Forget the Phone, Just Drive

My usually low blood pressure spikes when I see another driver with one hand on the wheel, and the other holding a cell phone while driving. I wish I could instantly issue a motor vehicle summons, but that can’t happen. Yes, it’s illegal, so is driving drunk or “impaired,” but that doesn’t stop countless offenders who believe they won’t get caught.
Wildwood Police Department issued a release last week warning “officers in this city will be on a heightened state of alert in helping to curb distracted drivers.” I wish them Godspeed! May their efforts be fruitful, may they catch many offenders, and may those scofflaws pay a heavy price for their deeds.
There’s no doubt just as soon as Detroit, Tokyo, Stuttgart, or Seoul unveils an affordable car that will drive itself, countless legions of cell phone users will belly up to the sales window and have one on order. What joy that will bring to the throngs of chatterers who cannot, under any circumstance, drop the darn phone and just drive. Maybe it will increase the sale of cell phones, because then, perhaps they can hold two cell phones, one in each hand, and carry on two conversations at once, since they can stare down at their belly button while “My Mother the Car” transports their sorry sack of bones to the store or work or on a hot date.
Being a father, I know what it’s like not to be heeded. So, brave minions of the law, go forth and enforce the distracted driving law to the hilt.
According to police, their enforcement action will be part of the Distracted Driving 2015 Crackdown, during the month of April. “Officers will undertake visible, targeted enforcement of drivers exhibiting distracted behaviors such as texting or talking on a handheld mobile device.”
If I were a betting person (I can’t afford to be), I would lay odds that the vast majority of those who will be stopped and ticketed will either deny the offense or ask why they are getting flagged. Duh! The scary thing is, these are licensed drivers who are allegedly of legal driving age who are supposed to know better.
Then again, if stupid was an indictable offense, our prison system would be a hundred times larger than it is today, and we could wipe out unemployment just hiring prison guards.
“Distracted driving has become a huge problem,” stated Wildwood Chief of Police Robert Regalbuto. “It is never acceptable and it has proven to be extremely dangerous.”
Regalbuto added that in 2013, in the State of New Jersey, driver inattention was listed as the leading contributor to vehicle fatalities, with 164 crashes resulting in death. If that’s not a wakeup call to drop the phone and drive, nothing is.
“We’re taking this year’s Division of Highway Traffic Safety’s initiative to heart,” added Regalbuto. “We’re hoping that by bringing an awareness of the detrimental effects of distracted driving we can help keep our residents and visitors to our city safe.” Chief, may your words bear witness and much fruit.
Many vehicles come equipped with gadgetry that allows chattering to continue with both hands on the wheel, but even that is no sure fire end to distracted driving. How many times have you been embroiled in a phone call when you were simply blinded to everything except that call. It’s as if a shroud is thrown over your eyes, and even if you had hands-free calling, you would be in no condition to drive a vehicle.
Before this column took its present form, it was going to focus on the impact accidents have, and not only on drivers involved. How many times have you seen one of those metro traffic cameras showing miles-long backups when an accident took place on a major highway. How many of those stalled drivers were late for a medical or dental appointment? How many missed a viewing of a loved one? How many missed a scheduled dose of medicine?
Somewhere in this wide world I’m sure someone has studied how many people are involved in an “average” accident. At a minimum there are police dispatchers and officers, ambulance workers (volunteer or paid), firefighters, tow-truck drivers, doctors, nurses (possibly orthodontists), insurance agents, lawyers, a judge, possibly jury members, utility repairmen (if a pole is involved, the number could grow if it also had telephone, cable and electric wires), clergy sometimes, and family members. No doubt there are others but those are the ones that immediately came to mind.
If the accident, caused by a distracted driver, knocks down a utility pole, and there is an electric outage, the number of those affected by the careless driver soars, possibly into the thousands. While no electrical outage is pleasant, bothersome because so many electronic appliances must be reset, those with breathing machines and other medical devices powered by electric may find such an outage is life-threatening.
So, dear reader and potential cell phone user-driver, why not pull over and talk to your heart’s content? Don’t endanger strangers just to fill idle time on the road. Behind the wheel, just drive.