Some SouthCoast Drivers Need Refresher Courses [OPINION]

Who the heck taught some of these people around the SouthCoast how to drive?

A couple of months ago, I was hit broadside by a woman who shot out from a side street while attempting to cross two lanes of traffic on a busy thoroughfare. She tried to blame me! She actually claimed that I hit her. Thank God the investigating officer wasn't born yesterday and understood that I would have had to be traveling sideways to have hit her car.

The number of crashes that I avoid regularly is amazing. I'm sure many of you feel the same way, too. How do some of these folks get a driver's license?

One of my biggest annoyances is how people enter a highway, say Interstate 195, from an on-ramp and just enter the highway without yielding to oncoming traffic. You've all been there. You are barreling down 195 at 65 miles per hour with an 18-wheeler on your left and a jamoke enters your lane from an on-ramp at 45 miles per hour – and they don't yield, forcing you to jam the brakes or hit them.

Or how about when you need to move right to get to your exit ramp and some clown is cruising in your right-side blind spot? Now you've got to speed way up or slow way down to make your move.

City driving is no better. Traffic at an intersection is supposed to move based upon who gets to the intersection first. Sometimes it's nice and smooth but a lot of times the last to arrive feels privileged, or just the opposite happens and no one wants to go first.

What would you think about a retest every so often by the Registry of Motor Vehicles? It could be random. Or perhaps RMV cops could install cameras and nets?

Being a resident of Southeastern Massachusetts, my list of driver pet peeves could go on forever but I'd love to hear some of yours. What drives you nuts about the way people drive around here?

Tossing trash and lit cigarette butts out of car windows are just a couple more of mine.

Barry Richard is the host of The Barry Richard Show on 1420 WBSM New Bedford. He can be heard weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. Contact him at barry@wbsm.com and follow him on Twitter @BarryJRichard58. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.