Understand: the crowd was gathered on I-70, which is a very large highway sort of thing that will take you Hagerstown if you wish to go there, as long as the people standing ON THE ROAD will get out of the way and let you through.
Working together, the county police and state troopers stopped 65 cars last Friday and Saturday night, resulting in three arrests for impaired driving, and issued 97 citations, 33 warnings and 23 safety equipment repair orders.
Police say that 50 to 60 people were standing on I-70, blocking westbound traffic for 15 minutes. So they positioned themselves down the "race track" a bit, and were all set to catch violators as they fled, having caught wind of the police presence.
This is a picture from another state that shows what we're up against here - people taking over a highway for their own unsafe, ridiculous, pleasures.
Listen, I have nothing against people having the hobby of making their cars go faster and faster! There is nothing wrong with that, and in fact, I know people who take their cars to dragstrips and oval racetracks for drag races and distance races.
But there is a difference between Cecil County Dragway and Route 70. Contestants high-tailing it down the quarter-mile strip in Rising Sun do not have to worry about a family in a Buick coming home from a vacation being on the track ahead.
I think it's symptomatic of The New American Selfishness that some of us are so solipsistic as to think they are entitled to take over a portion of a public roadway this way.
Try shutting down a major road in your town to hold a Book Fair and see what kind of response you get.
No comments:
Post a Comment