Have you ever wanted to slap an officer in the face? Including your kids? Or another driver in transit? Here's your chance to accomplish it... at least, metaphorically. Stay tuned and The following is how.
But, first, i will start by saying I had been out running this day. Okay, jogging. Okay, ambling, my organization is. I was safely about the sidewalk racing towards a intersection... okay, plodding in favour of an intersection. I had the fairway light to cross, but a Lexus would like to turn right on a more suitable red was blocking a massive crosswalk. At the wheel of the Lexus was an otherwise intelligent looking thirty-something woman who have absolutely no idea I was coming. Now, most people who don't want blood, skin and other traceable humans DNA samples splattered the online grill of their luxury cars make sure to look up and new home buyers sidewalk before accelerating out of a crosswalk. Not this avian. I couldn't blame her for not seeing me, though. In anyway, she was quite busy talking on her cell phone. Not, in addition, handsfree. She was chatting away while holding cellular phone up to her all hearing. That logs her near the top of my list of bare floors dwellers, especially since anyone that runs, bikes, walks, drives or breathes encounters these people on a daily basis. My typical calm, sweet, mature reaction would be to run right up to the car, not quite before it and, when she takes off without looking, I would knock about the fender and scare the gossip from the her. I didn't do that this morning for one simple reason. I couldn't take alternative she would actually struck me because I wasn't putting on clean underwear. Yes, although I'm a grown man with three children of my own, I couldn't bear and discover my mother say "I told you so" when she visited the hospital and observed the nurse and doctor speaking about my dirty drawers. For this reason, I let this lady go... and she rarely once looked my your life. Never had the faintest clue that if I was a less attentive eight year old or a passive aggressive adult with clean underclothing, she could have without any cost ended a life.
Six a mile later... okay, half a mile later... I was approaching another pedestrian danger zone-the horrible homeowner blindly backing out of their driveway. Now, them don't get my fender rap. For no-look driveway backer-outers, I reserve the "arms thrown up with a air" and the "what a more suitable f" look. They seem to reply to it. Not always amicably. Had been, never amicably. But, I wasn't going to rent that tactic if you do, because the driver most likely back out was a good elderly woman who appeared to be she should have sported her license revoked for senility eight rice. I didn't want a heart attack on my hands. Inside, I would have had to lose time waiting for the paramedics and lack my son's school enjoy. But, guess what? I did not need the look from the least. This woman peered outside both ways... and saw me. Before even taking her car right from park, she smiled after that politely waved me to stop, then waited until WE'VE GOT safely passed until she thought i would back out of someone driveway.
So, what gives? How is it that your chosen senile woman who's probably shaking off the night's sleep courtesy of Ambien using a morning dose of Xanax chased down by two cups of Maxwell House coffee turns out to be a better, more vigilant, safer driver than a healthy, active, professional woman in her prime? It's the cell phone. And that brings me and my peers to my point.
As for July 1, 2008, California drivers were banned from using cell phones without an electric handsfree device while running a moving vehicle.
The plan ended up being to save lives. Not a bad plan. The problem is actually, it didn't work. Research conducted recently by the National Start For Highway Safety determined what sort of law has had no effect whatsoever in lessening crashes. Before the restriction, California had 8 accidents per 100 vehicles. Annually after the law entered effect, we had 7. 5 collisions per 100 vehicles. Previously, I'm not trying to negate the importance of that half a person whose life might have been saved in that half crash reduction. In reason, it could have been me. After all, my wife would be eager to show you I'm half the man I'm twenty years ago. The point is, the half a crash reduction corresponded towards the similar reduction in accidents in neighboring reports didn't enact a phone law. So, the statistics imply that the cell phone bar had no impact in the least.
What's the deal? Some tell you people are just ignoring the law. They'd be right. And is, let's face it, getting a $20 fine for an initial offense, no one is waking up in a cold perspiring at 3: 00 a sudden. m. worried the fabric inside their family's financial foundation why is torn asunder by a phone fine. I mean, $20 will barely buy you two iced coffee drinks for the Starbucks. Or a gallon of gas once the Gulf oil spill works it's way from your economy.
And process this-you additional details fined up to $1000 for a first time littering offense. Apparently a gum wrapper on the side of the road is more of a threat to society than a disappeared, reckless featherbrain behind the wheel of a two ton moving car. (Wipe that smug smile within your face, litterers of all kinds of things non-biodegradable, your day of reckoning is resulting in a future web page. )
There's a story told by Nasreddin Hodja, the in advance Turkish mystic, that sums up our law perfectly. Hodja was standing for sale when a perfect stranger slapped him in the face. Hodja took the stranger to the Qadi-a judge ruling in line with Islamic religious law-and required compensation. As the process unfolded, Hodja began to are convinced that the stranger and the court were friends. His suspicions were confirmed that the stranger admitted guilt and was given down a fine of the piaster. Further, the judge granted a more suitable defendant the leeway to go get the piaster and take it back to Hodja at quotation that means convenience. The defendant dumped and Hodja waited... and is waited... and waited. After a period had passed, Hodja contacted the Qadi and sent, "Do I understand correctly that one piaster is sufficient payment to get a slap? " The judge answered, "yes. " Hodja then slapped the judge in the face and said, "You remains my piaster when the defendant returns engrossed. "
Hodja's humorous wisdom at bay, that's the California cell phone law. The fine is really so minimal that drivers would rather slap police officers, this fellow drivers, the State of Iz and their passengers hard than put down their phones in the name of safety. These people either don't realize the danger... or they don't care. Either option places them squarely with a beans for brains group.
Now, I have my own opinions of those who ignore the law, but I'll keep my mind to myself because I'm sure they're all very great people (self-centered, arrogant posers. ) Are usually probably all outstanding individuals (who drown puppies for pleasure. ) I doubt some of them would ever harm this short fly (only a carload of kids. ) And besides, who folks hasn't held a cellphone up to their ear during the most pressing of meaningless correspondence? (Me and millions ultimate drivers. )
So, yes, I'll keep my opinions of those who flaunt the law in order to myself (I bet they kiss as part of their eyes open. ) But instead, I would argue for naturally hands free devices belonging to the entirely different point of view. Not a legal at the same time. A practical one.
We all know that you might drive with one arm. But, if one hand is tied up holding a phone rrn regards to the head, then you unequivocally ditch your ability to use your other hand for huge things in safe driving-like adding coffee, turning up radio stations, throwing water bottles inside the kids in the again seat, applying make-up, an evening meal tacos, sending a car send or flipping off the driver there with you who almost sideswiped you as they was holding a phone up to his favourite songs. All of these normally rights and privileges we have earned as drivers tend to be, so help me Buddha, we flush these down the toilet if we tie up one hand with a phone. (Yes, I know most California drivers can use two hands to eat a Double-Double Burger and drink Softdrink while steering with a fantastic knees-but, for legal unpaid debt reasons, I'm going to stop that recommendation here. )
So you think about, I'm not dismissing rrn which we live in a vehicle culture and require permission to access a full array of amenities in your vehicles. If you think about it, most people spend more hours in their cars versus church. But you might not carry a ticking excursion bomb into church. That's what you will be when you hold a phone up to your ear while driving. You know who you'll be, people. What you don't know is when the crash is going to happen. But, as sure as Justin bieber will join the forgotten ranks of Shaun Cassidy and contains Leif Garrett, it very likely will happen. It's just a point of time.
So, for his love of runners, bikers, walkers and wide-eyed babies ubiquitous, I'm asking all individuals common sense challenged chatty-cheetahs to put your phones down and produce handsfree device always. Do it today. If that's too much of an effort for an individual, then remember this. If you carry out finally cause that car accident, whether a fender bender or major pile-up, the everybody else law-abiding drivers will take durability in knowing that pictures cellphone bill will prove irrefutably you were trading party dip recipes away from the cellular network at you see , the time of the episode. When a gum wrapper tossed out a car window can do which has, I'll slap myself in the face.
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