When I rule the world...

When I rule the world, or at least this country I’m going to pass the following law:
When you are found to be at fault in an auto accident there will be fines and penalties enforced as per the norm. When said accident causes significant delay to normal travel times penalties will be enforced as such:
You will spend three days in jail for every lane-mile that traffic backed up. If said traffic back-up exceeds 1 hour, the jail time will be doubled.
You (or your insurance company) will have to pay the salary of anyone who can prove they were in said traffic jam. A simple photograph of license held at arms-length with traffic in the background will suffice. Since time spent cannot be proven, you will pay the salary for the duration of the traffic backup, from the time of the 9-1-1 call to 15 minutes after the last responder leaves the scene.
Your name, address, and phone number will be published.
You will drive Chinese cars for the next 6 years.

My 25-mile drive to work this morning took almost 2.5 hours!!! Why? Because someone was taking the on-ramp too fast and lost it. He/she hit a car, that car hit another car. Folks were taken to the hospital and there were as many as 4 lanes backed up for 13 miles!!!! Every major surface street was backed up. I ended up taking residential streets to work. Anyone familiar with the Waterford Hills area, try connecting the dots of Fenton and Auburn Hills with a bunch of side-streets!

Eh... Just be thankful you weren't one of the ones plowed into and taken to the hospital.

Sure your morning sucked but at least it isn't the rest of your life.

And that's why I don't drive the highway on the way home from work. If the morning commute gets more crowded, I won't be on the highway ever again.

Hehehe- My commute is 30 feet, sometimes done in my bathrobe. 50 feet if I get coffee first.

ditchdigger wrote: Eh... Just be thankful you weren't one of the ones plowed into and taken to the hospital. Sure your morning sucked but at least it isn't the rest of your life.

Yeah, I am. But I wanna piss and moan too

the city and state already do bill you for backing up traffic, but none of us ever get any of that money. they also bill you for any part of the roadway that you damage. so if you think that 25/50 minimum coverage is cheap, just wait and see how expensive it is when you knock down a highway sign after bouncing off someone's Jaaaaaaag.

In my early 20's I jackknifed a Coca-Cola truck (cab and trailer 28ft trailer.) Two days after Christmas at 5pm with snow coming down. Cab/trailer blocked two lanes and left side berm of the road leaving all traffic to have to pass in one lane.
Easily a hour traffic backup. Sited for failure to control, reduced to no-points brake failure.
The jack-knife was the result of my having to brake quickly as a car switched lanes into my lane then braked immediately (sneaking in the queue) as traffic merged down. All of this in the snow and with an empty trailer.

Never did hit the other car, just the trailer going wide and coming to rest against the cab.
Battery box ripped off and diesel tank punctured.

My accident was in Ohio but from experience, my personal definition of hell is I-75 north of I-696 in accident traffic. There are few worse god forsaken roads/routes.

I got caught in a jam recently caused by a pedestrian fatality. The pedestrian was jaywalking across 4 lanes of 45Mph traffic fifty feet from a light with a crosswalk. The driver wasn't charged.

I spent 45 minutes in traffic only to be detoured to another congested road so I could get on the interstate and go up one exit. So over an hour to cover what is normally 2 minutes.

The scene had been up for over an hour before I got caught in traffic. The scene was already cleared but they hadn't broken down the road block yet. All alternate routes were already backed up to capacity.

What did I see when I took the same route home? Two people jaywalking in the same area across the same 4 lanes of 45Mph traffic.

Sitting in that kind of traffic reminds me of what Gandhi said when asked about Western civilization: "I think it's a great idea." We had an accident here in Harrisburg last week, a truck carrying hay bales caught fire and closed I-83 (during morning rush hour), which is the major route that runs right through Harrisburg and is one of 3 highway routes across the Susquehanna. One other is the Turnpike, and it's a toll road, so no one uses it. It took me twice as long to get home as it normally does, after a night shift. Waiting in traffic that's keeping you from bed is awful.

If I were the King of the world...........3 Dog Night.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXDFHObHGxY&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Oh wait........there is something about throwing away the cars.........thats not good.

DrBoost wrote:

ditchdigger wrote: Eh... Just be thankful you weren't one of the ones plowed into and taken to the hospital. Sure your morning sucked but at least it isn't the rest of your life.

Yeah, I am. But I wanna piss and moan too

move to a small town. My drive to work is 8-15 minutes, depending on lights and traffic. Traffic is usually non-existent at the hour I drive in to work.

When I rule the world, if there is a line at a stop light and someone cuts down the other lane (aka going the WRONG way down the street) to get to the stop light will be shot and those who survive will be shot again. Looking at you the dick with a BMW X5. berkeleyer.

JoeyM wrote:

DrBoost wrote:

ditchdigger wrote: Eh... Just be thankful you weren't one of the ones plowed into and taken to the hospital. Sure your morning sucked but at least it isn't the rest of your life.

Yeah, I am. But I wanna piss and moan too

move to a small town. My drive to work is 8-15 minutes, depending on lights and traffic. Traffic is usually non-existent at the hour I drive in to work.

I did. Usually though, life in a small town means driving to a bigger city to work. That's my situation.

DrBoost wrote:

JoeyM wrote:

DrBoost wrote:

ditchdigger wrote: Eh... Just be thankful you weren't one of the ones plowed into and taken to the hospital. Sure your morning sucked but at least it isn't the rest of your life.

Yeah, I am. But I wanna piss and moan too

move to a small town. My drive to work is 8-15 minutes, depending on lights and traffic. Traffic is usually non-existent at the hour I drive in to work.

I did. Usually though, life in a small town means driving to a bigger city to work. That's my situation.

Sorry. that sucks.

I thought this was about Nas

Wait, you don't get snow in Michigan? Acts of God and all that; some lawyer will shoot you down when you're the King.

BTW, if you're so important in your job that you can't be late one day, you should be paid more or learn to delegate.

914Driver wrote: Wait, you don't get snow in Michigan? Acts of God and all that; some lawyer will shoot you down when you're the King.

Yeah, we get snow (well, not this year) and that's why I said negligent. In fact, the law would not be written to hurt the one found "at fault", but negligent or similar. Some DB was flying around the on-ramp to get on 75 yesterday morning. He lost control and hit a car. That car hit another car. That car hit the wall. Two folks were rushed to the hospital and thousands sat in gridlock for a few hours because one DB couldn't be bothered to stop texting, eating, putting on make-up, or even slowing down a little bit. For that, there should be a stiff penalty.

914Driver wrote: BTW, if you're so important in your job that you can't be late one day, you should be paid more or learn to delegate.

Yeah, I should be paid more.
This thread was started as a joke, I don't pretend to be that important. But, that one DB wasn't more important than the thousands that he/she delayed. IF the penalty was stiff, it would be less likely to happen again.
I'll put it this way. I speed on occasion. I almost always keep it to no more than 5-over because I don't want to get a ticket. I can afford the 5-over ticket if I get nabbed. I don't want to pay the 10-over ticket. An accident is points on your record and a fine. But if tom-foolery like yesterday would cost a month or so in jail and $10,000 fines then how likely would you be to text while driving, eat a Big Mac meal, or read a book while driving?

I don't think fines will change anything, idiots are idiots.

When I rule the world I'm banning all tow truck companies. Theivery will no longer be legal actions for those companies.

cwh wrote: Hehehe- My commute is 30 feet, sometimes done in my bathrobe. 50 feet if I get coffee first.

SHhhhhhhuuuuuuuuut uuuuuuuuuuuuuup, says the other "telecommuter". Everyone will want to do it.

And then there are trains. Coming home from my daughters up in way north Vermont, traffic was stopped at a rail crossing for close to a half hour while a frieght train went forward and back, I guess to switch tracks. This was on a state highway, called thruway in VT.