A Matter of Perspective

I would rather be the person who stops than the one who doesn’t—at least as far as driving goes.

I was thinking about this as I approached the intersection of County Road 11 and Country Road 14 just outside of Clarissa.

This intersection has had several fatal accidents over the years as well as non-fatal accidents.

As I approached the stop sign, I thought, “I would rather be the person who stops than the one who doesn’t.”

My thinking was this, when I have a stop sign, I am going to do several things in addition to stopping. I am also going to slow down. I am going to stop. I am going to look around and make sure there is no traffic coming.

After I have done all this, I am going to slowly move forward. While I am moving forward, I am also going to continue looking to my right and left and forward (I might even check my rear view mirror a few times).

For the traffic on County Road 14, however, most of them are not going to slow down. They might not even look at the intersection to see if there is traffic coming from County Road 11. They don’t have to because they don’t have a STOP sign.

But I was thinking, just because you don’t have a stop sign, does that relieve you of the responsibility of paying attention while you are driving. Don’t you still need to be aware of your surroundings? Don’t you need to drive defensively and safely?

I like to think I am a decent driver. I probably am a little more cautious than I even have to be, but I don’t want to get into an accident.

I don’t like having to stop at stop signs, but I would rather be the one who stops than the one who doesn’t.