Today, nothing scares me more than the ‘other guy' while driving and obeying posted speed limits on L.A.'s freeways and roadways. Too often I'm traveling southbound on the 405 or 110 freeways and out of my side or rearview mirror I see cars and SUVs barreling down on me at 85 to 95 mph. The fear is genuine. My heart beats faster. I pray the guy behind me is not some crazy or drunk person – that I'm witnessing my end in living color. I can only hope the speeder is in desperate need of a bathroom stop at the nearest freeway exit, and passes me without incident, right or left and promptly departs. However, time and again these lawless, careless speeding roadsters just keep going, don't slow down, and weave by cars endangering the lives of other obedient drivers and passengers. Today, Angelenos need to make collective efforts from our vehicles to promptly stop these deadly offenders.
Today, there are signs on most all major freeways which say: call 911 to report drunk driving. I've seen a lot of suspicious driving over my 57 years but have yet to use my Bluetooth cell phone connection to engage 911. That's going to change. The unnecessary Commerce road fatalities from last month's freeway ‘Indy 500' were my breaking point. I figure most L.A. drivers aren't hooked-up to Bluetooth or other forms of legal handless devices to make calls. Cell phones customarily rest nearby and are used more often than not by drivers to talk and text by hand. But using cell phones in this manner is against the law as most of us know in SoCal and fines are steep if caught. Southlanders, don't you think some rules and regulations need to be broken, occasionally? If you see a reckless road warrior headed your way at 85 plus, pick up your cell phone and dial 911. You might just save a life or two and that's well worth it. Today, too many treacherous drivers speed quickly out of our sights and into the horizon, soon forgotten.
We can and should do a better job of stopping L.A.'s road combatant. There's no need to drive 95 mph on our freeways. The soccer or baseball game is just not that important. It's okay if little ‘Johnny' or ‘Samantha' is 20 minutes late for practice. The family members you haven't seen in 5 years can wait at the restaurant another half hour while you negotiate the 101 at the speed limit from Pasadena to chow down.
Today, there's a lot of chatter about driverless cars being produced in the future. That's a great idea to limit speeding, as I see it. But I figure I'll be long gone before I see the safe, headless driver come to fruition. In the meantime, car technology could be created for drivers or passengers to promptly alert authorities to stop the 90-miler barreling down the 405 with the press of a button. We don't need any more tragedies resulting from drag racing on our freeways like happened in Commerce several weeks ago. Angelenos - be more cognizant of dangerous drivers and do something about it. Don't wait until it's too late and another family suffers catastrophe. Pick up your car phone, break the law, dial 911, and hope you've stopped something horrific on the horizon. I know I will.
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Mr. Lux, formerly worked at a major investment firm. He is a graduate of UCLA with a BA in history and holds an MBA in finance and has been involved in real estate lending in the Los Angeles area for over 25 years. Mr. Lux has had numerous societal and business articles published by leading news publications. He is author of the investment book, Exposing the Wheel Spin on Wall Street. For more information please visit: http://wwwluxlends.blogspot.com
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