One In A Series Of Unpopular Opinions

At the risk of being politically incorrect...Mrs. Hillbilly Mom has a bone of contention stuck in her craw. AWK. AWK. There. She dislodged it just enough to catch her breath and type.

Why is it that when a person is run over on the roadway, the driver is blamed? Seriously. It's not like that driver went up on the sidewalk, went for a drive on the jogging trail, or drove through a person's house. When a driver DOES drive through a person's house, do they blame that inhabitant for living there? "Police are looking for the property owner, who sat on the couch watching TV and let a car drive into his house, then fled the scene." Yeah. Why is it always the driver's fault?

We're not talking about folks who blow through residential areas at the speed of sound, disregarding posted speed limits. We're talking about those conscientious drivers mindful of the driving conditions and proper speed. Those who, through no fault of their own, are confronted with a live obstacle.

Granted, some drivers may be impaired, and shouldn't be driving at all. But if a person hadn't been walking in his driving area, would he have hit him? I think not. If I'm riding my toboggan down Hillmomba Hill, and a hyperactive Yorkshire terrier runs out in front of my unsteerable toboggan, and gets flattened flatter than a flapjack, is that my fault? How was I to know that a house dog might be on the loose and end up in my winter wonderland?

How fast can a vehicle respond, really, at 55 or 65 or 70 miles per hour, when a person shows up in the headlights right in the path of that vehicle? Veering left or right could cause a collision with another vehicle, or a rollover accident. There's not time to react safely. Let's stop tarring and feathering them in the media.

Please. Mrs. Hillbilly Mom is not advocating for drivers to surge full speed ahead and mow down road people and speed off to avoid an investigation. But she IS advocating for fair treatment of unimpaired manslaughterers. How far is it to an exit? That car can't stop right in the middle of the road and wait for emergency personnel. Then there could be a raft of wrecks blocking the response team. How can the driver come back? What kind of roundabout way must he take to get back to that spot and give a statement? Maybe he's out in the middle of the night to drive a sick relative to the hospital. Let's not jump the gun or the curb to point accusatory fingers. If it was simply an unfortunate accident, 99.9% of the "at-fault" drivers will do the right thing and go to the police station. Give them a time to present themselves, or acquire legal representation.

Again, we're not talking about the impaired who are trying to buy time to sober up, or stolen car drivers who want to ditch the vehicle. Just regular people who are in the wrong place at the wrong time.

It it the locomotive's fault when it runs over a person playing "Stand By Me" (the movie not the song) on a railroad trestle? Train engineers do not expect people to be on the tracks. Can they steer around them? Nope. All they can do is lock up those brakes and derail the train.

What if a fan runs onto the track at a NASCAR event? Driver's fault? People should know better.

Blaming the driver is like me blaming McDonald's if I spill hot coffee in my crotch and suffer a debilitating injury. Duh. Coffee is hot. Don't put it in your crotch. So McDonald's is not to blame. WAIT A MINUTE!

I think I need to get started again forthwith on my proposed handbasket factory.