Distracted Driving

Over the past couple of weeks I have had to take the train into Chicago several times.  I get on the train at Big Timber in Elgin, the train station I can get to quickest from my home.  (42-45 minutes from my house, via I-90 toll road.)  Over the course of those train rides the train stops several times to allow people to get on or off at their stop.

Last week at one afternoon stop, perhaps in Itasca, I observed a police officer staring pointedly at someone.  I followed his gaze to an SUV, stopped because of the train.  The man behind the wheel of that SUV had his cell phone in his hand, and was typing on the phone with the other hand.

It is against the law to have your cell phone in your hand, in Illinois, while you are behind the wheel of a vehicle on the road.  It makes no difference that you are stopped.  Recently I read an article explaining this.  (I tried to find the article again, but I cannot look where I know it can be located –alas, Facebook is down today –completely.)

from the Illinois DMV official website

I cannot find the exact article, but the gist is this:  You cannot hold your phone in your hand, in a car, on any road.  If the police see you, behind the wheel with cell phone in hand, you will be ticketed.  Even at a red light!! Or while waiting for a train.  You may use one finger to touch the screen of your cell phone in your stopped vehicle, you may not hold the phone in your hands.

IT’S DISTRACTED DRIVING. You can be ticketed for it, unless your car is in neutral or parked.

We’ve all been behind someone, at a traffic light, who is playing on their phone because the light was red, and now you’re peeved because they weren’t paying attention –the light is green and that car ahead of you is not moving. 

PLEASE please remember that your vehicle weighs at least a ton –that is 2,000 pounds – many weigh more.  I have always thought of my vehicle as a 2 ton killing machine.  Because it doesn’t have to be going very fast to kill someone, it only has to hit them.

Think about the amount of trust you put in with total strangers, just by driving (or riding in) a vehicle.  Or walking or bicycling on the roadside.  Think about that the next time you are driving on a 2 lane road –you are trusting a total stranger, driving toward you, to NOT hit you head on and cause injury or death!

Does that make you think twice about driving?  I will say that it has led me to understand the people I have known who never learned to drive a car.  They are frightened, and they cannot put that blind trust in with a total stranger who is driving a 2 ton killing machine toward them.

With all of the chaos, and all of the fighting going on in the world today, most of us still drive…. So we really do all trust all of the total strangers driving on the roads with us –to not injure or kill us with their 2 ton killing machines.

PLEASE put down and/or put away ALL distractions. Pay attention to what you are doing when you are driving a car.  Don’t let distractions cause you to lose … life, car, money, time…..  and don’t let that police officer see you doing something stupid.  Whatever it is, on that cell phone, it can wait until you can park the car in a safe place.  It’s NOT EVER worth your life.

PUT. THE. PHONE. DOWN.

_________________

When I learned to drive I was 15 years old.  I got my driver's license on my 16th birthday.  We left the DMV facility (on Elston Avenue in Chicago) and went directly to the car dealer, where my car was ready to be picked up.  It was a new, blue, Datsun B210, very popular that year.  It cost all of the money I had in my savings account.  Anyone who rode in my car at that time may remember that I had written rules that I expected my passengers to abide by.  No distractions, having passengers at all is distracting enough for the inexperienced driver.  Some of my rules were: Do not touch the radio. Do not touch the climate controls.  Basically do not reach your hand into my peripheral vision, because I see it and it distracts me.  I wanted to be a safe driver.  I spent hours driving around with my friends in that little car.  I gained a lot of driving experience, driving all over the northwest suburbs of Chicago, and as far as Woodstock and southern Wisconsin.  70,000 miles of driving experience over the first 7 years I had a driver's license.

Since that time, I have obtained a Class A - CDL --that is a commercial driver's license, and that is what a "semi" truck driver has to have.  

(A Class A commercial driver's license is required to operate any combination of vehicles with a gross combination weight rating (GCWR) of 26,001 lbs. or more, to include a towed vehicle that is HEAVIER than 10,000 lbs.)

I have been known to state that I am a professional driver.  I don't have it documented, but I believe that I have driven more than 1 million miles since I obtained a driver's license.  I have driven all over the east half of the United States, in every state east of the Rocky Mountains.  I have visited 44 states in the U.S., plus Quebec and Ontario in Canada, as a licensed driver.  The only state in the U.S. I have visited and not driven in is Arizona. 

Do I get distracted while driving? Sometimes. We all do. 

Please don't let yourself get distracted while driving a motor vehicle.

Please try to be aware of all of the vehicles around you.

Please give the big trucks the room they need --they need a lot of room.

BE CAREFUL OUT THERE!

added later:

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