Community weekly poll: driving and cell phones

driving and cell phones

While all of the other things are indeed distractions, I think the one thing that causes accidents is the fact that today's drivers simply do not know or do not follow the common courtesies of driving. They are in too much of a hurry to get wherever they are going and want every one else on the road to get out of their way even if it means they have to push them out of the way. Often times we meet them at the next light anyway with their motors revving like they cannot wait for the light to change. There is just no reason for this rudeness and reckless driving especially on today's highspeed highways and crowded intercity roads. Too often I have seen the person that passed me going excessively fast in an accident or better yet, having been pulled over for speeding further on down the road. I always give the office a "thumbs up" sign when that happens. Unfortunately, it is not often enough and the bad driver just gets away with driving badly. Driving through yellow/red lights, stop signs, occupied crosswalks, school zones, putting on makeup/shaving, dialing cellphones (worse than using), getting something out of a bag or purse, digging in the glovebox or on the floor, reaching into the back seat, or even having sex in the driver's seat at high speed are some of the things I have seen on the road and that is all I can think of right now. We recently had two little girls run over by a teenager because she ran a red light while dialing her cell phone and hit them in the crosswalk. Their mother was pushing them in the stroller. They were hit but the mother wasn't. Both died, one at the scene and one at the hospital. This shouldn't have happened, no way; no how. She didn't even see the light as she was so engrossed in dialing her phone. She obviously couldn't do two things at once and forgot she was driving a multi-ton death machine. Now she has to live with that memory the rest of her life, probably some of it in jail. It is time for the American driving public to wake up and also to grow up and become responsible for their actions while behind the wheel. We are behind the wheel of a machine that can be a wonderful experience or a death trap. All it takes is a little prior planning to make our trip pleasant and a little common courtesy to make it safer.