As I passed Woodstock High School yesterday, four high school students jaywalked across South Street in front of my car. The last one was straggling behind the other three and stepped off the curb without looking. When I honked my horn at him, he and the other three glared at me like, "Who the heck was I to honk at them?" Actually, their looks were worse than that.
From the looks of the three already on the sidewalk, they are trouble-makers. Or maybe they were clean-cut, straight-A students just dressed up like punks for the day. Yeah, sure...
I'm glad I'm not a high school teacher these days. I'd last about one day. Maybe even not the whole first day.
If I were principal at Woodstock High School, I'd establish a dress code. Oh, they have a dress code, you say? Really!
Really?
I used to point out to the H.R. V-P at Sears that, when employees came to work tired and sloppily dressed, their work was sloppy. Duhhhh..... Sure, I wore jeans when I rode my motorcycle to work, but then I changed into slacks and dress shoes for the workday. There was a headquarters' policy that no sleeping was allowed at lunch-time in the lobby of the headquarters. Think any officer of the company was brave enough to awaken a sleeping employee? Fear of being sued for discrimination, I guess
How early does disrespect for and disobedience to laws start? Just drop by any of Woodstock's elementary schools. Dean Street School, for example. Do staff and teachers still jaywalk from the parking lot across Dean Street? Do parents walking their kids to/from the parking lot to school still jaywalk?
What does this teach the kid? That laws aren't important. The cross-in-the-crosswalk laws are for good purpose.
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Looks like maybe them "yutes" have you pegged, Gus. Seems to me that you may have been in the wrong here. What about that recently enacted legislation that says motorists will STOP when a pedestrian enters the roadway? I don't think they have smile at you, they don't have to wait for you, they don't even have to be in a crosswalk, do they?
Then, about the horn... You have brakes on your little red flower car, don't you? Which is more effective in operating that bug safely? A horn or working brakes which will help you obey the law?
The Illinois Vehicle Codes says this, in pertinent part:
(625 ILCS 5/12‑601) (from Ch. 95 1/2, par. 12‑601)
Sec. 12‑601. Horns and warning devices.
(a) Every motor vehicle when operated upon a highway shall be equipped with a horn in good working order and capable of emitting sound audible under normal conditions from a distance of not less than 200 feet, but no horn or other warning device shall emit an unreasonable loud or harsh sound or a whistle. The driver of a motor vehicle shall when reasonably necessary to insure safe operation give audible warning with his horn but shall not otherwise use such horn when upon a highway.
For shame, Gus, for shame! They may be rude jerks and snotty, but they do have your number.
Ah, drat... that should be:
(625 ILCS 5/12‑601) (from Ch. 95 1/2, par. 12‑601)
Sec. 12‑601. Horns and warning devices.
(a) Every motor vehicle when operated upon a highway shall be ...The driver of a motor vehicle shall when reasonably necessary to insure safe operation give audible warning with his horn but shall not otherwise use such horn when upon a highway.
I thought the pedestrian had the right-of-way...
And some pedestrians are dead right about it, too.
625 ILCS 5/11-1003(a) "Every pedestrian crossing a roadway at any point other than within a marked crosswalk or within an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection shall yield the right-of-way to all vehicles upon the roadway."
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