Not-So-Safe Driving

This morning, I was driving to work and behind me was a guy driving an SUV larger than mine. While he was driving, he was reading and drinking coffee.  The coffee and the document that he was reading were in each hand. along with the steering wheel.   Even at 30 miles and hour, he was traveling around 30 feet per second.  So, you can imagine my concern every time traffic slowed or we had to stop.  Even if he was looking at his paper for only two to three seconds, he was traveling 70 to 100 feet without looking at the road.  Thank God that he wasn't tailgating, too!

Last week, I was on I-95 returning from South Carolina.  As I am driving about 75 miles per hour (the speed limit is 70 in North Carolina on I-95, but you are pretty safe unless you exceed 80), I notice in my rearview mirror that there are two speed bikes in the left lane.  They are coming up at a very high rate of speed.  I estimated that they were going well over 100 MPH.  As they passed me, I was able to see that they had on, in addition to helmets (its the law in NC), chest protection safety vests. Really?  At over 100 MPH, if you become separated from your motorcycle, you are DEAD.  There is no product on the market that is going to protect you from massive trauma to your entire body.  

During the same trip on I-95, I have never seen so many vehicles pulled over and being searched for drugs.  There were multiple vehicles pulled over and being aggressively searched in each state that I traveled through.  I had the opportunity to talk with Capt. Jim Pyles of the Maryland State Police on Thursday.  Capt. Pyles told me that in addition to drugs, they could also be searching for untaxed cigarettes and, even worse, human trafficking.  Both are up dramatically and there is a crackdown on all interstates.  State and local police have become very aggressive in combating each of these areas of criminal activity.  A dramatic increase in human trafficking, wow!