SHA can't tell older drivers aren't problem
I cannot believe I recently read that the Maryland State Highway Administration is sponsoring a "task force" to study ways to regulate (read: harassing) drivers over the age of 55. The reason for this study is that they have statistics, which obviously are seriously flawed as are most government statistics, that show these drivers have a somewhat higher accident rate than other age groups, excluding drivers under 24.
Can you believe this nonsense -- what a bunch of hogwash. To me this is just another attempt by our government to harass us taxpayers -- especially senior citizens. As a professional truck driver, I've seen dozens of auto accidents. Young drivers and drunks caused the vast majority.
It absolutely blows my mind that our SHA bureaucrats are wasting our time and money on this silly venture. If they handle this like our emission testing program, God help us.
This type of bureaucratic nonsense and interference is exactly the reason so many of us resent big government. If this so-called task force was really interested in reducing accidents, they would figure out a way to curb speeding, tailgating and drunk driving. Several "senior citizens" I know who are poor drivers were "poor drivers" when they were young.
In the trucking industry, the older drivers consistly have the best safety records so I don't know where this task force got their data, but you can be sure it is inconsistent and flawed.
Vern Dilman
Westminster
Baltimore students deserve much better
"The City that Reads" has, once again, failed every area of measurement, except promotion rate, according to the 1995 Maryland School Performance report.
While Baltimore City students have made minor improvements when compared to the results reported in the 1994 report, they remain in last place by a wide margin in a statewide comparison of all 24 school districts.
This situation is as unacceptable to Maryland citizens as it is to the parents of the students attending Baltimore public schools.
Baltimore students deserve better than to suffer under the ineptitude of ineffective educational leadership. The poor performance of Superintendent Walter Amprey and Mayor Kurt Schmoke has jeopardized the future of each and every child attending Baltimore schools. They should be ashamed of their poor performance.
Furthermore, if the superintendent and the mayor have nothing to offer but excuses and more of the same, they should seriously consider resigning.
It is time for the educational community (students, parents, teachers, administrators, school boards and legislators) to demand better leadership from each and every appointed and elected official responsible for our youth's education. To accept anything less is to imperil the heritage we bequeath to our children.
C. Scott Stone
Hampstead
