I hear you about texting while driving. In my small Oregon town I see teens texting while riding their bikes across busy streets. They only look up once or twice.
That’s all I saw too, at least at first and I agree that is all any of us should see, just a Marine. But I was only trying to point out that not all Blacks are criminals, thugs, rioters, looters. It is very sad that this has to be pointed out from time to time.
It is not just the teenagers or the pedestrians or bicyclists texting.
Not long ago I was driving on a narrow winding country road in York County PA and being very closely tailgated by a large passenger van, one of those big Ford 12-15 passenger vans. And when I say “tailgating” I just don’t mean that she was less than a car length away but right up on me, mere inches away from my rear bumper. As I looked at her in my rear view mirror, I could plainly see that she was not a teenager but someone who appeared to be a middle aged woman and that she had a cell phone in her hand and was looking down at it the entire time and appeared to be texting. Then I saw that she was driving a school van, a private school van for disabled students!
I tried speeding up to try to put a bit more distance between us but then she also sped up and was also swerving a bit not only within our lane but sometimes crossing the center line and into the oncoming traffic. As I was coming up on my turn, I signaled far ahead of time and started slowing down a bit hoping that she’d see my turn signal and also slow down.
But she just kept tailgating me and then got even closer to me as I making my turn, she nearly rear ended me even as I had driven far off the shoulder of the road to avoid her, but I was still nearly run off the road by her and her distracted driving while texting and only because I drive very defensively and anticipated her actions and or lack thereof, did I avoid an accident that day and perhaps save her and the kids in her charge from being injured.
I tried to get the number or license plate off of her van to report it but couldn’t as she sped away too fast. I often wonder what might happen to her and to those disabled student’s she’s driving or to some other driver in her path while driving while texting in the future.
And FWIW, this was not the first time (and probably, sadly won’t be the last time) that I’ve nearly gotten into an accident or rear ended or hit head on because of a careless driver who was texting while driving.
And for anyone who thinks that texting while driving is not any big deal, they should really take the 30 minutes to watch this:
From One Second To The Next - Texting While Driving Documentary - Werner Herzog
If you are driving a car, all I can say is, put your damned cell phone away and pay attention to the road. No text or FB post or email while driving is so dammed important or so immediate or necessary to read or respond to while driving that it is worth taking a life or permanently disabling someone for the rest of their life or ruining your own life.
“It can wait.”