From: The Detroit News, January 27, 2016
" A state police spokesman said it’s the strangest incident he ever encountered.
‘There’s so much technology out there a lot of people are more paying attention to what they’re doing other than driving their car,’ said Lt. Mike Shaw of the Michigan State Police."
People texting on cell phones, putting on make-up, eating, and now this… They’re out there on the road, folks! Watch out!
Link:
CSA
Let me correct the articles typos. The driver, 58, wasn’t wearing a seat belt and was partially ejected (prematurely ejaculated) through the sunroof.
Well, he will not know about it, but I am confident that this now-deceased dangerous dummy will be the recipient of one of the Darwin Awards at the end of the year:
Imagine the embarassment that wreck caused the family members of the guy; assuming they’re not of the same ilk.
I’m sure many of you too, but I always worried about getting my name in the paper and what that would do to my mother if she saw it-the humiliation. When I was a kid, a 50 Chevy traveling at high speed missed a turn coming into town and the two in the car were killed. We rode out there on our bikes and I heard the comment that the guy’s pants were down. Of course they said maybe it was the force of the impact, but I always thought what their mothers would think if they died that way.
A couple of years ago in OK City the police tried to stop a guy in a pickup and instead of pulling over he made a run for it. After a bit of a pursuit he had a minor crash and suffered no injuries.
The guy was completely nude and originally the police were only going to cite him for failure to use a turn signal.
The really sad part in things like this is if they have children. Even though the kids are blameless they will no doubt get undeserved total humiliation heaped on them at school from classmates.
+1 MILLION to @jtsanders
I just about spit my drink all over my screen!
Saw this article and sent it to my former Michigander relatives with the note; Thank Goodness it wasn’t Florida!! But we have THIS;
jalopnik.com/he-was-mearly-missing-a-dead-poached-alligator-in-the-t-1746983782
The man is definitely a Darwin award candidate.
The thing that disturbs me the most is that auto manufacturers are contributing to the problem. They’re introducing more and more technology into cars that require the driver to take his/her eyes off of the road and his/her focus off of his/her driving. Having been rearended at a stoplight recently by a kid trying to tune his radio, the effects of this new technological wondercar age came full force into my own life.
I think the auto manufacturers are responding to the auto insurer’s demands for safer cars. It seems to me that they are working to make the driving experience more forgiving of the distractions drivers have these days. It used to be that conversation and fatigue were the only distractions. Now add to that telephone and a list of entertainment options.
Could we be safer if the technology used to sense approaching a car too closely and failing to remain centered in the lane trigger the computer to go to limp mode and reduce the speed to <30 mph for an hour rather than allerting the driver to pay attention for a moment or two and then retrun to playing games or… whatever.
If that happens on a highway, prevailing traffic might be moving at 70. A car slowing to 30 in a through lane creates another hazard. Maybe it is less of a hazard, but some companies have an audible alarm to alert you to a problem. IIRC, some vehicles also have a light to go along with the buzzer that shows you which side the lane violation occurred.
Huh, perpetual motion? We used to shake our heads when the person that created the problem was then assigned unknowingly to solve the problem they created. Who could be better qualified to dismantle a ridiculous process than the person that came up with it in the first place?
So, having exhausted many other means of distinguishing themselves from the competition, auto makers focus on technology. Adding more and more electronic devices and features that cause more and more driver distractions trying to deal with them. Then need to come up with more technology solutions to solve the distraction problem they created. How clever. Me, give me the plain old radio with a couple control knobs and I’ll be happy.
I just think it would be more fair if the onus of driving while otherwise occupied be immediately dropped on the head or lap of the multi tasking driver. Including a video monitor on the rear of new automobiles that are loaded with wi-fi, blue tooth, etc and have it flash DRIVER VIEWING XXX, or DRIVER TEXTING G-F, etc., as appropriate while throttling back the speed to the posted minimum. There is a price for all the technical distractions being used. Make every effort for the cost to be paid by the otherwise occupied.
In my neck of the woods, there was a fatal accident a few weeks ago, and–finally–just today, the police concluded their investigation and issued summonses to one of the drivers. Apparently this driver was using a cellphone for navigation purposes, and the phone fell to the floor. When he reached down to pick it up, he wound up going through a red light, and his car was T-boned by a van that had the right of way.
The person who was killed in the collision was the 13 year old sister of the driver, and he was issued 3 summonses today for going through a red light, going straight ahead in a left turn lane, and failing to make sure that all of his passengers were wearing their seatbelts. His deceased sister might have survived if she had been belted in.
One more tragic result of distracted driving…
That’s something you never get over if you cause harm to someone. My wife gets a little upset if I stop the car until she is belted but that’s life. Would you rather be mad or dead? Car doesn’t leave the driveway without the belts on.