People act like this age of distraction is new and has reached a level that is unheard of. But I've seen some things over the course of my life.
I remember driving down the road on the interstate in the city
of Atlanta and I looked over to my side because something caught my
eye and the guy driving the vehicle alone beside me had a full -size
newspaper unfolded with two pages leaning on his steering wheel while
he steered and read the newspaper.
I slowed down and let him get on by me.
On a band trip I ended up riding in the camper with the band director
and the drum major and while we were driving at 75 miles per hour down
the road. The drum major and the driver swapped positions behind the
driver's wheel while still going down the interstate. We did not slow
down. They had set cruise control and this was in traffic in the
middle lane of a three -lane interstate road.
I've seen multiple people using their phones while driving. I've used
my phone while driving but that's more recent than the newspaper and
the camper hot swap.
And there's always the parent reaching around to chastise a child. Or
reposition a baby bottle. Or hold something while they're driving
because it's slipping from the position that they had it in in the
packed backseat.
And even worse is when a driver and a passenger are both riding down
the road with their arms out the window holding something on the roof
of the vehicle while they drove slowly. Soon, we'll have Google Glass
wannabes driving down the road with augmented reality hovering in
front of their eyes and making them twitch and swerve when there's
nothing there, just so they can get a better view of some icon
hovering in their little artificial world.
The bug-eyed privileged among us will teach us how to keep our
distance without having the COVID virus or whatever the next disaster
is that they'll try to force us to do things with.
Be careful out there, distracted people are everywhere. And with the
litigiousness of our society, it'll almost always be your fault when
they get hurt. The lawyers will make sure of that.
Be careful.
