This past weekend I almost had a near death experience. I was driving from Houston to Dallas, going about 90 mph. This number isn’t even close to the speed limit, and I wasn’t in a hurry I was just being impatient. A cop pulled me over and in doing so saved my life. If I had continued at my speed, I would have been part of the major collision that occurred right up ahead of me. Twenty cars were pilled up in what looked one of the most catastrophic events I’d ever seen. I didn’t get a ticket but I sure learned my lesson, speed kills.
Fox News just put out an article called “Top Ten Deadliest Stretches of Road in America” and guess what? I45 is on the top of the list. Maxim Lott, a news reporter, titled part of the story “153 Deaths: I45 Harris, County, TX.” I had been spared from becoming just another number. Lott talks about an incident that happened just a month ago in which a man speeding through the county missed a turn and rolled his car over twice. Getting pulled over by the police was enough to scare me and I set my cruise control to 65 and just settled in for the long drive. What the cop said, had really made an impact on me, “speed kills.” When you are driving that fast, you are operating a piece of machinery that can easily become a death trap. When you travel faster, the adjustments you make steering have a huge impact on the movement of the car and thus vehicles can easily lose control. Even worse, when you go that fast, the sudden stop ahead can end disasterously. There is a reason the police set speed limits; it's for everyone's safety. Speed kills, and even though I wasn’t involved in the accident, the thought of losing my own life or worse taking the life of another is enough to make me set the cruise the control to 65 and become a more patient person.
Patience is a virtue and speed really does kill. I enjoyed reading your post and I especially appreciated how you put a picture to give your readers a very graphic depiction of how scary a car accident can really be. Again, I like your blog entry but I feel like an English teacher today and I'm going to positivelty criticize your writing to help you make it better. Verbally, your entry seems to flow pretty well. However, I felt your punctuation was not carefully thought out. IE: When you say, "and guess what". There should be a question mark there. I also feel you could consider rewriting some sentences to help them fit better. For example, "There is a reason the police set speed limits its for the safety of each other." could be written as "Police officers set speed limits for a reason." Maybe it's just my opinion but I feel like less is more sometimes. I'm sure if you took the time to think out what you were going to write, there would be a great flow and punctuation would be close to perfect. Nevertheless, I appreciate it when a writer, even on blogger.com, concentrates on the flow of their paper.
ReplyDeleteI am also guilty of speeding when I drive home. I'm not even impatient. I just listen to the radio, and when I get into a song, I find my foot pressing down a little harder than it should. I think this is a very important blog post that everyone should read, especially with Spring Break right around the corner. I know, I'm going to try to use a little more effort to maintain a safe speed on my way home next weekend.
ReplyDeleteContrary to CC19, I think this post has great flow. It moves from her personal story to the facts of the subject with great ease. There may be a couple of grammatical errors, but it sounds more like a normal conversation than an English essay. We don't always use proper grammar when we speak, so I don't think it's that big of a deal when a post isn't perfect as well. I think the overall effect of the post is what is really important to the readers, and I think Bon Qui Qui's writing sends a great message.
Well, I am the English teacher so I had to comment. First, I'm guessing you made some corrections to the post based on CC19's comment? If so, then the comment was constructive, helpful even. But NMA09 makes a good point--the posts do have to sound like your voice, and if you worry about perfection as in an essay, you won't write such great posts. So a little care, yes, but the content is what really counts, and it's a great post. BTW, people who live in glass houses should not throw stones, so if you criticize someone, be sure your own post is perfect.
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