It’s hard to find anything simpler to use than a stop sign, yet many struggle

You’d be hard-pressed to find an object simpler to use than the stop sign. Apples, for example, require more thought. You can cut them into pieces or eat them whole. Bananas need to be peeled. Don’t get me started on oranges.

Stops signs, however, don’t pose such challenges. There is nothing ambiguous or mysterious about them. The message delivered by these red, octagonal traffic signs is bereft of subtly or nuance – the word “STOP” is emblazoned in large white capital letters. There is no subtext. When a driver sees one at an intersection, he must make a complete stop and ensure the road is clear of pedestrians and other vehicles before proceeding.

Why then do so many drivers blow through them?

I’m not talking about drivers who do the “California Roll” or the “Rhode Island Roll” or the “Chicago Stop.” Yes, the “rolling stop” is a lazy, potentially dangerous semi-pause but at least the word “roll” implies slow movement.

I’m referring to drivers who are in what’s best described as “Stop Sign Denial.” There’s no semi-pause, no roll, they simply blow through stops signs as if they weren’t even there. These maniacs don’t even slow down.

A few weeks ago, I was behind a driver who cruised through a residential four-way stop and made a left. He didn’t slow down at all and almost drove straight into a mother pushing a stroller. This poor woman scrambled to get out of the way and was in tears when she reached the other side of the road. The offending driver kept going – oblivious. It was a horrible, dangerous stunt and the only thing that prevented extreme harm was the maternal fight-or-flight instincts that kicked in and turned that poor woman into an Olympic sprinter.

Drivers who are in stop sign denial most likely started out rolling and graduated to blowing right through. Mercifully, most transgressors do not run stop signs at high speed, but you don’t need to be going fast to cause damage driving an automobile. Do culprits not understand the risks they are taking?

Recently, we’ve seen a rash of denial in the small Manitoba city of Morden (population: 11,303), where police issued six tickets during a two-week period in March to drivers who failed to stop at signs. Morden Police Chief Brad Neduzak told local media “We get complaints all the time about people not coming to complete stops at stop signs and rolling through them and thinking that they don’t need to come to a stop. We ask that [drivers] come to a reasonable stop and continue on when safe to do so, but we are finding that quite a few [people] are actually travelling through without even applying the brakes.”

A dump truck carrying a full load was stopped by the Ontario Provincial Police north of Barrie, Ont. after it was observed failing to stop at a stop sign. The driver was charged with operation while impaired, disobeying a stop sign and two other charges. Officers discovered 10 empties and nine unopened beers.

If they are getting that many stop sign deniers in one small town, imagine how many are going unpunished in the rest of the country.

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Each year in the United States, 700,000 police-reported crashes occur at stop signs, “and approximately one-third of these crashes involve injuries,” according to researchers at the U.S. Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. They analyzed 1,788 crashes in four American cities and found that stop sign violations occurred in 70 per cent of the crashes and were the most common type of crash in all four cities. In 2022, according to the Insurance Information Institute, failure to yield was the fourth most common driving behaviour reported for drivers and motorcycle riders involved in fatal crashesin the U.S. There were 4,432 fatalities.

So, let’s put this in language stop sign deniers might understand, “You need to stop not stopping for stop signs.” Perhaps, it’s better to say, “You need to start stopping.” Then again, maybe it would help to remember the incomparable Gino Vanelli’s classic hit “I Just Wanna Stop.” Either way, just stop.