Motorists must stop playing traffic cops

THE EDITOR: I almost killed two innocent ten-year-old schoolboys week before last. Had that happened my life would have been in tatters until I reached Lapeyrouse Cemetery.

On April 16, while driving around the bend of the Savannah by Memorial Park (northeast), the car in front of me on the right suddenly began to slow down and eventually stopped. Being on the left side I had no idea why but my years of ultra-safe driving informed me to slow down and stop too – if at least to find out what was going on.

Just as I stopped, two schoolboys, clad in blue shirts and khaki pants, ran across the road right in front of my vehicle. I am sure they would have been dead if I was not a very sensitive and over-careful driver.

Motorists, please, I beg you, do not play traffic cop. Children must be taught and trained to wait for the road to clear before crossing. And motorists must stop that bad habit which is pregnant with disaster. This must be the golden rule for all drivers.

Early last year a visiting tourist lost her life on the eastern side of the Savannah for the same reason.

Imagine what my situation would have been today. The next thing is that I might have been charged with careless driving and have to spend the rest of my remaining short life in jail. I tremble when I think of the situation and I thank God for sparing me this possible agony of killing two young people. I am still trembling.

PETER S MORALLES, Cascade