Monday, February 3, 2014

Clear the ice off your windows, then drive.

Look - I know it's cold outside - it's winter. Things ice up. Car windows especially. But if your windows are completely iced-in, please don't be a danger to yourself and more importantly, everyone else on the road. The photo here was taken this morning. I followed this guy to work - we never went over 15mph and he slowed down further every time anyone passed us coming the other way. He had the letterbox-sized clearing in the front and rear windows, and the side windows were completely iced up. Less than a minute after I took this, he crashed into the red Jeep on the left of this picture. It wasn't a high speed crash - again he was dithering about at 15mph. But he crashed nevertheless, and now his reckless irresponsibility has caused inconvenience (and injury?) to two sets of people. And why? Because he couldn't take the extra couple of minutes to clear the ice off his car properly. I suppose if you ask, these people all come up with the same excuses. "Ooooh it's so inconvenient. I'm in such a rush." Or "I'll let the heaters do their job." By all means let the heaters do their job, but do it while you're parked, before you leave. If you don't, the first five miles of your drive will be like this tool in front of me.
This leads me to another peripheral observation : people who are surprised that their cars get stolen from their driveways in the winter. These are the ones who are trying to be responsible but still don't like the inconvenience of a cold morning. So they turn the car on, heaters on full blast, then go back into the house to wait. A running car, keys in it, owners inside their house? Easy money. You might as well leave your keys in the car at the petrol station while you go inside to pay ..... oh wait ..... they do that around here too.
It's winter. It gets cold. You know this - you live here. Man up and deal with it. Don't be a dick by driving with iced up windows.