I heard a saying once that there is one thing that transcends race, religion and language:  Everyone thinks that they’re an above-average driver.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 2008 was a good year.  Only 37,261 motor vehicle fatalities in 2007, down from 41,259 in 2008. An estimated 2.35 million were injured.

Over the past week I’ve seen people driving holding cell phones, applying make-up, smoking and eating.  I’ve watched kamikaze bus drivers pull out into traffic without looking, and police cars that must have defective turn signals.

Then there are those driving 20 under the speed limit with the steering wheel in a two-handed death grip.  You know, the ones you’re dying to get past, but the thought of having them behind you in traffic is also terrifying?

If we trained pilots with the same lackadaisical attitude, aircraft would be crashing faster than Airbus and Boeing could build them.  This concept of passing a driver’s test when you’re a teen and managing to get to the age of 80 without as much as a review of the rules is absurd. Surely with all the modern technology available today we can devise a few tests to ensure that drivers know the rules of the road and have something that at least remotely passes as reflexes?

Driving isn’t a right.  It’s a privilege and a responsibility.  Perhaps if we take it more seriously less people will have to die.