Why Don’t People

Obey Traffic Laws?

To the Editor:

I was sitting at the traffic light this afternoon, heading down Church Hill Road toward Sandy Hook. I work on Church Hill Road and drive in that direction every day. I get caught at the light at the corner of Queen Street every time; it’s red no matter which direction I’m heading. Today I was the first car in the turn lane, turning right onto Queen Street, and had a green arrow giving me the okay to turn even though cars going straight in the same direction, as well as coming up Church Hill from Sandy Hook center, had a red light and Queen Street traffic had the green.

I was almost in an accident today (not for the first time) with a car that was coming from the other direction turning left onto Queen Street and making the turn even though its light is red; not yellow, but red. As I turned right, behind the two vehicles who ran the red light, I noticed a police officer sitting at the light coming off Queen Street. Two cars ran the red light to make the left onto Queen Street in front of a police officer who just didn’t seem to care. He made his left turn to head up Church Hill towards the flagpole as if it was okay for two cars to run a red light and nearly cause an accident right in front of him.

I travel up and down Church Hill Road and Queen Street every day and every time I sit at that light, two or three vehicles manage to run the red light from one of the three directions. I couldn’t say how many times I’ve been coming off Queen Street, turning onto Church Hill towards the flagpole, and almost been hit by a car running the red light, but I do know it’s about once a week, sometimes more. It angers me to see people having such a careless attitude that they think they can run red lights, lights that have been red for two or three seconds, which is a long time when you’re going 35 miles an hour; it angered me even more today to again almost be hit by such a driver in front of a police officer who didn’t care.

Traffic laws are to protect the safety of everyone on the road. There are reasons why the light turns red, reasons why stop signs are where they are, reasons for speed limits. You can’t be in such a rush that you have to run a red light rather than wait one minute for it to turn green again, or travel 45 mph down a side road with a speed limit of 30. Wherever you are headed will still be there no matter how long it takes you to get there.

Mary Kennedy

Baldwin Road, Newtown                   October 3, 2001