It's been a little while since I last voiced my opinion in the Nouvelle. For the most part, I have been doing my thing in the completely objective corners of the paper – churning out news, sports and community stories at a steady pace.
But now I'm back with a vengeance, taking up space in the opinion section. Well, maybe not with a vengeance. More like with an axe to grind – metaphorically, that is. Though, I would literally love to learn to sharpen an axe on a grinder one of these days.
I've been doing a lot of thinking lately as to the reason why people do the things they do. Are we free agents of our own will? Or maybe we should consider ourselves only part of the cause of our own circumstance. Or perhaps we only believe we are free to make choices, when in reality all things have been predetermined, possibly by a force beyond the scope of 21st century scientific research.
It could be humans or an unknown force or maybe a combination of human and non-human forces, or something else completely, making the decisions here on earth. Who knows for sure?
Regardless of who is in charge of decision making down here – some of these decisions being made, as minor as they may seem at the time, can have devastating consequences.
I'm talking about wild, reckless transport truck drivers and their careless actions on Alberta's roads.
It's not a rare thing to hear of automobile collisions in Alberta. This province has a reputation of having many of the worst drivers in the country. Although it's a tiny sample size, take for example the eighth season of the television show Canada's Worst Driver. Of the eight awful drivers on the show, three are from Alberta.
We know that regular size cars and trucks are some of the most dangerous objects on the planet. So by employing simple physics, it logically follows that heavier transport trucks, with more mass, less manoeuvrability and a braking time that should be counted in minutes, not seconds, would only be more dangerous than a small or regular-sized vehicle on the road.
Therefore shouldn't drivers of these large trucks be more careful and pay more attention behind the wheel?
That's not to say all drivers don't have room for improvement, including myself, who has been known to pull some stupid stuff while driving. But I like to think I have learned from my mistakes and am steadily improving and trying to be safer.
I'm not trying to stereotype all transport truck drivers as bad people and careless humans, I'm sure they learn too.
But when I am driving to work in an all-out blizzard, like the one last Thursday morning, which left the roads slick and visibility at “I can barely see the road in front of me” and I'm tailgated by a two-trailer transport truck up the valley of the Beaver River and then subsequently passed while driving 100 kilometres per hour in a 100-limit zone, the metaphorical axe in my mind really starts to grind.
I was left in a cloud of snow, just barely able to see the red spots of brake lights, before having to slow right down so that Fast Eddy, behind the wheel of his big rig, could sneak quickly back into the proper lane just before mangling the oncoming traffic. All this because of his inconsiderate need to go fast.
And then only a kilometre down the road, in an attempt to really show off his keen decision-making skills, he abruptly slowed down and made a left hand turn, forcing me to stop short on the highway (and by stop short, I mean hope to stop sliding on the ice) and wait for the lengthy turn to take place. Oh, and I try to avoid passing left-turning vehicles on the right, especially when I can't see what's coming the other way, but that's just me.
And that was just one incident. I'm certain me and many more drivers have terrible tales from Alberta roads, which are increasingly being flooded with large transport trucks and their loads.
I'm not suggesting legislation, like in America, where some states have employed a lower speed limit for large trucks.
I'm simply asking that transport truck drivers take a little more time and use a little more care when driving amongst the rest of us.
Pulling out in front of cars and forcing them to slow for you, passing left-turning vehicles on the right and hoping not to crush the oncoming left-turning vehicle in its path, and of course passing vehicles while exceeding the speed limit during a blizzard are all signs of a careless truck driver. Check that – they're all signs of any careless driver, regardless of what vehicle is being driven.
It's difficult to determine the reasons we drive the way we do. But if given the choice, let's all use a little more care out there. It's only fair to the families and friends wanting us all to come home again.
