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Time for the safety dance

Posted on August 19, 2010 by Staff

We are entering into a time of year that’s traditionally full of promise, and it’s right to encourage the imagination of possibilities and fuel with inspirational rhetoric the soaring dreams of young people gathered together in the name of education.

We wish those of you charged with beginning-of-school-year speeches a golden voice and the combination of brevity, wit and wisdom that makes for a good clarion call.

In the name of those of us who call this place home, we also ask that you remind your charges, especially the ones unfamiliar with their new surroundings, that this is a busy, congested community full of bicycles, pedestrians and drivers of all skill levels often self-encumbered with a portable electronic device.

Anyone familiar with this newspaper’s short history knows that we treat the idea of driving while distracted seriously. But despite near-perpetual haranguing from these pages as well as elected officials, resident national traffic-safety experts and, really, everyone with any sense in this community, the practice continues unabated.

It is true that over the years the enforcement of pedestrian safety laws and improvements to the infrastructure have improved the situation. But each year we write about a promising life or lives cut short in a pedestrian-vehicle collision.

We know from studies and experience that the first couple of months of the new school year are when the highest number of accidents occurs. Many new drivers and pedestrians venture out unsure of the rules of the road, and encounters with both on our streets are all too common.

So pardon our cajoling, again. There are some things we’d rather not write about, again. In short: hand off the phone or, better yet, hang up and drive. And look both ways before you cross the street and turn the earbuds down. Someday we want to write about how you came to Carolina and started living your soaring dream.

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