You have to wonder what some people are thinking -- or if they are thinking at all.

I mean, how many times have you found yourself traveling through a winding canyon on a narrow, two-lane road with blind, hairpin curves when a fatalistic driver climbed onto your bumper, and then insisted on passing you at warp speed even though there was nowhere to go?

Not to mention that there was a double-yellow line. Last time I checked, that still meant it was illegal to pass.

We have plenty of two-lane canyon and mountain roads with the kind of sharp curves and no-passing zones that tempt some to do the unthinkable. Examples include Highways 74 (Ortega) between Lake Elsinore and Orange County, 76 between Interstate 15 and Lake Henshaw, 78 between Escondido and Santa Ysabel and 79 between Temecula and Julian.

Kathy Stech tells me she watches it happen on a daily basis. While driving east on Old Castle Road to her home in Valley Center from I-15, there is always someone in a big hurry who forces a pass no matter how unsafe the situation is.

"I've had numerous cars pass not only me, but a whole line of cars when the line is solid yellow and a blind curve is coming up," Stech said. "Are they into Russian roulette?"

The comparison to the practice of placing a round in a revolver, spinning the cylinder, aiming the gun at one's head and pulling the trigger may seem a bit extreme. But is it? I would submit that passing on a blind curve is no less suicidal. If anything, it's worse. People who make such moves not only risk their own lives, but the lives of everyone else on the road -- especially the person just around the corner whom they can't see.

Some of you are thinking that sounds good on paper, but what about times when you get stuck behind a slow truck?

My response is this: Situational ethics and driving don't mix. It is never good to sacrifice safety for convenience. It is far better to exercise a little patience and wait a couple miles for the next opportunity -- the next legal and safe opportunity, that is -- to pass.

Besides passing when unsafe, there is also a temptation to hug the center line, and even slide across it, to maximize speed on curvy canyon roads. Stech said she counted four times on a recent trip down Valley Center's Lilac Road when cars approaching from the other direction crossed the center line. If she hadn't been staying far to the right, she would have been hit.

Perhaps we all need to do a little thinking the next time we head down a canyon road.

- Contact staff writer Dave Downey at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 5442, or ddowney@californian.com.