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Galo Pesantes
Editor in Chief

It happened when I was on the corner of Garvey Avenue and Atlantic Boulevard last Friday. It brought me back to the time when a similar incident happened to me not too far from the same place I was currently at. Despite the feeling of déjà vu, I snapped back to reality shortly after watching a silver sedan hit a dark blue SUV. I had actually watched the whole accident happen step by step.

The light was slowly changing from green to yellow as the SUV slowed down, while the sedan was still accelerating. Then the SUV stopped and the sedan was forced to slam on the brakes but ran into the SUV anyway.

Shortly after the accident, I hopped onto the 10 Freeway driving east where another big collision had taken place. A white truck had lost control and hit the center divider making both sides of the freeway a parking lot for drivers.

All of these things had me thinking about what really grinds my gears (borrowing this term from Peter Griffin of “Family Guy”) when I’m on the road. So, for the rest of this column, I intend to vent on all the things that bother me while driving. These are only my top five but I hope I am able to relate to some of your own annoyances as well.

No. 1: People who brake while driving for no reason
About two years ago, I created a Facebook group called “I hate people who brake for no reason while driving,” to address my discontent with this happening so often. Currently the group has more than 160 members which started with mostly ULV peeps but now there are students from several colleges and universities.

Most of the time, there is reason to brake when people are slowing down. But I find myself behind people who are five or six car lengths behind the next car who are braking for no reason.

No. 2: Merging onto the freeway slowly
One of the first things I was taught when I was learning to drive was to accelerate when you are merging onto the freeway. Of course you have to be aware of oncoming traffic but you also have to be able to adapt to the flow of traffic. I don’t understand why people try to merge on freeways going 35 mph when the rest of the drivers are going 65 mph.

No. 3: Rubbernecking
It’s easy to do and most of us can probably attest to doing it at least once. But when there’s an accident, there’s not much you can do. You wonder why or who got injured or what was damaged, but it’s not your concern unless you are with the police, fire department or another emergency service. So for the rest of us, how hard is it to just keep on driving and not slow down the rest of traffic?

No. 4: Changing lanes without using your signal
Another thing many of us can be guilty of is not signaling when changing lanes. It’s easy not to move your hand and change lanes, but what if people don’t know where you want to go? It’s not easy to mind read these days unless you’re a psychic.

No. 5: Doing something else in your car other than driving
Everyone has cellphones, so I don’t expect people to not use them in the car even with the new law coming into effect in July. But it’s clear that a lot of people cannot drive and talk at the same time. Someone who is reading the newspaper, putting on makeup or changing clothes while driving is not only putting themself in danger, but other drivers as well.

In the end, I’m realistic. I understand that not everyone can be the best driver all the time. But at least I know I can take this time and share my discontent with many of us disgruntled motorists out there.

Galo Pesantes, a senior communications major, is editor in chief of the Campus Times. He can be reached by e-mail at gpesantes@ulv.edu.

Galo Pesantes, a senior journalism major, is editor in chief of the Campus
Times. He can be reached by e-mail at gpesantes@ulv.edu.