Driving While Drunk With Power
That’s what it is. When you talk on your cell phone, while you are driving, you are drunk with the illusion that you are all powerful. You are untouchable. Despite all of the evidence to the contrary, you think that YOU can drive while talking or texting on the phone. Your ability to pay 100% attention to that weapon, hurtling down the road at a high rate of speed is not affected. Or so you think.
You. Are. WRONG. And you could be DEAD wrong. If you want to kill yourself and deprive your children of a parent, well, that sucks, but it is your business. If you kill me or someone I love, then I’ll be really, really pissed.
Yesterday, I got off 77 south at Ghent Road and waited at the light. I have made it a habit to count how many of the drivers are holding cell phones, driving at 40 miles per hour or so, and talking while making a left turn to enter the freeway. It varies but on average I’d say about 20% are on their phones. I don’t know what is so improtant that they couldn’t have made the call in the parking lot before leaving work, or wait until they get home. Or at least get a hands-free phone. This counting is boring me now so I think I’ll count how many of them use turn signals because you know that most of them can’t unless they are DRIVING hands free.
Anyway. I was sitting there and watched a dad in a luxury car, holding his cell phone and talking in a very animated and distracted fashion. In the seat next to him sat his teenaged son who undoubtedly was making mental notes about the following.
(A) It is o.k. for drivers to talk on their phones while driving (which we know is even more fatal for young, inexperienced drivers) and (B) My dad cares more about talking on a damned phone than insuring my safety, his safety, or in having a conversation with me.
Big mistake daddy-o, on both counts. First, teenaged boys are worse drivers than teenaged girls. I can tell you based on personal experience raising two teenaged girls, that their driving skills are not all that great until they are somewhere in their twenties. Second, some of the best conversations I’ve had with my daughters over the years have been in a car. They are your prisoners so even if they don’t want to talk to you, they can’t get out so they have to listen while you talk and you have to listen while they talk.
This morning, I was on 77 north, behind a black Honda with a Penn State sticker in the back window. I’m pretty sure the guy had a CSU parking tag hanging from his mirror. We were in bumper-to-bumper traffic so we needed to drive defensively and watch out for the other crazy distracted drivers who are on their phones and therefore not paying attention or signaling before making lane changes. But, he wasn’t. He was on his phone. Not only that, he was leaning to his right at about a 35-40 degree angle, resting his elbow on the center console. How great can his eyesight and peripheral vision be when he’s tilted like that? How quickly would he have been able to react with his arm in that position?
When he finally got off the phone, I could see just how fidgety he was. He wasn’t focused even when he was off the phone. Oy. Did I mention that there were two freshly killed deer on 77 north this morning? Oh yeah…tis the season for deer to lose their minds and run across the freeway. Two years ago, one of them attempted to jump over my SUV, while I was driving and ended up hitting my car. I was fine, but the cars behind me…no so much. I can’t even imagine a one of those phone talking drivers, like the guy in the Honda this morning, dealing with a deer strike.
Crazy phone talker drivers…cut it out! Presumably you wouldn’t drive while intoxicated, so why do you drive while talking on your cell phone? Statistically, the results are the same.
