News-Record.com

For reasons unknown and likely unrelated, an unusual number of North Carolina drivers recently have been going the wrong way on one-way streets.

In the Charlotte area, for instance, three fatalities occurred late last year involving drivers headed against the grain of traffic on busy freeways in the span of only half a month.

Authorities blame alcohol in a number of the cases, which have resulted in accidents and even fatalities. Some have occurred in the absolute worst possible place to drive upstream in the downstream lane: a highway.

From my office window overlooking East Market Street, I have seen a number of confused motorists, probably out-of-towners, headed from the left on a stretch of East Market that only flows to the right.

Fortunately, no one has been hurt. Typically, other motorists frantically honk their horns and the flustered driver pulls over. In one case, the driver, a college-age young woman, panicked and crashed into the curb, damaging her car.

But at least she was OK.

This is not to say I haven't regularly seen bad accidents on East Market. But they've usually involved the intersection of East Market and Church Street. Ironically, they've also all involved people heading in the right direction.

In the interest of full disclosure, I should add that I am not without sin here myself.

A couple of years ago, I overshot a lane turning off Banking Street onto Lawndale and wound up on a one-way street.

I didn't realize it until I faced a gantlet of headlights all pointed toward me.

Thankfully, everyone was calm and good-natured and allowed me the time and space to right myself.

Another time, several years ago, I did the same thing on Cherry-Marshall Street in Winston-Salem.

That time a police officer stopped me but, thankfully, did not issue me a citation. He was an off-duty detective, and upon seeing that I was sober and contrite, let me off with a warning.

Let's all be careful out there, folks.