Stupid Person Sighting (SPS)

On the way in to work I saw a woman driving a Lexus next to me almost smack into the Infiniti in front of her after the light turned green. She didn't notice the traffic pause ahead of her. Why?

She was looking down while dialing her cell phone.

It wouldn't bother me so much except I realize she's not the only person doing this. There are thousands of them out there. All around those of us who don't do it. It's scary. And yeah, I realize I blew a stoplight a bit ago and almost got myself killed without the help of anyone outside my car... not counting the poor bastard who almost ran into me. But here's the deal: I've only done that once in all my years of driving. She makes, what? Let's say 10-20 calls a day. And how many of those from her car? There's no telling for sure, but let's guess half because the math is easier. That means that 5-10 times per day she's looking down at her phone instead of at the road ahead of her. Scary.

I place some of the blame on the new cell phones. They keep getting smaller, and smaller. Meanwhile fingers aren't getting any smaller. If anything, they get fatter. So it takes more concentration from the caller to hit the right numbers, so that's less attention they have to spare on the things around them.

I've tried owning a cell phone twice. Once when I bought my car in 1997. It was part of a deal they were offering and I thought it would be a great idea. I never used it and payed way too much. Then a couple of years ago I bought one of the Virgin pay-as-you-go phones. I used it a bit more, but not enough. They required that you buy a minimum of $20 worth of time every three months. I had stopped using it, but kept paying. When I finally stopped paying I had around $90 built up which is now lost to the vaults of Virgin. Oh well.

I guess cell phones just aren't my thing. I'm starting to feel like my dad, so I think I'll stop now before I really get depressed.

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I thought I would have something artsy by the end of the week for the few of you who still bother to check my site. I forgot that I'm going to be busy the next four days with moving. A silly thing to forget really, what with having the whole "buying a house and moving" thing occupying practically every waking thought I've had for the last month. I guess I was still viewing it as something down the road, rather than something almost on top of us. I have, at best, half of my family's possessions boxed and ready to go or already gone. So... nothing this week. Hopefully next week.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Comments

Pat Angello said…
Ya know, every time I see someone driving like they are retarded, they are on the phone. In fact, I saw some dumb kid wreck his pretty Mitsubishi Eclipse because he was texting in ruch hour traffic!

Is this an odd form of Natural Selection?
Heather said…
I can't count how many people I see yapping on their cell phones while driving - I'm surprised there's not more accidents!!
Kathleen said…
I rarely talk on my phone much less when I'm driving, although I do seem to do it most when leaving church on Sunday mornings. I wonder why that is. Of course, there I'm in Detroit proper where driving is a contact sport, so I fit right in.

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