Why you should obey red lights: The customer of the day

[jmowreader]

We had a lot of rain yesterday, so visibility was nil. It helps to know this.

Yesterday, one of our regular customers came in to buy fencing supplies. I wish they wouldn't have; there was no way they were going to do any fencing yesterday. But they got their pallet of concrete, pallet of pickets, bundle of 4x4s and bundle of 2x4s and started out to the jobsite. These dumbasses were regular customers and kinda set in their ways--driving in rain coming down sideways without the headlights on was good enough for Pa, so it's good enough for me.

Somewhere along the way, these idiots decided to blow through a red light and drive right in front of a semi doing 45mph. All three of them died instantly. The cops came by and told us.

Those lights are red for a reason. Please obey them.

[Ellen Forradalom]

1. Oh god.

Even if it was natural selection at work, it's absolutely horrible. How awful.

I'll never understand why people blow off red lights. Just once in high school I was in a car with a friend who decided to do that and I completely blew my top at her. I didn't talk to her for a long time after that.

[jmowreader]

4. In Fayetteville, getting squashed after running a red light...

is listed in the Cause of Death block as "natural causes." This happens too often to think about.

I think it was four years ago: the city had just purchased a brand-new, state-of-the-art fire engine. We paid around $300,000 for this vehicle. Supposedly this apparatus had such incredible fire-suppression capability, when it pulled up at a fire the fire would go out on its own because it knew it was fucked. Or something like that. Anyway, it was a very nice apparatus.

About three days after they got it to town, they drove it to the community college so the fire science students could play with it and dream about their careers in the Fayetteville Fire Department. On the way back to the station, the engineer saw the crossbar down at a railroad crossing, decided the crossing signal system was broken, drove around the crossbar, and got hit by an oncoming train that was going 60 mph. You can still find pieces of the truck at that crossing.

We have the SafeLight camera system in town. One of the ten camera arrays is at the intersection where the big Wal-Mart on Skibo is...that camera array probably makes $100,000 per month. It's the most profitable camera in the whole state.

[efhmc]

2. I have had two friends killed because someone ran a red light and

caused their death (sperate accidents). Don't forget the stop sign our esteemed first lady deemed not worth her time to stop at and caused a young man's death. What a horrible event.

[Tom Kitten]

3. That's terrible

One guy does a stupid thing and three die instantly...

People should not run red lights because this is what can happen.

I feel sorry for their survivors. :(

[bigwillq]

5. Awful news!

No more running red lights for me.
I ran one today but there were no cars around.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

6. That's so sad.

Was the person driving the semi hurt? I know someone who killed a person who had ignored a red light and they have guilt issues even though it wasn't their fault. :(

[CaliforniaPeggy]

7. HOW HORRIBLE IS THAT?

My condolences to you, and to their families and friends...Your story just knocked the wind out of me...I ran one red light once, and luckily everyone else was frozen in place. Never again.