Why Turn Signals AREN'T Optional

(Image: Daniel Nester)

 

 

There is something strange about that odd clicking sound that my car makes most times when it is going to make a turn.

Using my blinkers just doesn't feel right, however; I need to suck it up for the next two months. On March 21, 2008 I was driving my 1992 Chevy Lumina, otherwise known as the Bison Mobile, in my hometown on my way to Boston to pick up some CDs that I had won as part of a radio contest. The speed limit may have been 35, according to the ticket, I was going 51. No big deal, it was my first violation. They would let me go, right?

Wrong.

(Image: Police Lights LED)

Police Officers apparently don't like Spanish people. A friend of mine has been pulled over numerous times in the same town, and he got out of almost all of the tickets. The difference: his name is Oliver, quite possibly one of the whitest names in existance.

Anyway... I was going a little fast, and the officer decided to issue me a ticket. Usually, a ticket means an increase in your insurance rates. Fortunately, I have an insurance company that overlooks your first ticket or accident for three years. Three years just happens to be the amount of time it takes the state to disregard your speeding tickets and consider your driving record clean as well.

Last night, or rather, very early this morning, I had just completed the wonderful Rhode Island maneuver of rolling through a stop sign and was accelerating rather quickly on the VERY SAME ROAD that i received the ticket on those many years ago.

The roads are very empty at 2 in the morning on Monday, and I was going a good 10+ over the speed limit when the headlights showed up out of nowhere on a side road. I immediately took my foot off the gas and drove a comfortable few miles under the speed limit. He didn't have the gun out, since he was just doing his rounds, on his way to check up on the elementary school that was nearby, but it was enough to shock you back into the reality of coming so close to a clean record.

March 22, 2011: The day speed limits become suggestions and turn signals, are once again, optional.