We had yet another car/train meetup here in Orlando. It did not end well for the car. What happened (according to the local tv news report) was the Amtrak Silver Star was heading towards a crossing, going about 58 miles per hour (under the speed limit for trains), signalling all the way with its horn of course, and the crossing lights came on and the bars went down. Now, SOP for cars coming up to the tracks is for them to stop at the crossing bars. However, our genius driver had Better Things To Do than to wait for some stupid train, so he went around the crossing bars. And promptly got pasted by the train. The driver is now dead, as is one of the passengers in the car. I believe there was another passenger in the car who was injured. And — here’s the kicker — this will surprise no one who has grown up in an area full of immigrants from a certain culture — the driver was in his twenties, and his last name was Martinez.
Trust me on this, I’ve lived in Florida all my life, and whenever there’s been news of a traffic accident caused by some stupid-ass move on the part of the driver such as running a red light (because Real Men don’t let little lights tell them what to do) or driving too fast around a curve (because he’s a man, baybee, and he’s got important places to go, and he can do wheelies, just watch!) or going around a crossing bar when a train is coming up the track (because his Macho Man rays will slow time and enable him to defeat the laws of physics), nine times out of ten the driver, and usually the passengers, are all in their twenties and all have names like Martinez. And the few (very, very few) times I’ve been in a car driven by young Hispanic men, they’ve all driven like arrogant, world-stops-for-me assholes. It’s supposed to be racist now, but when I was in my twenties my friends and I had a rule for dating: no YLMs (Young Latin Males). Not only were they jealous macho pricks (all the smooth, romantic Latin lovers died of some plague in the Fifties), but the insanity that seems to overcome them when they get behind the wheel could have gotten me killed.
By the way, the train? Was delayed about two hours. Then it continued on its way.
5 Responses to “Herd thinned again”
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November 29th, 2008 at 11:24 am
Well, I’m Hispanic and I’ve never had a desire or need to outrun a speeding train. I’ve the feeling though that a Spanish name “stands out” – just as a rowdy youth of Hispanic (or Black, for that matter) origin “stands out” – and consequently is remembered more. I know that I’ve met many, many White risk-takers and macho pricks, but I don’t think all or most White people are. I feel sorrow for the parents of these young people who just don’t appreciate how fragile life is.
I just wish people would realize that life or civilization shouldn’t be taken for granted. Things can change, freedoms lost, lives lost, very quickly.
November 29th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
In Florida Spanish names don’t stand out.
I will say that the rest of the time it’s usually redneck drivers doing something astonishingly stupid, like driving backwards down the interstate. A redneck would have tried to drive up the tracks ahead of the train: “Hey, Vern, let’s race it!” (Smash.) And unlike other ethnic group, there is rarely an age cut-off; as the surviving redneck matures, he either continues to drive as if he was always three sheets to the wind (and he often is), or else he becomes the farmer with the ancient pickup who always drives right down the middle of the road at 28 miles per hour no matter what the speed limit.
To continue in the driving stereotype motif, young black males tend to follow whatever stupid habits the majority ethnic group follows; in South Florida, where the culture is Hispanic, they drive like young Hispanic males. In redneck areas, they drive like rednecks. I don’t know much about how Asians drive; I hear they are considered lousy drivers on the west coast, but there isn’t a large enough community here for me to judge.
I will say that once the Young Latin Male no longer is young, his driving habits suddenly calm down and he usually becomes a model driver. Both my driving instructors when I was a kid were Cuban-American. (My redneck father tried a couple of times to teach me to drive but let’s just say that didn’t work out.)
Of course I’m sure there are individual exceptions to these rules — like me. You notice I focused on male drivers; female drivers would take another post. But mostly I’ve found the dumb habits of female drivers tend to cut across all ethnic lines — in short, women have a tendency to multitask in the car. It comes from having to ferry the kids around. Kids are kept under better control these days, what with all the straps and restraints and suits of armor you’re required by law to put them in to drive them anywhere, but that doesn’t stop mother’s instinctual habit of checking the rear view mirror every five seconds to make sure junior hasn’t chewed through his straps, pried open the car window, and is hanging out the side by his chubby little fingertips. Even single women without kids do dumb things while they’re driving, like talking on the cell phone, putting on makeup, changing clothes (I have witnessed all these activities, and have held the steering wheel while my friend changed shirts on A1A). I don’t wear makeup, and I refuse to answer my cell phone while I’m driving — that’s what voice mail is for. Also I pay attention on the road, because all other drivers are insane.
November 29th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
I do believe there are cultural differences that often people “adopt” as a pose and eventually become the real thing. I’ve seen nephews raised in material luxury and with many opportunities available, choose instead to gravitate to underclass behavior. I imagine there are solid middleclass African parents who also despair when their children reject the values that gave their parents so much.
Theodore Dalyrmple has written some excellent books on underclass behavior in England – which are still relevant for Americans – and he makes it clear that it knows no race. I’d recommend his books “Life at the Bottom: The Worldview That Makes the Underclass and “Our Culture: What’s Left of It” — unsentimental essays written by a Doctor who’s worked with chavs and the real underclass for decades.
November 29th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
In my family my younger sister was the “black child.” She was actually Native American, but all we heard was “jive turkey” this and “child please” that. And I was the “honky.” (It was the 70s.)
December 2nd, 2008 at 2:13 pm
“I imagine there are solid middleclass African parents who also despair when their children reject the values that gave their parents so much.”
That would be my worst nightmare–to carefully raise a child to be intelligent and kind and then have him or her turn into white trash as a teenager.