Like shopping at Home Depot for plumbing fixtures or waiting on line at the post office, there are chunks of time in our lives we fantasize about getting back even though they’re gone forever. So has it always been for me with the National Safety Council’s 6-hour defensive driving class. This is a DMV sanctioned course that motorists can take to either reduce points on their license or get a 10% 3-year discount in their auto insurance. I am no stranger to points on my license (see No Stupid Children and Welcome to Night Court), but in recent years Husband I have been doing it for the insurance perk.
My existing discount expired four months ago, and I got around to attending a new class this past weekend. I could tell right away that the instructor would be taking us on a wild ride. She looked and sounded like Roseanne Barr, and her day job was funeral director. Roe told our class of 30 drivers that after too many years of preparing bodies for burial following traffic accidents, she decided that teaching this class was her way to make a small corner of the world a little safer. And maybe save a life.
She told a great story about being caught in the HOV lane with no passengers. It happened years ago when the High Occupancy Vehicle lanes were first introduced and people weren’t quite sure what the rules were. I remember a friend of mine at that time telling me she got a ticket for driving in the HIV lane. I could relate to her confusion because I had finally got it fixed in my head that AA was the addict club and AAA the auto club. NCAA had to do with college basketball and NAACP with equal rights. When you’re raising kids and doing a hundred things at once, too many initials all strung together are not your friends.
It was a young police officer that pulled Roe over in her work van after she crossed the bridge, and he began to read her the riot act for abusing the HOV lane. She was overdue at a funeral home where the mourners were waiting to begin a service, and as the officer ranted on about her being alone in her vehicle, she said suddenly, “This is because I’m alone? I’m not alone. I have a passenger.” At which point she pulled the covering off her cargo behind her and pointed to the deceased, nicely dressed and quietly waiting.
The officer became so unhinged, he let her go. We were all laughing, and so was Roe, but she said it was a wake-up call to her about HOV rules, and that was her hope for us in class that afternoon. That we would get a wake-up call about driving defensively every time we get behind the wheel, and pass that example on to anyone riding with us.
A young woman in the class said she was there to have points reduced on her license stemming from a similar infraction. She had been driving alone in the HOV lane, but tried to convince the state trooper that because she was 8 months pregnant at the time, she really did have another passenger. She went to court but the judge didn’t buy it. Roe wasn’t surprised. She said people will try anything to beat a ticket. For that reason, the latest guidelines issued by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration say that to be considered a passenger, one must be physically present, restrained in their own seat belt, and have a pulse.
Today’s photo exhibit is by Cousin. As kids, he was just enough older than me to convince me he was a genius. As adults, I realized it was true. For more of his brilliant work, click on Cousin’s Photo Site.
soaring eagle
reflection
lake louise
fireworks
helicopter rising