The baby’s screaming in the backseat, there are too many kids for seatbelts in the carpool, your cell phone is ringing, and you’re about to miss Minchah. Has your car turned into a killer on the road?
Driving instructor Caren May isn’t a machine gun freak but she does know about the destructive power of automobiles.
That’s why she walks into herBrooklynclassroom each new term with a hunting rifle cradled in her arms. It’s on loan from a friend of hers in the NRA she tells her class of 16- and 18-year-old boys. Oh and it’s loaded.
“As I attempt to pass it around the room most of the students recoil and say ‘No no it’s okay we’ll look at it from here ’ ” says Mrs. May director of Shulamith Driver’s Education inBrooklyn. “No one would think of picking up a loaded Remington and touching it and yet we have fathers who allow their three-year-olds to sit on Daddy’s lap while he’s driving. Like a machine gun a car is a weapon of mass destruction. You must learn how to handle it properly.”
It’s an open secret that poor driving habits abound in frum communities. From Brooklyn toLakewood to Monsey and beyond drivers can be spotted talking on cell phones driving distractedly and speeding. Some drivers don’t bother to use their seat belts while others think nothing of placing small children in the back seat without belting them in. Still others are just too tired distracted or rushed to be driving at all.
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