What Are You Doing, People?

Driving home from work Monday, I was trapped behind a van driven by a woman who was weaving across both lanes (one in each direction, even worse than two going the same direction), as well as running her tires off the roadside, the most common method of flipping a vehicle in the desert. There was no way to go around the van as there was no way to determine where it would be at any given moment on the pavement.

At an admittedly deadly intersection, she did come to a rolling stop, with oncoming traffic approaching in both directions, before she gunned it to avoid the collision and continued on her way. As she completed that totally unsafe turn toward the highway a mile up the hill, I saw her holding her cellphone to her ear! Worse yet, when we finally both made it to the highway and I was able to pass her safely, I saw her infant strapped into the car seat behind the driver. What was she thinking as she endangered herself, her child, and anyone else on that roadway? Was the call/text more important than the lives she put in jeopardy?

CA already passed a law that prohibits using a hand-held cellphone while driving, but you'd never know it on the roads I drive. On the last trip to LaJolla, I'd say at least half the drivers sharing pavement with me were busy talking on their phones or texting. On my weekly commutes to/from JT, the percentage is higher than half, and more often than not, combined with unsafe driving practices. Several weeks ago, a student left class to drive home and was killed in a head-on collision, allegedly her cell phone was still on and a text message half-completed. There is an endless string of examples of death, disfigurement, and maiming of victims in accidents caused by either cellphone use or texting, but still it's a matter of routine for most people who are also behind the wheel to be talking on their phones and/or texting while driving.

Yesterday, I was cut off by a vehicle that suddenly was right in front of me, coming diagonally into my lane. As I slammed on the brakes, she waved at me, her cell phone in her hand. Obviously, this is a person who fails multi-tasking, especially when she's behind the wheel! I wonder how many of the other sudden lane changes, failure to stop at a traffic light, and head-on collisions are "waved away" by a driver who is otherwise occupied?

SoCal is also the home to a major commuter train wreck attributed to an engineer who missed a stop signal because he was texting. That action didn't just destroy a train, but it destroyed many lives needlessly. What text could possibly be worth the price of dozens of victims' lives? The employer should not have to tell an engineer to pay attention to what he's doing as that's implied by both the job title and the job responsibilities, but that's the recourse left to the train company. If it's not spelled out, that long list of don'ts, the employee may not be liable for the deaths and damage caused by their actions while on the job.

We don't need more legislation: we need enforcement. Just as we all are urged to report drunk drivers who are weaving all over the roadway, we need to report cellphone users who are doing exactly the same thing! The difference between a drunk driver and a texter is that the texter is wide awake and aware of what s/he is doing, while the drunk usually passes out behind the wheel and survives to drive another day.