You want to know about bad drivers? I have a friend who is a firefighter in northern Virginia who was nearly killed by a stupid driver.My friend was at the fire station when they saw a car break down in the middle of the road right in front of the station. So the firefighters turned the intersection lights red in all directions and pulled the fire engine out into the road with their lights flashing to help this person move their car off to the side so they wouldn't get hit. I should also mention that my friend was wearing his fire coat and helmet, with lots of reflective markings - kind of hard to miss.
While my friend was helping to move the car out of the road, some idiot blew through the red light at 55 mph (this is in a 35 zone). Sent my friend flying about 15 feet, and missed 2 other firefighters by inches. He broke his leg and had some internal injuries. He probably would have been killed if not for the helmet and thick firefighting coat to lessen the impact.
When asked by the police, the driver said he didn't stop at the red light because he "didn't feel like it," and he never hit the brakes because he "didn't think they worked" even though he knew he was going to hit people. This was his 14th at fault accident and he was driving on a suspended licence. What a dumbass. Even worse, in court, he tried to claim it wasn't his fault because my friend wasn't in a crosswalk - but last time I checked, the FIRE DEPARTMENT is allowed to walk out in the road when they need to...
You would think people would understand that a red traffic light AND the red flashing lights on the fire engine AND the high visibility safety gear on the firefighters in the street would be a hint to stop/slow down, but I guess not.
