Lafayette Drivers – Crazier With The Heat!

I find it hard to believe but I think Lafayette drivers have been affected by the heat....and not in a good way!  Before noon today I witnessed three displays of driving that astonished me.

Driving down the Youngsville highway this morning at 4:30 while following the posted speed limit of 55, the pickup truck I was following suddenly braked, put on his right turn indicator and crawled through a right turn!  The way it should be done is this: put on your right turn indicator, let it blink a bit THEN apply your brakes before turning.  Once you jam on the brakes I have a pretty good indication something is up!

Just before lunch I was at the intersection of Guilbeau and Johnston when I notice a young woman in a new luxury sedan in the left lane...with her left blinker on.  I'm thinking she must have left it on by accident because you can't turn left here.  Wrong!!!  She was waiting to turn left........while texting until the driver behind her honked and directed her to move on with some sort of sign language.  She reluctantly drifted across the intersection and turned left in the next block to make a "U" turn.  That's one of the bad things about vanity plates, everyone at the intersection can now say, "Oh, there's the nitwit I saw earlier, texting while driving and attempting to turn left under that big no left turn sign".  I even think the vanity plates were illegal because they were on front and rear bumpers and they were bright pink.  I may be wrong but I don't think that color is used by any state in the union.

The next example had me scrambling to get a license plate number while dialing.  In the Target parking lot I saw a woman rounding the corner with a car seat in the back seat and what looked like a new-born on her shoulder.  Yikes!  I really tried to get her license plate but she was too fast for me.  After all the warnings on billboards, TV, radio and the internet you think this woman would have heard that it is not safe to drive this way.  I wondered if she was touched by the heat or maybe had just kidnapped the child and that's why the child wasn't strapped in.  Either way I was too slow to get the license plate number but I pray she was spotted by someone else....like a policeman having a very bad day!

It's just the first week in June.  I hope and pray that Lafayette drivers don't get any wackier as the summer progresses.