The Danger of Texting and Driving

I saw on the news this morning, a "texting while driving" message. I thought we were still fighting the battle about cell phone use, and now before we can even get a law against that, along comes texting. Just to make my point clear, I consider texting while driving more dangerous than cell phone use, which is in my opinion more dangerous than talking to a passenger.

A safe rule is to minimize time spent looking away from where the car or motorcycle is going. I like to keep it to less than 2 seconds, for example looking over my shoulder when changing lanes, I do not lazily crank my head around, then stare at the front door post for a while before I decide I can't see anything, then gradually turn my head back. I turn my head at about the same speed I might if I was playing a hockey game on a breakaway, and wanted to see if I had a teammate in the clear to pass to.

Some people might think it is silly, overdramatic, or whatever to make fast urgent motions while driving. Well, it's another problem if safety is seen as being overdramatic. I can remember when seat belts were like that. Putting on a seat belt was a sign that you were going to drive recklessly. Not putting on the seatbelt was a sign that you were going to drive cautiously. Maybe this came from the movies - I remember the car chase in "Bullitt" started with putting on the seat belt. Putting on a seatbelt in 1966 was about like putting on a helmet in a car in 2009. Too dramatic. Too scary.

When I grew up in Quebec, we didn't worry as much about being too dramatic. That's because the way we drove was actually kind of dramatic already. Lots of near misses while overtaking on the crest of hills, lots of corners taken on two wheels. And some missed, too. The driving itself was scary. So driving as if you were in a death sport made sense.

Then I started travelling to other places where the cars went slow because of speed traps. The first time I saw reading while driving was in Chicago, on a freeway in 1973. I was horrified. I never saw anything like it again for many years until the late 1980's, when the habit seemed to spread to Toronto. Once I even saw two consecutive cars driving on the 401, both drivers absorbed in a book. It was about the same time I first started seeing people driving while talking on the phone, which was another shocker for me. Today, out of every ten cars, I see two drivers talking on the cell phone. I don't think it's safe, and I explained why in this blog.

I watched a Dr. Phil Youtube video about a teenager texting while driving, some of her comments: "I don't think anything can stop me from texting while driving." I think getting rid of free texting might do that, and another thing might be a fatal accident. Another comment from her "I can get away with it because I'm a good enough texter". So now apparently some people think texting skill is more important than driving ability. And some of the other Youtube comments are interesting as well: "There are hundreds of people getting killed at gun point a day and we are worried and concerned about text messaging."

The last time I was threatened by someone with a gun was about 15 years ago, before gun control legislation. The last time I was almost run over by a texting driver was last spring, walking across a street. I'm glad the driver looked up in time. I had a clear walk signal at the light, the driver was turning left right into me.

Photo is taken off the internet, (funny it was a Minnesota website, but the driver must be in England) yes it's a woman, I do not think this applies only to women, men should not text and drive either.