“STUFF” HAPPENS

WHAT TIMING!

Obama’s in Europe as the new G-7 discusses how to get Russia in line….meanwhile, the Russians are in Minnesota for a Russia-US Innovation Conference.  The  goal of conference of companies, universities and non profits  is to “share best practices and explore ways to strengthen US-Russian trade, investment and research.  Hmmm.

A 61 CAR ACCIDCENT??!!!

Although only one person was injured, thankfully, it seems time we asked ourselves as drivers in Minnesota some hard questions!

This weather is NOT NEW to Minnesota! 

Although my brain may have magnified past winters in the 20th century into more than they actually were, somehow, I don’t think that is necessarily true.  For instance, the winter of ’92 stands out in my mind for the WORST ruts downtown ever….it was Super Bowl; it was planning for the first ever “Taste of the NFL”; and it was a challenge day after day to head into downtown from Plymouth after work to attend planning meetings – where driving REALLY got bad-and even turning a corner in the city was an issue. 

One had to first escape the deep ruts going in one direction; get your car to “Jump” over mounds of ice that defined those ruts and as the car turned , you needed to carefully settle it into similar ruts going a new direction without creating an accident..  Not long after that, I bought a Jeep!

But I digress.

We need to figure out why the pileup of 61 cars on the Mendota Bridge happened.

• Too many folks thinking they are invincible out on the roads?
• Too many Millennial drivers with little experience driving in this weather?
• Too many old Boomers with slower reaction times these days thinking they are still invincible?
• Too many all-weather tires on cars when maybe this year we should have had chains and snow tires?
• Too many of distracted all the time by cell phones in our cars?
• Too little instructions on “How to drive in Winter Weather” happening these days?
• Do we need a new evaluation of how we treat roads to insure better safety?

Do we all need to take a minute and rethink that “Time is of an Essence” that propels us dangerously about the metro? 

Being ON TIME is not worth putting lives at risk – so says the person that ALWAYS has to be early for fear of being late!  Truthfully, I don’t know the cause or the answer; but it seems to me it is a sizable WAKE UP CALL we all should be concerned about!.

RIDE