Dear Waco, please learn to drive

By Jarrod Leicher | Reporter

Living in Waco for the past couple years, I have noticed something that has concerned me: people in Waco don’t drive well at all. Both at Baylor and outside of it, there are just purely bad drivers everywhere in Waco.

It’s not just the usual people speeding, that doesn’t bother me at all. It’s just a clear lack of caring about safety when people are driving. They just don’t care. In the time I have lived in Waco, I have personally seen more car accidents happen in Waco than anywhere else.

Drivers here don’t follow stop lights, they don’t know how to do a four way stop, they are either going 20 mph over the speed limit or 10 mph under, they jump right through cross traffic like it doesn’t matter. I have nearly been T-boned three times while driving around Waco.

About a year and a half ago, I saw a girl side swipe another car in the East Village garage and just drive away without doing anything. I met a girl who goes to Baylor and has been in multiple single-car accidents as the driver. Two weeks ago, a friend’s car was involved in a hit and run in the H-E-B parking lot. Everyone always says that speed kills, but the problem is just drivers not having a basic understanding of what they are doing or even doing the morally good thing when driving.

If you aren’t sure what to do in a certain traffic situation, Google is always there to help you. There is no excuse to hit and run, no excuse to run a red light and no excuse to be a bad driver.

None of us are perfect drivers, we have all made a mistake one way or another. But a lot of people in this town don’t know when they’ve made a mistake because they either don’t know or don’t care. Most drivers are not fit to be behind the wheel with their current driving education.

The most dangerous thing we do everyday is drive in a car. You would think people would at least try and take it seriously.