Be careful on the roads

Despite the beauty of nature in full bloom, it has been an ugly spring.
In less than a month, Jay County has seen two double fatalities on county roads.
Four lives have been lost, and a fifth hangs in the balance at a Fort Wayne hospital.
Both occurred on Saturdays. Both occurred when the sun was shining. But beyond that, there seems to be no thread connecting the two.
Rural roads are always more dangerous than we like to admit. All of us tend to drive on them too fast. There’s a tendency to treat a county road as if it’s no more dangerous than a street in town. That’s especially true if the road is familiar, a route we’ve driven a million times, so run-of-the-mill that we’re on automatic pilot.
The same driver on an urban, six-lane interstate highway would have adrenalin pumping in the veins. But on a county road, the driver feels safe, secure and comfortable. It’s all so familiar.
Trouble is, while it may be familiar and comfortable, it’s anything but safe and secure.
Can the shock of these two dreadful accidents change our behavior? Can the horrible waste of the lost lives get our attention?
We hope so.
It’s been an ugly spring, and we hope that’s not what it takes to get us to drive more carefully, more attentively, and more safely.
Be safe out there. We hate the headlines we’ve been forced to deliver. And we’d be happy if it were a long time before we had to use them again. —J.R.[[In-content Ad]]