Probably like you, I’m driving a lot more these days than I was around the same time last year.
On the upside, I’ve been able to enjoy our verdant spring and summer days, with complementary wildflowers bursting out along the roadsides and flowering shrubs clamoring for attention. Except for the construction zones and all the sites the developers have been decimating thanks to the housing shortage, East Tennessee is a beautiful place.
But on the downside, my driving stress – just your average amount (not!) of road rage – has been rekindled. People still haven’t learned how to use their turn signals; they continue to speed through work zones; and generally they don’t know where they’re going or how to get there.
The rest of us do not have ESP, folks! GPS is your friend!
On top of that, the Tennessee Department of Transportation – TDOT – seems to be slacking on the digital interstate and highway signs. I count on their messages to know which roads to avoid due to wrecks, congestion or construction; I can’t be the only one. But for the past three weeks, there’s been one message and one message only, no matter whether I’m driving I-40, I-140, I-640, I-75, I-275 or Alcoa Highway:
“AMBER Alert. Call TBI at … for info.”
Seriously? I’m going 55 miles per hour (or 60, or 70, depending on the road), and you want me to call the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to ask what to look for in the vehicle next to me? I pride myself on being an alert driver, but I’m watching to see where the idiots in front, beside and behind me are veering, not who’s in their car.
It takes some doing to find the AMBER Alert phone number on the state website. I found 800-824-3463, but I’m not sure if that’s the reporting number or a regular office number. But I know I have a better chance of getting a number off the internet than memorizing a number on an overhead sign and remembering it until I get to a stop and – if I’ve kept focusing on it – am able to call.
AMBER Alerts are important. They are issued when children go missing and law enforcement needs the community’s help in trying to find them. The acronym stands for America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response and was created in tribute to Amber Hagerman, a 9-year-old in Arlington, Texas, who in 1996 was kidnapped while riding her bicycle and later brutally murdered.
This is the 25th anniversary year of the program, and as of April 21, 1,064 children had been successfully recovered through the AMBER Alert system, according to amberalert.ojp.gov. The system has made a difference.
So here’s my suggestion: Don’t put a phone number on a sign and expect the public to call to see if there might be a missing child in their vicinity. Put the description on the sign – either of the child or of the vehicle the child might be in. Say where they were taken. Say where they might be going. Use two screens if you need to.
A ubiquitous AMBER Alert message is only going to make us think of the Boy Who Cried Wolf. Make the alert system useful with details.
◊ Whoa, whiplash! Thinking about children in need reminds me that Sunday, July 18, is National Ice Cream Day. President Ronald Reagan proclaimed July as National Ice Cream Month and the third Sunday in July as National Ice Cream Day in 1984. (I guess he believed in trickle-down frozen dairy products.)
Check out local ice cream shops and grocery stores for ice cream deals. Also, visit the websites of your favorite brands to download coupons. Let’s celebrate accordingly!
Betsy Pickle is a veteran reporter and editor who occasionally likes to share her opinions with KnoxTNToday readers.