Dear Annie: Hey, man, slow down

Dear Annie: I hope you will publish this, as the holiday season is upon us and people will be rushing to the mall and the grocery to shop for Christmas gifts and supplies for festivities.

Please take some extra time and slow down – and not just on the road. The store parking lot is not the place for Indy 500 time trials. There is no reason for people to be zipping through parking lots at 20, sometimes even 30, miles per hour. Also, please remember that some people do not drive pickup trucks or SUVs. When you see me slowly backing my Toyota Corolla out from between vehicles, remember that until half of my car is past those vehicles, I can’t see you. So please stop and let me pull out (and perhaps get yourself a good space). Just keep in mind that if you still feel the need to speed and hit my car, you will be spending an extra hour or so in the parking lot dealing with police and an accident report. You’ve got better things to do, and so do I. – Take It Easy

Dear Take It Easy: Your car is not the only thing that these speed demons could hit. Pedestrians are especially at risk this time of year. The National Safety Council reports that “tens of thousands of crashes occur in parking lots and garage structures annually, resulting in hundreds of deaths and thousands of injuries,” and “around the holidays, parking lots become even more dangerous.”

A scraped-up car is inconvenient, but a lost life is irreversible. So let’s all please slow down this holiday season. Nothing is so urgent that it’s worth sacrificing others’ safety for.