Common sense would tell people that they can’t pay attention to their driving if they are texting, playing games, watching movies or just plain talking on their cell phone. Sadly, once again, common sense fails and the province must intercede with punishment for drivers who do any - or all - of these things while behind the wheel of a moving vehicle.
And yes, it happens in our town. As recent at Sunday, I was cut off by a driver entering the Safety Mart parking lot in the wrong direction as he was chatting on his cell phone, three young children in the car with him.
Every week we hear about another horrific accident caused by driver inattention. It’s not as though each and every one of us hasn’t been warned.
I used to work for a guy - super nice guy, great head for businesses - who had to be doing 10 things at once or else he was ... I’m not sure whether he was bored or whether he thought he was making good use of his time. He was driving a car load of his staff members down to Calgary for a trade show. While he was driving, he was holding a calculator in one hand, working out margins, percentages, how long it would take to arrive at our destination... It took a couple of near misses before he finally put it away. For a little while.
Years before that, I was driving to Toronto with one of my brothers, who was demonstrating how to eat a MacDonald’s breakfast while steering with your knees. On the 401 - four lanes of high-speed madness. He’s still crazy.
It’s not a lot of fun being a passenger in a vehicle when the driver isn’t paying attention to the road. Those cars and trucks are going faster than they look, and all it takes is drifting into another lane, being too slow with the brake pedal, missing that red light...
I’ve heard people say that driving is boring - usually guys. Well, driving isn’t supposed to be exciting. If you want excitement, head to a race track. Driving is functional - it gets you from A to B, hopefully in one piece. I really don’t want to be on the road with thrill-seeking drivers.
Wendy Coomber is the editor of the Ashcroft-Cache Creek Journal