Hardly a week goes by where I don’t almost get hit on my bicycle by someone attempting to drive and talk on the phone at the same time. They always have that same look of a deer in the headlights – completely oblivious of the disaster that is about to happen.
http://www.livescience.com/technology/050201_cell_danger.html
Cell phone distraction causes 2,600 deaths and 330,000 injuries in the United States every year, according to the journal’s publisher, the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/18164815/detail.html
FORT COLLINS, Colo. — A 9-year-old Fort Collins girl has died of injuries suffered when she was struck by a sport utility vehicle while riding her bicycle.
Erica Forney was on her bike in a residential area in the southwest part of the city about 3:50 p.m. Tuesday when a 2003 Ford Expedition drifted into the bicycle lane and hit her, police said.
Authorities say the woman driving the SUV — 36-year-old Michelle Smith — was talking on her cell phone just before the collision.
It’s now illegal in the UK, but a lot of people still do it. The police are partly to blame because they rarely enforce it unless there’s an accident. Annoyingly, when they first brought the rule in there were silly cases of people booked for speaking on their phones even while parked because they hadn’t switched off their engines.
It’s still legal to use hands free but there’s still concern it’s too distracting.
The really scary thing is people driving and texting at the same time. A number of horrific accidents recently have been down to this. Texting! What nutter thinks they can keep their eyes on the road and text at the same time?
put me down as a distracted driver denier. even eating your lunch while driving has its downside.
maybe that last bite was a few calories too much, it was for my mom who was hit by a muncher.
I got hit by a car in April. Totaled the bike, but fortunately minimal bodily damage. Children don’t usually fare as well as I did.
This is why I don’t ride bike near traffic.