Tennessee Drivers

Well, I have driven over the country South Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Minnesota, Iowa, Colorado, Utah, North Dakota, West Virginia, California and on and on. I have to admit that Tennessee has the worst drivers I have ever seen.(Yes even worse than the Chicago area drivers) Down here the DUI laws are too lax and you constantly read in the paper about an offender that is in court for his 5th, 6th or even 7th DUI. I knew one person that had 6 DUI's and still had a license. How is this possible?

Then you have the sunday drivers and old folks that love the interstate. Where is the enforcement for going below the speed limit? It creates such a hazard. 90% of these people are guilty of rubber-necking an accident (which they slow down even more). Then, there is the famed 127 sale. If you use Highway 127 to get to and from work, avoid it at all costs during the sale. These people love to frequent it, but they are too lazy to get out and take a look at something they rather drive 2 m.p.h. and look from the road at the sale items. Pull your lazy asses over and look, people use that HIGHWAY to get to work, hospitals, towns etc. Get out of their way. You are a visitor, you dont own the road or the sale.

Then you have the completely careless drivers that love the interstate. This group consists of the lane drifters, hard brakers, cut-off artists and tailgators. They don't use their mirrors, or turn signals. They just merely swerve into your lane, some times right at you. They look angry and surprised if you beep at them or flash your high beams at them for cutting you off or almost side swiping your car. They give you the look of being offended that you were almost wrecked by their carelessness. These drivers are also the back woods rednecks that believe "I got me a 4x4, so I can drive on ice." This played out a few weeks ago when the Knoxville are was hit in the early morning hours with freezing rain, that created black ice in some areas. There were nearly 60 reported accidents. Most of which were people that had no business driving under these conditions. Alot of it was cause by stupidity and carelessness.

The problem is that Tennessee recieves very little or no snow and ice. So, when it does come, you have alot of wrecks because most of the locals never drove under these conditions. I think to remedy my complaints the driver license bureau should implement these rules:

- Drivers over 60 need to be tested each year to have a license. This should include driving on the interstate at a high rate of speed. If you cannot pass the test on the first try you should have to wait 6 months before trying again. (none of this retesting in a week) If you fail 2 consecutive tests, then your driving privledges should be revoked permanently. No appeals, no politics, no paying off some one. NO DRIVING, end of story.

- New drivers should be required to take part of their road test in winter conditions in a northern state. Preferrably Michigan or Minnesota,(because of the cold conditions and lake effect snow) so that they can get valuable experience driving in horrible conditions. You never hear about the massive pile ups because of snow and ice in these states because it happens each year. Granted you get your occasional new driver or out-of-stater that ends up cause a wreck here and there, but that is few and far between. For the most part, the drivers in these states drive carefully during the bad weather conditions.

- DUI enforcement should include losing your vehicle after the second offense. First offense should have stiffer penalties including 60 hours community service, Drug and Alcohol evaluation, substance abuse informational classes and a "special" tag added to your plate. This way people will know to keep their distance because you might be drunk.

- 127 sale should require visitors to park and walk instead of shopping from cars. Violators should be banned permantly on their first offense. Accidents caused by out-of-towners should have to pay in cash and the fines/penalties should be double. This should cause some of them to respect those that have to use the road on a daily basis.

- Turn signal violators should face stiff fines and maybe the loss of driving privledges. Turn signal violators who cause accidents should face jail time on top of paying for the accident. If traffic is backed up, a meter should run and the amount of time this person inconviences the other drivers should be payed back to the state 100 times. (If your accident, because of failing to signal, causes a back up of 2 hours on the interstate, then you should have to do 200 hours of community service)

In summary, be courteous to other drivers. If it offends you when people do the same to you when driving, then don't do it. If you are faced with horrible road conditions, try an alternate route or leave early enough to make it to your destination safely or just wait for better conditions. And for the seniors, stay off the interstate if you do not feel safe driving at the higher speeds. Stick to the back roads and local highways, and if you are attending the 127 sale, remember you are a visitor pull over and let the locals use the road to get where their going before you decide to back up traffic for 10 miles so that you can putt along gawking at the sale.