There is a plea from the police

for people to be more careful on the roads.
I couldn't agree more. There have been 51 deaths in this state so far this year - compared with 30 last year. Thirty was too many.
What is more, according to the senior policeman who put the plea out, every death was avoidable.
Do people actually think about this when they get in to drive? I doubt it. I suspect that almost everyone simply gets in and drives off. 
I don't feel that way. I am a nervous cat on the roads. 
Yesterday someone, intending to be kind, gave way to me so I could get across a busy road - and then, as I backed rapidly, someone else pulled out around them with a blare of their horn and went ahead. They ignored the stop sign at the railway crossing and turned a corner two hundred metres ahead - on a red light. Where are the police when you need them?
I know a lot of people still believe that the stop sign only applies to the railway line. It doesn't. It applies to the roads that come in from either side. If I have to cross there - and I frequently do - then I have to wait until the road is completely clear or someone gives way to me. People do give way. It doesn't happen often and, if they do, it is usually completely safe. Yesterday though it wasn't. Someone was impatient and broke the law in several ways. I could have been hit if I had not been able to back or back quickly enough. Thankfully there was nobody behind me.
I see other people using their mobile phones too. They often sit and text or talk at the traffic lights. Do they think it is acceptable there?
Does anyone really not know it is against the law to use a hand held phone and drive at the same time? Do they also believe that orange means you speed up from one hundred metres down the road and go through on the red? There is barely enough time for the many elderly people in this district to get across the main road and, when this occurs, they often come close to being hit. And it is those same drivers who will turn ahead of people coming across - even though the green pedestrian sign is still showing.
Why is there this enormous need to be somewhere first or, if not first, fast? Why is everyone so impatient? 
I know I like to get to my destination. I always try to give myself more time than I think I might need to get there. It is better to be early than not get there at all.
But it seems I am an exception - and it scares me.