While stuck in the vast parking lot that is Interstate 275 at rush hour, I found myself getting a little complacent. I was looking at the road, but I was watching the cars passing me in the neighboring lane. Assuming that it was my turn to move, I touched the accelerator only to realize the car in front of mine was still stopped. Fortunately, I stopped before I hit it.
The old adage that you steer where you’re looking really does ring true.
In Phoenix a trash truck driver was concerned with his PAPER WORK and mowed down…MOWED DOWN eight motorcylces into two trucks all waiting at a red light. HE NEVER EVEN SLOWED DOWN !
Three died on the spot, a fourth has died over night, the truck and cylcles burned, and more may die from their injuries.
DISTRACTED DRIVING ! the old fashioned way, paper. Paper maps, written directions, writing something down, all take your mind and eyes off the road for far longer than you’d ever realize.
Google or ‘Bing’ “Phoenix motorcycle crash”.
When you search “phoenix motorcycle crash” you’ll see several news agencies listed. The best one is the local, “azcentral.com”
Have you noticed that when you are talking on the phone (including land line phones at home, you tend to ignore the other people in the same room. There is something about that electronic connection that somehow grants a higher priority to the person on the phone. I suspect that carries over to cell phones when driving, but more so. While driving, if the traffic is getting bad or whatever, you and your passenger know it so you can quick talking without offending anyone. We seem to sense that the person on the phone does not know what is going on and somehow feel they need more attention, diverting some of our attention from driving.
I hear this argument for GPS devices, phones, computers, etc, but then I feel it still doesn’t solve the problem. What if you actually have people in the car with you who are fully capable of programming the GPS for you, or using a cell phone, or watching a DVD in the back seat? How is your electronic gizmo going to figure out that the driver is the one using it, and not the passenger?
Is it really such an much of an inconvenience to pull over to program your in-dash GPS when you have a passenger? Shouldn’t you program it before you start your trip anyway? The only people being inconvenienced would be the clueless airheads who can’t remember to tie their shoes.
April is National Distracted Driving Awareness Month. Join Focus Driven - an amazing advocacy group formed to put a human face on the disastrous impact of distracted driving; promote public policy and support victims and their families: http://focusdriven.org/who_we_are.aspx
I live and drive in Toronto, Canada, where laws were recently changed to prohibit driving while using any hand held device. The law is still new, so cannot report on how its working. The other day I was driving along our toll highway, coming home at night, and was wondering why a van way driving at only 70 kilometers/hr (about 45 mph). I approached with caution, and noted that the driver had a video screen on his dashboard, and was watching a movie. The screen was large enough for me to tell that he was watching Shrek!
Take away the automatic transmission, power assisted steering and firm up the suspension. That should make people wake up and drive, or better yet take public transit if they have to eat, text, shave, apply makeup etc while commuting.
Once significant penalties are imposed for the results of distracted, drivin, be it cell phone use or puttin on mascara, drivers will so what is necessary to reduce risk appropriately. In many European countries, accidents that result from distracted driving result in felony charges.
Unfortunately for a friend of mine who was severely injured when a texting driver wandered off the road and crunched him between her car and a Jersey Barrier, laws are not in synch with the zoo that driving has become. He had a broken pelvis, femur, tibia. Missed two months of work. She got a misdemenanor ticket for leaving the travel lane. He will not be riding a bike, much less walkning normailly for a couple of years.
Time to focus on driving.
Exiting the interstate at about 40mph in my Toyota Tundra X Cab, the minivan directly in front of me came to abrupt stop as a red light changed to green. I braked hard, steered into the other lane, and by several feet missed ramming from behind a vehicle full of kids. Got my composure, glanced over to see if they needed my help for what had to be on order of a stalled engine, fire under the hood, flat tire, loose snakes. Nope. Situation the “new normal”. Just a middle-aged driver intently punching buttons on her CELLPHONE.
Good comments. I get upset at our legislators who somehow claim to have enough expertise to establish a law dealing with something tthey don’t understand (like what else is new.
I haven’t heard of the definition of “distracted driving”. I would suggest that it involves ANYTHING that detracts the driver from the task at hand (paying full attention to piloting a two ton vehicle on our streets and highways under many different circumstances.
ANYTHING can mean: cell phone use, texting, reading, eating, drinking, talking to anyone in the vehicle (or out of the vehicle) tuning the radio, operating other controls (wipers, HVAC,GPS,etc.)listening to the radio (especially car talk),getting dressed (or undressed), putting on make-up, combing your hair (for those who have hair to comb, looking at the scenery,and on and on.
So here’s my question. What makes our legislators thing that one of these is any more distracting to drivers than the others? I suggest that reading a novel while driving may be just a distracting as texting. I have personally been passed in the left by someone with a novel proped on the steering wheel. It upset me because I had thought that the right lane was the proper lane for reading, eating getting dressed, drinking etc. So who decided that this is the time for a law against one of these distractions while the other types get off scot free. If everyone who was distracted in some way would pull into the right lane, maybe that would be more acceptable. I suggest the roads would be much less congested in the other lanes. Heck, if all texters would pull off the road there wouldn’t be enough parking lots to accommodate them. And perhaps that by itself would cause more accidents.
Please let’s think about this a bit more before we do something stupid like enacting yet another law. Society has a way of re-balancing itself in changing times Let technology come up with it’s own solution. Maybe educating our drivers is one thing we could do, along with educating our legislators.