For the roadside cops, a lot of times, it’s “target fixation”. People watch the cop car, especially if it has those pretty red and blue flashing lights….and they steer into where they’re looking.
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Same in NH and MA…but it’s rarely (if ever) enforced. Only will come into play AFTER someone causes an accident. Police are not actively stopping you if you text or hold a phone.
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my son is an electrician. he was in the company work truck going to a job in NYC. he was stopped for a red light and picked up his phone to look at the map on it to get a better view of where he had to go. he put the phone back down, the light turned green, and he proceeded to go when a cop pulled him over. he got a ticket for being on the phone.
Hmm. Banning texting while driving is definitely a good thing, but there should probably be an exception for red lights or otherwise being at a full stop.
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Not red lights. They don’t last long enough and then the tester risks sitting too long at the light and angering the line of people behind him.
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Teachable moment for the semi truck driver, and all who got to see it. Nobody was hurt. The semi didn’t even try to slow down, and was driving all the way at the left side of his lane going down the road. Probably distracted. The angle of the sun doesn’t seem like it would be a factor in this case.
The truck may have been stalled. The ignition was on, so it would have been running if not stalled or the driver attempted to start it. You can see the side curtain airbags deploy when it was rear ended, so the ignition must have been on.
That’s how Illinois is. When stopped due to the flow of traffic it is allowed. There is an exemption for maps or navigation related activities. Now people hold their phones down low so their eyes are off the road even more.
edit: maybe this is what the truck driver was doing here at 3:32: https://youtu.be/JCp91VZMyzM?t=212
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I never look at my phone when driving, but a few days ago I received a text just as I pulled up to a stop light. Because it was on a very lightly-traveled road, I opted to look at my phone while the light was red. The result was that I missed the green light, and I wound-up sitting there for an extra red light cycle. Luckily, there was nobody behind me.
Hwy 65 is nearby. 4 lane road with stoplights. Semis like it. One blew thru red light yesterday and killed cross traffic driver. Trucker actually was charged with manslaughter within hours. Pretty quick. They won’t put up flashing yellow lights for impending green-red. Not sure why with 60-65 mph traffic.
Cheap Karma. 
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I have been seeing more and more crap like this in person lately. I almost wonder if COVID-19 is making people like this. They say it can cause “brain fog” and possibly cause brain damage as well.
I can think of two that come to mind. A car was on a two lane highway and apparently broke down going up a long but gradual incline. They were unable to roll it completely off the road and left it sitting half in the lane. They didn’t think to wait for traffic to clear and let it roll backwards in neutral to get it off the road and onto the wide shoulder. There were no concerns about visibility in letting it roll backwards. They didn’t even turn on their flashers and it was just sitting there.
Last weekend I got behind a completely clueless driver going 10mph in a 45. There must have been 50-60 cars behind him by the time we came to a fork in the road and he luckily went left and I needed to turn right. There were plenty of places for him to pull off and let everyone by but he chose not to. I would have so passed this guy with my rear tires spinning and kicking up rocks had it been safe to pass. My girlfriend was with me and on a time constraint so she was completely livid about this complete idiot.
I had to drive one of my pickup trucks several hundred miles recently. I can tell it gets much better mileage if I keep the speed down to 60 or so but always made sure to let others pass when that was an option. I would even speed up a tad when there was no place for people to pass. I am not going to be the clueless zombie poking along doing 45 in the left lane. I saw one of these recently in a 70mph zone and some big semi was right up on them just blasting the horn!
The afternoon hours such as when trashy talk shows like Jerry Springer are on TV seem to really bring them out of the woodwork. Apparently the TV networks know their audience. Odds are these folks do not carry insurance if you were to get hit by one so be careful.
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Yes, people locked down and isolated have lost some of their reasoning capabilities and tolerance. Not to mention being afraid of any human contact. Expect people to be nuts for a while. How long, who knows? We’ve never been there before.
When I get behind someone going 10 mph I think of this elderly lady in town. I never saw her myself but reportedly used field glasses while driving to see the road. Back off and stay clear. The life you save . . .
And he should have. That’s the law. I have no sympathy for him what-so-ever.
Reminded me. We had to drive out of town for the wife to get her second jab. Back when you had an appointment and better not miss it. At any rate the weather was bad bad with snow and ice. I rarely made it over 40 mph for the 50 miles. Several in the ditch along the way. One lady reportedly called the state patrol when she went in the ditch. She got a ticket for not having her car under control. He saw nothing wrong with that. Call a wrecker not the patrol.
Can’t blame everything on the mighty covid. I’ve had it twice, and as far as I know, my brain still functions as it always has. For better or worse. 
People plowed into vehicles stopped in the middle of multi lane highways way before covid was a thing.
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Just saw a guy on a motorized bike with a baby carrier in tow pass a car at least 30 mph. Got to get them cheetos home before they get stale I guess.
A friend has long Covid and she experiences brain fog. She knows when she has it and doesn’t drive at those times though. If it gets worse while driving, the person could pull off the road though.
I had the misfortune to be behind one of that type a few days ago. The road in question has a 35 mph speed limit, but almost everyone goes 40-42 mph w/o getting a ticket. The woman in question was driving a Nissan Versa at a steady 25 mph–until she came to a very gentle curve in the road, at which point she slammed on her brakes and everyone behind her was forced to drive at ~20 mph.
Finally, we approached a T-intersection with a traffic light and an extra turn lane for those going right. I hoped that she would be turning right, but… nope… she was in front of me, signaling for a left turn. The light turned green, she didn’t move, and after I honked at her, she then made a right turn from the left lane. 
On Saturday, I was on a stretch of I-295 with a 65 mph speed limit, and the prevailing speed was around 70-75 mph. There was a fairly new Nissan Maxima (with PA plates) driving in the left lane at ~55 mph. The driver seemed to be oblivious to the cars roaring past him on the right, the honking horns, and the risks to which he was subjecting everyone–including himself.
These types of drivers irritate me also, but I have a lot more patience with them because slow drivers may be going slow for some unknown to me reason. I have made a few bad judgement calls. If I’m a good driver, maybe I make 1 goofy call out of 2000. That means there may be 1 goofy call made by the next 2000 cars I see.
But what really gets under my skin is when someone is purposely being a jerk by cutting people off, passing people on double yellows making everyone else do emergency braking so they can get 1 or 2 cars ahead. The me first attitude even if it can hurt or kill someone else ticks me off. I really have to work hard on my attitude when the kids are in the car.
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Had another one yesterday! They were just sitting at a green light signaling to turn right but never went. Then the light turned red and before the cross-traffic started to move, the guy turned right on red. Of course I needed to go straight and would have EASILY made the light had the idiot been more on the ball.
We also have several one way streets in the downtown of where I live. There were others in town but they didn’t make a lot of sense and this caused problems so they ended up making them two way. Anyway, it does make sense in downtown. The most obvious idiot mistake are the people who go the wrong way on the one way streets. I can tell they are often foreign students who are likely new to the area. I honked at some little Chinese guy coming right at me once and he sure looked surprised. You just kinda have to watch for and expect this.
The really bad thing are the fact that people turn left from the right lane of a one way street with NO CLUE there is someone in the left lane going straight or turning. I have had several near misses with these idiots as well.
The days when those who do not work get their FREE MONEY is also a good time to stay off the roads if that is possible. I always try to buy what I need at the store towards the end of the month before all these people come out of the woodwork but cannot avoid them out on the roads as I have to work, etc. The looks of these people and their cars makes me wonder if they even have insurance as well.
Agreed. I think we’ve lost a sense of empathy towards others, and it shows up in traffic. My son is learning to drive (just got his license) and makes some mistakes. Nothing aggressive, he actually drives a little too slow in a lot of situations, but you hate to tell him to “speed up” when he’s still unsure of everything. Hopefully he’ll experience some empathy. Empathy for the elderly, new drivers, and honest mistakes. No mercy for the “me first” road ragers! 
A couple of weeks ago, I was walking across the street in town at a fairly busy intersection. I had my work uniform on. It’s got the reflective tape on it, etc, so I suppose I look like a tow truck driver or maybe a mechanic. Anyway, a young girl stopped at the stop sign yells at me out of the window of her car. “Can you help me? I’m a new driver and my car won’t move. No one will stop they’re just honking the horn and driving around me!” Poor girl. I tell her I’m not really sure I can push her car by myself…but let’s try this. Put it in park. Turn the key off, then try to start it as usual. “It started!”, she said. OK! Now put it in drive and let off of the brake. “It’s going to work!” Haha. So the car had just stalled for some reason, I guess, and she panicked. Newer car with a big screen in the dash, and all that. Maybe it had autostop…? I stopped traffic, and she drove away. I started thinking afterward something might be wrong with the car, but I really didn’t have time to investigate it much sitting there in the intersection. I hope she made it home.
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