 9/19/10, 11:23 AM
bagoh20 said...: We need more signs... everywhere. There is a real dearth of messages out there.; 9/19/10, 11:28 AM
Shanna said...: Driving home from Bowling Green, KY last year, I saw at least a half dozen of overhead flashing signs that said distracted driving is dangerous. Very distracting.

I like the signs in Virginia that say traffic laws are enforced by AIRPLANE. I mean, what?; 9/19/10, 12:40 PM
Joe said...: There's a lawsuit by atheists against Utah for allowing the families of Highway Patrolmen and women killed in the line of duty to place small white crosses near the site of their deaths.

This is incorrect. The lawsuit is because the Utah Highway Patrol Association (an arguably organization of the state) has been paying for and placing the 12 foot high white crosses on public land.

(A big irony is that some of the officers are Mormon and Mormons don't use the cross as a religious symbol since it signifies death, not resurrection.); 9/19/10, 1:35 PM
Joe said...: This is an extension of a death cult mentality that is inflicting America. The obsession with memorials increasingly at the expense of the living is unusual by American historical standards. Other societies have become so obsessed with this that they've spent so much time, effort and riches pursuing this folly that it's contributed to their demise. (Easter Island arguably being the poster child.) Successful societies don't look back, they look forward and while they respect the dead, they put the living first.; 9/19/10, 1:39 PM
Clinton A. Morgan said...: Where do we put memorials for people killed by bad road design? Why, on a road where people drive fast enough to kill people parked in cars, is there no shoulder or grassy area to pull off? If a man drops a cigar into the floorboard, is he supposed to let his car burn up rather than take his eyes off the road in fear of someone parked in a lane of traffic? After all, if the guy with a flat tire can't pull off the road, neither can the guy with flaming floormats.

But the safety nannies would rather gripe about "distracted driving" than make roads that accommodate reality.; 9/19/10, 4:53 PM
Methadras said...: Fen said...

Why do atheitsts do this? It makes me hate them.

It's because many atheists are nothing more than god-haters. They spend more time being angry about their god-hatred instead simply ignoring that god even exists and simply going on about their lives as ignorant of god.

A believer in god to an atheist: Do you believe in god?

Atheist: I have no idea what you are talking about.

That should basically be an atheist. But your basic, average atheist can't help themselves and put their god-hatred on display.; 9/19/10, 10:16 PM
Anonymous said...: Sounds like another way for the state to earn money. This time, from people's grief.; 9/20/10, 6:44 AM
comatus said...: The best traffic safety distraction I can remember:

They missed the turn
Car was whizz'n
Fault was her'n
Funeral, his'n

Burma Shave; 9/20/10, 9:45 AM
Kirk Parker said...: Joe,

No, the "Utah Highway Patrol Association" is not a state entity.; 9/20/10, 10:43 AM
John Richardson said...: I've always liked the way the Irish Government does it. In a spot where there has been a fatal accident, they put a sign with just a black spot on a white background. They are literally called accident black spots.

It is effective in reminding you to drive safely without too much distraction or gaudiness.; 9/20/10, 11:28 AM
Anonymous said...: "That should basically be an atheist. But your basic, average atheist can't help themselves and put their god-hatred on display."

Well pardon the (your) hell out of me for not believing in YOUR magical invisible friends. YOu don't seem to have an issue with me not believing in other people's invisible friends...

This is like being angry at a teacher because they dislike ignorance.

And the obsession with memorials is starting to creep me out. Our cities will become necropoli with signposts honouring every single person who died for any reason.; 9/20/10, 11:30 AM
Pat said...: "But your basic, average atheist can't help themselves and put their god-hatred on display."

It just seems that way, because those are the atheists you hear about. Most of us are simply people who don't have any religious beliefs, but don't mind in the least that other people do. You know several of us, but you don't have any idea we're nonreligious, because we don't make a point of shoving our nonbelief in your faces.

Please don't assume that the loud and obnoxious atheists represent us in any way. We wish they would shut up, actually. Their pointless anti-religious crusading accomplishes nothing and generates a lot of misunderstanding and ill-will against us quiet and tolerant atheists.

It's gotten so bad that I prefer to describe myself as "nonreligious" rather than "atheist", because the crusaders have ruined the word. Originally, it simply meant "person with no religious beliefs", but in the last half-century or so it has come to mean "self-righteous anti-religious asshole".; 9/20/10, 2:17 PM
Banshee said...: Roadside memorials are an Irish and Spanish thing. Nearly everybody in the US has a little Irish or Scotch-Irish or Spanish in them, and they are a useful way to warn of road danger, so they've spread. Not surprising.

What is surprising is that anybody would think a $150.00 ad sign, paid for by the grieving family, would be a better deal than letting the grieving set up unofficial white crosses or flowers. Crass.; 9/21/10, 4:03 PM