It's long past time to hang up and drive
It's long past time to hang up and drive
By: Bill Mead
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Posted by editor Tue Nov 30, 1999 00:00:00 PST
Viewed 657 times
0 responses 0 comments One of our friends got pretty well bunged up the other day when she stopped at an intersection just down the street from our house and got rear-ended. I wasn't there so I can only repeat what I was told, which is that she was hit by a driver who was jabbering on a cellphone. My informant said the rear-ender was going about 30 and never even touched the brake, but don't take that as gospel.
What I do consider gospel is that driving and talking on the phone are incompatible activities. This prejudice of mine gained a measure of credibility when I read the other day that recent research indicates that the typical person who drives and yaks at the same time is as much a highway menace as one who tests over the limit for blood alcohol.
I am getting to the point where I can pretty well pick out, drivers who are in the midst of a cell phone conversation. They go slow, then speed up. They weave all over the road and make sudden turns without using their indicators. I have also developed a sharp eye for that telltale bulge alongside the head of the driver ahead which indicates a big mouth is moving and nobody is in full charge of the vehicle. This warns me to back off.
I am not a tolerant person by nature, but I think I could put up with the annoying consequences of cell phone conversations if I thought this method of communication had more redeeming social value, like allowing you to call your doctor to announce that your carotid artery has just burst. We all know better from listening in on other people's calls. That's not eavesdropping. It's unavoidable when somebody at the market calls all her friends to discuss, at the top of her lungs, the comparative merits of various brands of baked beans.
Just watching the expressions of cell phone users is another tipoff. There is a certain kind of silly grin that goes along with silly chitchat. I don't have to convince you I'm not a sexist guy, but it's clear to me that women engage in far more pointless phone conversations than men do. This isn't new. A lifetime ago when we lived in Bakersfield, my wife liked to talk with her neighbor, whose house was just 10 feet from ours. They blabbered on the phone instead of just opening windows or stepping out on their porches. With the phone tied up for hours in this manner, I couldn't get through when I tried to call my wife to let her know I had to leave for Sacramento. My solution was a second phone line, which out daughters immediately tied up with calls to their friends who lived only steps away. I sometimes wonder if Alexander Graham Bell ever foresaw this downside to his invention.
I have had great restaurant meals spoiled by cell phone users. I have heard the infernal devices go off in the middle of funeral services, playing horribly inappropriate tunes. But those are mere aggravations, examples of boorish behavior. Talking and driving, on the other hand, can be a danger to life and limb and should be limited by law. I ought to stop right now and call my senator about that, but he's probably on the cell phone while driving to his next fundraiser. I don't want to cause him to run over some taxpayer, not even if the taxpayer is on the phone too.
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