Type, type, type, crash!

Recently, the city of Bexley Ohio, a suburb of Columbus instituted a new law that states while driving a vehicle the operator may not text, twitter, peruse the internet or any similar function. That is not the exact language of the law but you get the drift. Bexley has also made this a primary violation which means you do not have to have committed a different infraction such as speeding to be pulled over by our friends in blue. (If a city is completely surrounded by another is it a suburb or something else?)

I think that is outstanding! There are just too many people out there who think driving is the second task they should perform when they get behind the wheel of a car. In another highly executed and purely scientific study by yours truly, I surveyed my surrounding and fellow operators on my way to work over a period of two days. I counted drivers to 100 and tallied how many were performing some function while they were driving. Any guesses?

Nineteen drivers were doing something that took their attention away from the road. Most were on a cell phone, one obviously had an ipod in her hand, another was trying to either read or write on a paper tablet. That's nineteen percent or nearly one in five drivers that could at any time plow into you. (And then there is that idiot who is watching other drivers, that makes 20 of 101).

I did notice however that the majority of those who did something else while driving tended to be those on the highway. Those I observed on city streets were not as active at other things. That's comforting; those driving at the highest speeds are paying less attention. As a clarification to this obviously highly executed study it should be noted that about 90 percent of my travel to work involves freeway driving so the city thing may not be accurate.

Keep your eyes on the road folks and life won't be so stressful. There's just too many ***holes on the road who don't care if you live or die as long as they get where they are going as fast as they can.