Tuesday Tom came in from work and told me a story. On one of the busy roads he drives, a car ahead of him was going excessively slow, so he finally passed it. When he did, he glanced over and saw that the driver was looking ahead, toward the road, but she was also holding up her phone in front of her face so that she could text.
People texting and driving has become as commonplace a sight in our neighborhood as sidewalks buckled by decades-old Live Oaks, people walking their dogs, and near-jungles of bougainvillea. Guess which one doesn’t belong?
I hadn’t done one of these in a while, so inspired by Tom, here’s a new one. The perils of texting have been on my mind lately because of two works I helped edit.
Put the phone down, people, and watch where you’re going, whether you’re in a car, on a bike, or on foot.
Amen Sister!
I got a witness! =)
My daughter says it makes her husband angry, but she takes his phone from him pretty often when he’s driving. She says she wants to live to reach her 35th birthday.
Your daughter has good sense. And she should want to make it to 35–it’s such a great age that I’ve been clinging to it for eons.
I leave my phone switched off or in the back so I’m not even tempted. There’s nothing that can’t wait, but if you hear the phone go off it can be tempting to quickly take a look, then it goes on from there. I notice a lot of people around here talking on the phone too while driving, with the phone up on their ear, not sure if it’s allowed in the US but it’s really not over here.
I think the laws regarding phone use while driving vary from city to city, state to state.
You’re so right–anything can wait, and if for some reason a person believes it can’t, just pull the car into a safe location and take care of it.
All the more reason to make wires cool again 🙂
Strange how we managed to take care of the daily business of living in the ages before we were connected every minute of every day to some device.