For years I've wondered about all the commericals we've all seen--those sleek cars, newest models, 0 to 60 in seconds, wet streets but racing nonetheless. On and on they go. Whay is there a need for a car to travel 120mph or more? Can you actually drive that fast without getting arrested? Have you tried to do that?

Mid-morning yesterday there was a horrible accident about 200' north of us. The same white Cadillac we've seen often speeding down the street. It used to be a country road in a quiet residential area until it became one of two major thoroughfares through our small town..

Yesterday, the driver (male) first hit mailboxes, over-corrected, hit two other cars, then a utility pole pushing a huge bolder at the corner of a driveway up next to a house where he finally stopped.

Three squad cars, a fire truck and two ambulanced arrived in less than two minutes. The driver's side was destroyed. It took fire fighters 45 minutes to cut the driver out of the car. A driver in one of the other cars was also injured.

So the question is: What's the need for speed? Does the capability of cars to achieve high speeds encourage driver (particularly yound drivers) to test the limits? What's the point?

Testosterone

with me. I live in So. California. Here everyone speeds. The law here is that the speed limit in residential neighborhoods (unless otherwise posted) is 25 mph, yet people speed down our street at 50-60 mph. Kids often play in the street (because there are no nearby parks) and they don't always excercise the best judgement in looking both ways before crossing the street. Three years ago, a young girl was run over and killed less than a block up the street, on her way to school (in broad daylight).

We've had two cats killed in front of our house; one was hit so hard that clumps of its fur flew 20 feet in the air. Here it is law that if a person hits an animal, he/she is obligated to call animal control and provide care for the creature until help arrives. Yet, the woman driver (with her young son in the car) refused stop until we chased after her and demanded she do so. The woman's attitude was that it wasn't her fault. We asked her what kind of example she was setting for her son, in which she replied that it was none of our business.

There is an old saying, "speed kills".

It's not a great saying, but in this case I think it adaquately applies.

Is that a California thing? My neighbors when I lived there had the same attitude.