I Get Letters
by Donna Schoenkopf
Here's a comment from Jim. He's been driving these Oklahoma roads all his life and seen it all. Being an insurance adjuster (as well as a renowned poet) he's been miles and miles and miles on the roads that kill.
These are his words:
...that road? You think it is bad? Take a ride on the old one.........I traveled it many years. But.
You're right again.........Bad as it was , narrow, no shoulder, sharp curves........I never worked the accidents on it. I did on the new one.......The old road was soo bad drivers were careful on it.....There was a honky tonk up by Pearson that kept adjusters, wreckers, salvage yards and funeral homes busy.
The road was so bad even drunks drove carefully.
.......................Spurr.................
That’s always been an interesting phenomenon: Roads so dangerous they’re “safe.” I suppose there’s really “safe” roads, then really dangerous “safe” roads, then roads that only look safe and so lull you into being careless . . . followed by being . . dead. I know we can design really safe roads and safe cars but the cost would be enormous, so we sorta settle for a cost/benefit ratio: X # of people need to die before Y street/corner/curve is fixed. That’s the way it’s (de facto) figured here in CA, presume it’s the same all over. Thought nobody official will admit it. Creepy, but there you are.
2009-08-13 by Ann Calhoun