During Friday’s edition of Yellowhammer Radio, host Cliff Sims went on seven-minute rant, excoriating “left-lane drivers” for clogging up Alabama’s roadways.
Research shows that driving slow in the left lane, rather than only using it while passing, creates a dangerous hazard for nearby drivers.
“If you drive in the left lane, statics show that you are drastically increasing the statistical chance that you or someone that is around you on the road will get in a car wreck,” said Sims. “I have to bring this back up because deaths on Alabama roadways are spiking. Four hundred and twenty-three (423) people have died in Alabama car wrecks over the last twelve months. That’s almost exactly a hundred more than died in the previous twelve months. It’s getting worse. Traffic fatalities nationally are up 7.2 percent year over year.”
Sims said he believes there are three main types of left-lane drivers.
The first category includes “clueless” drivers who “probably don’t have any business driving in the first place.”
“Then there are the self-righteous people who think to themselves, ‘Well I’m already driving the speed limit… I’m going to show them.’ And there’s a line of cars tailgating behind them.
“The self-righteous left-lane drivers may be my least favorite,” Sims continued, “but the third category is rivaling them. The third type of left-lane driver thinks to themselves, ‘I am such a good driver that it’s no big deal for me to fire off a couple of text messages while I’m driving. I’m so good at looking up and down that I’m not actually impeding the flow of traffic. It’s really no big deal.’ We see you at night because the glow of your screen is illuminating your face!”
Alabama state troopers recently warned drivers that using the lane for anything other than passing is illegal.
“If they need to pass a slower moving motorist, then that’s when they can use that left hand lane to pass that motorist and safely get back over into the right lane,” State Trooper Cpl. Jess Thornton told WBRC.
Alabama is one of 29 states with a law stating that any car moving slower than the “normal speed of traffic” must move over to the right lane.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recently ranked Alabamians among the worst drivers in the country. But if drivers would simply stay out of the left lane when they’re not passing, that could quickly change, and everyone would be much safer on the road.
In concluding his rant, Sims half-jokingly said “the sin of pride” is at the core of the left-lane driving epidemic.
“You’re either too prideful and think you can drive when you don’t have any business on the road. Or you’re too prideful and think you’re going to ‘show these folks behind me.’ Or you’re too prideful and think you’re a good enough driver to text and drive and it’s no big deal.”
