I started thinking about distracted driving this morning, as I was taking Alex to his pre K day care. As I was driving I could hear that Alex had a stopped up nose. I handed him a facial tissue (most people refer to these tissues as a Kleenex but that is a brand name) and told him to blow. He begrudgingly obliged me and then said, “The snot grows back after I blow my nose”. I laughed as I thought about how true that comment was, and told him it did the same to me.
It is possible that I was somewhat distracted during that exchange, but I would not consider that conversation as a distraction.
I dropped Alex off at his school and started for town. I needed to drop by one of the home centers to see about a light fixture for the back of the house. Each night we turn the light on and it stays on all night, then I forget to turn it off the next morning, and sometimes it stays on all day. I want a fixture that is dusk to dawn. I actually went to both home centers and decided to purchase the fixture from Do it Best Corp.
I was on a four lane road with a left turn lane, when I stopped at an intersection. While sitting at a stop light I looked left, there was a fellow in the left turn lane texting and not looking at the traffic light. I then looked to my right and there was a young woman, she was also texting. I sat looking from left to right contemplating about those two drivers being distracted. Why can’t these people learn to focus on their driving?
A little further up the road at the next stop light, there was a lady in the car beside me. You are not going to believe this but it is true, she was braiding her hair. That wasn’t as bad as what happen when the light changed. She wasn’t looking at the traffic light so she did not start moving as quickly as myself and other traffic, but she did catch up with me and she was still trying to braid her hair while moving, with no hands on the wheel. Get dressed before you leave the house and focus on your driving.
A little further up the road there was another woman apparently texting as her vehicle passed mine. I soon realized I was wrong, she put the phone up to her ear and was either talking or listening to voice mail. I did not realize that anyone talked on the cell phones now days. Both hands on the wheel and focus on your driving.
Then there was the fellow who was driving in a hurry weaving in and out of traffic. No cell phone for this clown, he was just in a hurry. I watched him thinking that this guy could cause an accident. His distraction was that he was in a hurry, drive safely and stay focused.
To top it all off, my ham radio would stop scanning on one frequency and make a white noise (static sound), which caused me to look at the radio. Instead of turning the radio off, I was attempting to set the radio to skip that frequency. This was at least as bad as texting or talking on the phone, why can’t I stay focused on my driving.
Now that I have had time to consider the entire driving distracted situation, I can tell you this, “If I can see that another driver is driving distracted then that is a distraction to me”.
When I think about it, I doubt that most people can drive without being distracted. If someone is in the car with you and you have a conversation that is a distraction. If you are driving alone you are probably thinking about something other than driving, and that is distracted.
Distracted driving is a way of life, embrace it and be careful.
Don Ford
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