Editorial: Stay focused behind the wheel - Hawke's Bay Today

Linda Hall, Assistant Editor, Hawke's Bay Today.

On my way to work one day last week I drove to the end of the street, indicated to turn left, looked right until it was clear to go and pulled out.

In front of me was a car coming straight at me on the wrong side of the road.
I said a couple of words as he looked me in the eye, grinned and slid passed me somehow merging into the traffic on the other side of the road.

I have no idea where he came from or what he was doing on the wrong side of the road. Was he passing or had he pulled out of a driveway and was trying to merge into traffic? I don't know but he made my stomach drop.

Whatever he was doing he should not have been doing it.

That's how accidents happen and at this time of the year when everyone is rushing to get from A to B people tend to make silly decisions while driving. Decisions they might not have made last month when the traffic wasn't bumper to bumper, the temperature wasn't sky high and they were absolutely hell bent on getting to their destination because there was still so much to do.

I've heard a couple of other near-miss stories recently, one involving a camper van that pulled out from the camping spot beside the Clive River right in front of a car. That driver had to slam on her brakes. She had an 18-month-old in the back seat, in a car seat, of course, but that could have ended tragically had the driver so much as glanced sideways.

There are some atrocious drivers on our roads.

There are also some courteous and patient ones. However, what we all need to be when we get behind the wheel is focused.

Focused on what's happening on the road. Not on the radio or in the back seat or on cellphones.

Cellphones are a huge distraction, as are children yelling for attention in the back seat.

According to the Ministry of Transport, 355 people have died on our roads between January 1 and December 13 this year, 15 of those from Hawke's Bay.

That's 355 empty seats at Christmas celebrations this year, 355 families and goodness knows how many friends grieving.

So when you are driving over the "silly season" take extra care. I don't really like the word idiot but someone once told me to treat all other drivers on the road as idiots.

It's not bad advice.