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Around here we have a lot of Mexican nationals, both legal and illegal.I haven't noticed them driving badly per se, just irritatingly slowly.
Another eyewitness from a local Texan. Tell them I'm not making this up! I love my Latinos, but this is true!
Quote:
Originally Posted by californio sur
Hey, bro - calm down. Why are you getting so vile?
Sweety, I'm calm and collect. I may have to use a few choice words, but it doesn't mean I'm vile.
Now...as I mentioned above, people in other states, or even other parts of Texas may not see it the same.
I couldn't disagree more. Looking back, I can recall SEVERAL instances where Latino drivers have hit inanimate objects, including parked cars. I can name 3 off the top of my head:
A friend of a friend totalled his car by running into a parked car in Ybor City, Florida. Hispanic.
2 Hispanic guys were arguing behind the wheel, one grabbed the steering wheel and totalled it into a pole in North Dallas. Again...Latino.
I was at my Mexican friend's house in Dallas, and his brother...driving in drunk smashes into the bumper of my car while in the driveway.
I'm not saying these things to sound racist. I'm simply stating the fact that I dont believe (particularly younger) Latinos have been properly taught to drive behind the wheel. Ok, so I bet someone wants statistics? Well here it is....The whole article in a link.
Hispanic drivers, as a whole, experience a disproportionately high number of drunk-driving arrests and accidents -- along with alcoholism, "macho" attitudes and illiteracy key factors -- according to a long-overlooked federal study that shows car crashes are the third leading cause of Hispanics' deaths.
Here's the link to the whole article: Hispanics lead drunk driving arrests, accidents
The study covered heavily Hispanic eastern, western and southwestern regions of the country, and was further broken down for ethnic subgroups: Mexican, Salvadoran, Guatemalan, Nicaraguan, Puerto Rican and Cuban.
The study noted several factors in the high incidence of deaths and injuries, most based on machismo, or "macho" cultural norms. These included:
drag racing.
"proving" one can drink and drive.
the combination of alcohol and illicit drugs.
the enforced silence of young males' girlfriends.
the growing tendency of Latino girls to engage in the same behaviors.
speeding and reckless driving.
inattention to or inability to read signs and signals.
the custom of gifting sons with powerful sports cars, which often end up demolished.
combining alcohol with illicit drugs and inhalants.
I think everybody(self excluded) drives poorly these days. No mater to age, race, economic status, or gender.
speeding up to a stop sign, rolling through stop signs, running reds, bad merging, no turn signals, tail gating, RACING, SPEEDING in and out of traffic...to name a few.
A friend of a friend totalled his car by running into a parked car in Ybor City, Florida. Hispanic.
2 Hispanic guys were arguing behind the wheel, one grabbed the steering wheel and totalled it into a pole in North Dallas. Again...Latino.
I was at my Mexican friend's house in Dallas, and his brother...driving in drunk smashes into the bumper of my car while in the driveway.
Before I moved to Texas, I lived the past 15 years in three other cities, each of which had virtually no Hispanic population at all. Funny thing, there were still accidents there. So I can regale you with "proof" that non-Hispanic drivers are "awful" by citing those incidents.
This is a debate forum. Please try to offer some arguments that support your contention. It is insufficient to say "I know that smoking is not harmful to your health, because my uncle smoked a pack a day and lived to be 92".
Seems to me that the OP is the only singular commonality within all her "accidents" and close calls. Maybe it's not ALL HISPANIC drivers...maybe it's just the poor decision making and choices on the OP's part. I would bet money that it's more of a pot yelling at a kettle, than anything else.
RESULTS The lack of available data resulted in a small sampling, but certain trends were still apparent. For example, in both Illinois and Arizona, the highest fatality rates for Hispanics occurred among the 15-24 age group, which coincides with the overall trend identified by NHTSA--fatality and injury rates are highest among this age group for the entire U.S. population. Arizona and Texas also included data for age and gender. In Texas, Hispanic males had more than double the fatality rate of females. Based on this trend (also noted in Arizona), the authors concluded that "raising awareness of traffic safety among Hispanic males may be an important consideration in planning accident prevention programs." In New York City, pedestrian fatality rates were significantly higher than those for drivers, which may be a phenomenon unique to that city. Based on data unavailability, age-related comparisons between Hispanics and non-Hispanics presented difficulties. Nonetheless, among the five standard age groups (1-14, 15-24, 25-44, 45-64, and 65+), motor vehicle fatality rates were higher for Hispanics in all age groups except 45-64 and 65+. Comparing deaths from traffic fatalities with deaths from other causes again revealed certain trends. In 1990, motor vehicle crashes were the fourth leading cause of death among Hispanics in Colorado, as compared with the eighth leading cause for the white non-Hispanic population. Again, younger drivers were more at risk. Traffic fatalities were the leading cause of death for those ages 13-34, and the second leading cause for those ages 35-44. In New Mexico, between 1990 and 1992, traffic fatalities were the leading cause of death for Hispanics ages 25-44, a trend also identified in Arizona in 1989-1990.
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If you start your theory, and your information has notes like..."Based on data unavailability, age-related comparisons between Hispanics and non-Hispanics presented difficulties.", You should alread know your theory is going to be "leaky".
Take for example the quote..."Traffic fatalities were the leading cause of death for those ages 13-34,". The author of the study compares the fatalities of hispanics and non-hispanics. What the author and the OP dont show is the maner of death.
If I were a hispanic man of 34 years and was driving with my 27 y.o. hispanic wife, with her 16 y.o. hispanic sister, and 18 y.o. hispanic brother in the back seat; and were hit broadside by a car with a non-hispanic driver...and forced off the overpass to our deaths; we would add to the total of hispanic traffic deaths at age group 13-34.
How can anyone extrapolate that those four fatalities are from poor driving? These are just raw number comparisons with no insight to "cause" and Therefore are useless to conculed driver proficiency.
Raw numbers do not provide any useful data at all, by themselves. For example, Hispanic males are involved in twice as many accidents as Hispanic females. Sure. Hispanic women don't drive much, it's a cultural thing. In Mexico, there are very few women drivers, and when they come to America, they still tend to be one-car families, with the male householder doing most or all the driviing. Same for age. A disproportionately large number of Hispanic drivers in the US are in the 16-24 age bracket, where most accidents occur as a product of age, not ethnicity.
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The lack of available data resulted in a small sampling, but certain trends were still apparent. For example, in both Illinois and Arizona, the highest fatality rates for Hispanics occurred among the 15-24 age group, which coincides with the overall trend identified by NHTSA--fatality and injury rates are highest among this age group for the entire U.S. population. Arizona and Texas also included data for age and gender. In Texas, Hispanic males had more than double the fatality rate of females. Based on this trend (also noted in Arizona), the authors concluded that "raising awareness of traffic safety among Hispanic males may be an important consideration in planning accident prevention programs." In New York City, pedestrian fatality rates were significantly higher than those for drivers, which may be a phenomenon unique to that city. 