Text me out of here

Texting while driving – has the world gone mad?

He’s drunk! That was my first reaction.

Mid-afternoon on the 401 westbound. The Toyota in the next lane was bouncing between the lane markings. We gave him plenty of space, pulling into the right lane. He slowed down. As we drew parallel to him it was easy to see why he was driving erratically. This was a middle-aged man staring down at the Blackberry or iPhone in his lap, writing an email – or checking his lottery winnings for all we knew. Consequently all his focus and attention was in his groin.

I was so angry. This is complete lunacy. We all hoped that with the cell phone ban while driving unless it’s hands-free use in place, that the lunacy would stop. (Well, perhaps it was just me who was hoping, but I am known to be somewhat naive.)

Has instant messaging become so addictive that users are prepared to risk lives to read or write emails. Is anything really so important that we cannot wait five minutes to leave the highway and respond? I heard recently that driving while texting is thought to cause more impairment than driving at or over the ‘legal limit’. Not saying that it’s safe to drink and drive, but seemingly texting is potentially much worse as an unwanted driver distraction.

Somewhere, at some indefinable point in the history of the automobile and telecommunications, we’ve completely lost the plot.

I pray that our wonderful Toronto police force will really crack down on the ‘Crackberry’ epidemic and save lives…before…someone…kills…one of us.

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