TO THE EDITOR:
Last Thursday morning, driving west on the 200 block of McCauley Street, I encountered a fellow on a skateboard going east on the north side of the road (to my right). Unfortunately for him, another car was heading east in the same area at the same time, where parking is also allowed. So three cars were roughly parallel in the same spot at the same time, with a dumbbell on a skateboard trying to get through who, fortunately, was unscathed.
This morning I read a news item about a midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy who was skateboarding next to a slowly moving vehicle when he fell beneath its rear wheel and died, though he was wearing a helmet at the time and seems to have been a far more accomplished athlete than the unknown bozo I encountered last Thursday.
Whether it’s failure to stop at stop signs, texting while driving, running with earphones blaring music that drowns out surrounding traffic sounds, leaving their home doors unlocked or skateboarding on busy streets, UNC students too often exhibit a total lack of common sense.
Perhaps UNC should start offering entering freshman a required course on common sense safety precautions? Clearly, a lot of students here need to take one.
Adrián Halpern
Chapel Hill, N.C.
