5 Responses

1. What is it?! Is it just that traffic collisions in the “city” during the rest of the year aren’t reported to the news as frequently, or is there a serious problem with the way many frum people drive when on summer break in the mountains? Literally it becomes life and death each summer with drownings or near drownings, severe car collisions, lost in the woods, falls from high trees or deep falls, pedestrians getting hit and run over by cars because of a dark road, children being left in minivans in fatal sweltering heat. What is it….?

2. Well….having spent the last 17 summers in the Catskills, my take is that people dont adjust their thinking or their actions when they relocate for the summer. Route 42, 52, 55 is not 18th avenue or Lee avenue. mountain roads are twisty, windy roads, that often have limited sight lines with curves and hills, are very dark at night, sidewalks are almost non existent, and at certain times of the day, these same roads are just as congested as 18th avenue or lee avenue. Yet, drivers dont slow down, are just as aggressive and impatient at these times. Its a recipe for disaster. Ive been aggressively tailgated and honked at, doing 45 on a 45 mph road, and if I chas vshalom slow down to take a curve at 35….

3. I was visiting Monsey for Shabbos. On Motzai Shabbos I was driving on the 306. I’m not that familiar with the turns and curves so I was going a drop under the speed limit. Then I turned onto Viola Rd Waze told me which street to turn but since the signs in Monsey are either missing or too small to see at night again I was a drop slow. Both times I had someone tailgating so close I was almost able to talk to them. In such situations, I turn on my hazards this usually pushes the other car back.

4. Ah Yid- If you are going to be driving slowly and under the speed limit and you are concerned about the guy tailgating you, how about just do everybody a favor and pull over to let him pass.

5. TGIShabbos:
   “or is there a serious problem with the way many frum people drive when on summer break in the mountains? ”
   Just replace the word ‘frum’ to ‘city’.
   CITY people usually drive at 15 miles per hour or 25 miles per hour even up to 35 or 40 miles per hour and that’s REALLY FAST. In the country the slowest you go is 50 or 55 miles per hour, even 65 – 70 miles per hour, plus city streets and basically straight, and the adjustment for the curves and for the stopping, at such speeds, is a very big adjustment.