Going with the Flow

A few years back my brother was learning to drive. Like all new drivers, drivers must spend time behind the wheel with a learning permit before getting the drivers license. It is usually 6 months but it varies from state to state.

My brother liked driving the speed limit or just a little under, which is good except if you are my mother who likes to drive fast and get places fast. I don’t know how long it took but finally after riding around with my speed limit driving brother my mother came up with this idea. She would tell him of a new law called “driving with the flow of traffic law”. So she did and from then on he would drive with the flow of traffic, everyone was happy: my brother thought he wasn&\’t breaking any laws and my mother was getting where she wanted to go faster.

A week after getting his drivers license my brother and I were coming back from a fishing trip, I don’t recall how but we got separated so I ended up arriving at our destination 30 minutes before him. When he finally arrived, I asked him what took him so long. He told me he was pulled over for speeding, he was following two cars going about 10 mph over the speed limit when flashing lights came racing up behind him. I can just imagine when the officer asked him why he was driving so fast he probably innocently replied, “Oh I’m just going with the flow of traffic. You know how the flow of traffic law allows you.” I’m sure he explained to the officer why he thought the law existed. The officers issued a citation for speeding, I cannot help but wonder what the officer was thinking when my brother told him it was ok because he was going with the flow of traffic. Just like the “driving with the flow of traffic law”allowed him.