Beware the Cross Line

It's just a bit before 1:00 in the afternoon on a typical warm summer day near Niles, Michigan (this past week, actually). Two local motorcycle riders are traveling a familiar road near home on a warm but otherwise unremarkable afternoon. Their bikes are separated from their approaching killer by a narrow painted barrier like the one you see in the photo above. This existential barrier was useless when the approaching driver crossed it and killed then both. No, police report that alcohol was not a factor.

What's remarkable about this crash is how unremarkable it's surrounding circumstances appear to be. Among the most common driver safety mantras that we have learned all of our driving lives is the one that says "most crashes happen close to home." After all, that's where we drive. We drive on well known roads during the daylight hours through unremarkable conditions. Separating us and our families from instant elimination or lifelong injury is this imaginary painted barrier measuring about a foot. We travel 30 times that distance in a second at 25 miles per hour. Imagine how quickly we cross the line at 40, 50 and 60.

Driving is a full time job when you are actively engaged in it. It's probably the only full time job you've had where your life depends on being engaged in it fully all the time. Someone who'll be hurtling at you in the opposite lane later today may be taking a break to do something besides driving so you'd better keep a sharp eye on them just in case they cross the line and you need to react. Conversely, you don't want to be that driver that crosses the line and changes the approaching family's life forever.

Be safe.