Everything Traffic Safety
April is Distracted Driving Awareness month, and our local law enforcement agencies are doing their part to reduce the number of distracted drivers on our roads. I talked with Bellingham Police Traffic Sergeant Carr Lanham about how and why this emphasis patrol is so important. Here’s what he said:
Q: Last summer the state passed a tougher distracted driving law. Is it working? It doesn’t look like it to me.
Continue reading “Distracted Driving Makes You Dumb (For Real)”
Here’s a distracted driving PSA with a happy mom, a cute kid, and no car crashes. How is that possible? Good decisions.
At any given moment, less than one in ten people are using their phones while driving. If you’re still on the phone behind the wheel, you’re including yourself in a dying breed. (Bad pun, sorry.) Join us in making driving the priority. If not for yourself, then for your most valuable cargo.
Continue reading “New Distracted Driving PSA – This One Is For The Moms”
Q: My friend got pulled over for a traffic infraction. The officer found drugs on him and in his backpack. He got arrested and they let me go. However, they wouldn’t let me take the car, even though I have a valid driver’s license. Why wouldn’t they let me take the car?
As part of our Travel With Care traffic safety project, lots of people in our community have made commitments to being safer road users. Here’s one from Emily:
Q: I was driving on a two-lane road and stopped behind a WTA bus that was at a bus stop waiting for a passenger walking fast to catch the bus. A vehicle came up behind me, waited for about 5 seconds, and then passed my car and the bus using the oncoming traffic lane. Was that legal?
Q: It’s my understanding that if a bicyclist rides on the sidewalk, he should use the pedestrian crossing and should get off the bike in order to cross the street. Am I wrong?
This week’s column isn’t prompted by a question; instead, it’s inspired by the calendar. If you’ve followed this column on a semi-regular basis you may have noticed that the topics sometimes correspond to events and seasons – rules about school buses at the start of the school year, impaired driving during the holidays – those sort of things. But what event is coming up next weekend that could possibly have a tie to traffic safety? There isn’t holiday, a change of season, or some other community-wide festival. But there is something to be aware of: Daylight saving.
Continue reading “Daylight Saving – The Next Traffic Disaster?”
Okay. This isn’t exactly a PSA. But I think the message will resonate with a lot of people, given how many emails I get about people failing to use their turn signals. Also, how often do you get to hear a traffic safety message in the form of a poem? Maybe you can share this with someone who could use a reminder.
Q: I am concerned about the significant number of drivers I see on our roads that do not turn on their headlights at dusk or when visibility is poor during the day light hours. Many drivers seem to refuse to turn on their headlights when there is fog, drizzle, or other poor lighting. I’m sure they think that they can see just fine, but often I don’t see them until they have gone by in the oncoming lane. It seems to me that if drivers had their headlights on at all times (night and day) we might have fewer accidents during poor visibility conditions. What is the law on this? Continue reading “Headlights Aren’t Just For The Dark”