I witnessed an event this morning (January 13) that put a smile on my face. An action of a driver who, like so many East Texans, is fed up with so many doing it. An action that I hope put a bit of fear in those people and will make them think twice about doing it again. I'm talking about those who just disregard what a red light means and drive through it like there will be no consequences.

Get our free mobile app

With the story, I will have some poorly highlighted photos for you to follow along with but I think it will give you a good idea of what I'm talking about. So this morning (January 13), roughly 7:50 a.m., I was sitting in the right turn lane of South Broadway facing North. I'm the yellow rectangle in the picture. There was one car in front of me.

In the middle lane to the right of me was a large, we'll say, Suburban (I don't think that's what it was but it gives you a visual at least) that was black. The light for Broadway heading North had turned green. Problem was, the light for the turn lane facing South had turned red and cars were still going through. Circled in the picture below.

Well, let's just say that the black Suburban is just as sick of red light runners as any of us in East Texas are. That driver preceded to head through the intersection having no fear of the cars that were running the red light. In the poorly illustrated picture below, the black rectangle represents the Suburban while the red, blue and purple represent the cars that were running the red light.

Needless to say, the drivers running the red light were very surprised by what they saw. And here's the thing, the car represented by the purple color was behind the white line seeing what the Suburban was doing and preceded to move into the intersection anyway.

I am here to say that I applaud what the Suburban did. I hope that you put a scare in those people that were running the red light. I hope that those people who ran the red light will think twice before doing it again. Running a red light has become an epidemic in East Texas. An epidemic that is going to get someone killed. Period.

STOP! RUNNING! RED! LIGHTS!

There is not one f'ing thing that is so important that you would need to run a red light. Here's what's going to happen to you who chose to use a red alight as a suggestion. Tomorrow, you're going to run one and nothing is going to happen. Next month, you're going to run one and nothing is going to happen. You'll believe that nothing will ever happen by running a red light. Then on a random Tuesday, you'll run a red light and a crosswalk will flash for a family to cross. They will proceed to walk across while you, the driver who thinks that red lights don't matter, will hit that family.

Do you want that on your conscience for the rest of your life?

Drivers have decided that because a police officer is not sitting at an intersection or monitoring for speeders that it's okay to break or ignore traffic laws and that is wrong. Period. It's an attitude that some drivers need to change and need to change right now. Those actions will get someone seriously hurt or killed.