To the Editor:

My 7-year-old grandson is standing a few feet away from where his “Poppie” was walking when a loaded dump truck towing a 3,500-pound, 30-foot boat, jack-knifed breaking the two, 1-inch straps and rusted cleavis cable “securing” his load, sending the boat slamming into two maple trees, launching two 6-cylinder inboard motors and two 50-gallon propane tanks down Route 443 at a designated school-bus stop.

Although the 90 degree angle sharp curve is clearly marked with a 30-mile-per-hour recommended speed limit and one large arrow sign, hundreds of vehicles a day and night still do 55 miles per hour and faster.

When did the  majority of drivers start blatantly ignoring warning signs and keeping “the pedal to the metal” mindset on hazardous curves, blind spots, and road areas? Often it becomes a crime scene, labeled an accident. Speeding without any visibility at all in front of them and without any thought of whose family, children, and grandchildren, school buses, work crews, driveways and sometimes these ignorant bicyclists who would not in good sense walk in a 55-mile-per-hour road, but ride their bikes two to three wide sometimes putting both lanes of traffic and themselves in jeopardy.

We all know someone who has suffered the loss of a loved one or even have felt some pain in our hearts for the casualties, EMS [Emergency Medical Services] and police responders and families touched by traffic-related tragedies, which are sometimes caused by blatant disregard of anyone in the offenders’ path.

Because of this ignorant and sometimes arrogant mindset of some of today’s and tomorrow's drivers, my grandson and his cousins will never be allowed by us in good conscience to ever get on or off his school bus stop exactly where this incident occurred.

Point A to B has become complacent, when we drive that roadway, year after year, without incident while passing the numerous white crosses marking another casualty along the way.

People have to stop ignoring common-sense driving practices and maybe start driving the way you would want everyone else to drive past your families, children,and grandchildren.

How many times have we said that someone must have been watching down on us, when we have eluded a close call?

Our guardian angels can only protect us so much; the rest is up to you.

George Duell

East Berne

Editor’s note: See related story.