Off The Cuff

Driving: What Can I Do To Entertain Myself?

Posted by: From Arkansas in Are You Kidding Me? on Nov 14 2008

Welcome back!

Certainly, some people are asking themselves that question when they start to find other things to occupy their minds while driving. One of my pet peeves is someone who has a cell phone in their ear while at the wheel going down the road or street. Listen, I have seen some bizarre things that people do while driving. Each of those things causes them to have their attention elsewhere. When that happens, much less attention is on the driving which should be the real focus behind the wheel. What am I talking about? Leaving off the things that are too delicate to mention here, I thought I would give you a list of some acts that are just not a good idea.

First and probably most often done while driving is talking on a cell phone. It really makes me angry to see someone with a cell phone in their ear because almost always, they are driving slower, faster or just in an absentminded way. I have been behind some of them. They act like this is their first foray into driving alone. People’s skills are crappy at parking with a cell in their hand. Worse are the people who text message while driving. Worse because at least with a cell in their ear, they are still trying to look forward. With those who text message, their eyes are going to be on the keyboard at least part of the time. That means they are herding around a several thousand pound accident waiting to happen. Of course, they know better. After all, they have never had an accident before so it’s not going to happen now.

Other events going on are people who like to comb or brush their hair while driving. I am guilty of that one myself until I catch myself doing it, then I stop. Women apply lipstick, men look at their faces and hair, some smoke…dropping ashes or cigarette and looking for it while driving, applying acne products so their friends don’t see the spots, checking teeth, correcting kids in the back seat, yelling at a person walking, trying to drink a hot drink and spilling it on yourself. These are all bad habits and are bound to cause a problem for the driver some day. If not that driver, then certainly the ones around that one.

The rule of thumb is, when driving, if it distracts you it isn’t right or good to be doing it. Safe driving habits are something many people do not seem to have. Is it any wonder then, that we have a very high car accident rate in this country. What is it going to take to get people to stop these bad and sometimes deadly habits? Did you know that people are dying due to accidents caused by text messaging and that the stats say that it is beginning to be higher than for drunk drivers? Not only is it hard to believe that that many people are driving so stupidly, it’s positively frightening. You do not know if the person in the next car is texting someone and not paying attention. When the mind wanders, the driver is unsafe. Period. There is less reaction time which is incredibly important when operating a motor vehicle.

We live in a rural area where the deer are heavily populated. They often like to walk around during the day, sometimes in the evening and early morning hours and the deer roam in families of 4-12 around here. The old saying “deer in the headlights” is very true since they stop, dead, right in front of you as you bear down on them. If you are too busy texting, your eyes are not on the road and then next thing is BANG! You hit the deer. It’s lying over in the ditch. You can only hope the poor thing is dead. Your car is a mess. That is, if you didn’t get hurt in the accident, you can maybe use that cell to call the police instead of telling your best bud about the latest hottie.

Moral of the story is this. Do not do anything to distract yourself while driving.

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