D__n, D__n, D__n, D__n, D__n Cell Phones

[Wilma]

And that might not be enough D__n's.  The more I think about it more d__n's I add to it.  We were in Wichita today.  We were going west on E. 13th Street east of Greenwich.  We were about half a mile east of Greenwich when I thought I heard a siren.  We listened for a bit and Daughter finally located it behind us coming our way.  By the time we were sure, we had reached the light at Greenwich, so she pulled as far to the right as she could and about a car length from the intersection, giving the ambulance plenty of room.  At the intersection, heading south, the cars were stopped waiting for their green light.  I checked every vehicle and nothing was moving and I was thinking the ambulance wasn't going to have any problems here, but----------the truck nearest us that was waiting for the light wasn't paying attention.  His window was down, his eyes were on the light and his ear was in his cell phone.  Just as the ambulance got even with us, the truck started to pull into the intersection.  Of course, the ambulance blared at him and got his attention, finally.  He was a half car length into the intersection before he got stopped.

My beef is:  there was absolutely no excuse for him to not know that there was an emergency vehicle approaching.  Their lights were flashing, the siren was sirening, his window was down.  How could he have not known the ambulance was there?  There was no accident except to this old woman's nerves, but this old woman has had about enough of people holding a cell phone to their head and trying to drive at the same time.  And don't try to tell me that you can do it safely.  Later we were almost even with another vehicle whose driver's attention was on his cell phone conversation.  He kept swerving to the white line between the lanes until Daughter decided to just fall back a bit and let him get on down the street.

[dnalexander]

Wilma, with all those dn's I thought you were calling me. But once I read the post I see your point. I think you could find some pretty credible evidence\studies that show that the distraction of talking on a cell phone|texting on a cellphone while driving is atleast as bad as the impairment given to the lower levels of driving drunk or under the influence of drugs.

dnalexander

David

[Tobina+1]

Wilma; I agree that cell phones in traffic do not mix.  But I've also seen people in Wichita have total disregard to emergency vehicles, WITHOUT any excuse of a cell phone!  I just generally think that people are in too much of a hurry and are too wrapped up in their own lives to worry about traffic safety, defensive driving, and common courtesy (or common sense, for that matter).  People (and kids) nowdays think that a driver's license is a "right" instead of a privilege.  Why in the world are driver's tests OPEN BOOK?  I believe traffic laws are something you should KNOW... not just look up in a book to pass the test every 10 years.

[Teresa]

Hey..................... my motto is:
If you don't like the way I drive.....get off the sidewalk!!   

[Joanna]

Whew. Thanks for taking that off my shoulders Teresa.  That's what my kids say about my driving