The New Crime - TWD

Unless you have fallen asleep like Rip Van Winkle, or recently came from another planet, you can’t have missed the latest “crazy craze,” texting while driving.  Hardly a day goes by when we don’t see a news item or e-mail picture of some fool who got distracted by inputting and sending text messages while operating a vehicle.

The above picture purports to show a Corvette that went under the rear end of a semi due to a distracted driver who was apparently sending a text message.  The phone was found in his hand when they cleared the wreck.

My wife and I just drove home from Kansas City to Augusta, Georgia.  We saw and read several billboards and many of those roadside DOT signs that have light boards to spell out messages. The message on all of them was the same – “Don’t text while driving.”

I wish I could report that drivers were paying attention and heeding those messages.  Well, I can’t!

On one stretch of I-24 between Paducah, Kentucky and Nashville, Tennessee we had two close calls and both involved TWD.

In the fist incident a car went zooming round us at around 10-15 miles above the speed limit of 70mph.  Then it pulled in ahead of us and slowed down to about 60.  We were on cruise control, so we immediately checked for traffic on our left and pulled out to pass the fool.  As we did so I looked over and watched a woman driver resting her arms on the steering wheel while she manipulated her smart phone – certainly the phone was a lot smarter that she was – to type out a message. It must have been terribly important.

Several miles further down the road we were passing a slow moving car when it suddenly swerved into our lane, nearly sideswiping us.  Sure enough, the driver was in the act of texting.  It wasn’t the same car and driver, so at least two “textperts” were being distracted by driving while typing out that “all-important” message.

I have some questions for which I have no answers: 

1. What the heck is wrong with these people?
2. Is there a way for the highway patrol to monitor texting activity, like they do speeding with radar guns?

It is always tragic when we lose loved ones because either they or someone else commits the ignorant act of texting while driving. It gives new meaning to the term, “defensive driving,” because unfortunately this isn’t always a victimless crime.  Too often it is the innocent person who happens to be in the vicinity that winds up in the hospital or morgue.

Please, please, if you fit the description above, GET HELP!  You have a very dangerous addiction to your cell phone, and you will eventually pay for your sin.