distracted drivers

Fishguy said:

Saw a guy the other day cruising up 270 switching between playing on his laptop and using a phone. Was so distracted, he didn't even realize he left the blue flashers on the roof of his car on.

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I see this all the time, generally while they're cruising up the HOV lane alone.

As others have noted, when I commuted on 95 to Balt. I saw drivers reading newspapers, maps, and using laptops. But an unique surprise occurred on rte 64 coming back from Norfolk Naval Station, as I was passing a sedan occupied by two women. As I got closer I noticed a lot of physical activity of both occupants, with arms & hands moving and heads turning, and the car slightly swerving but within its own lane.. As I passed their car I realized they were signing to each other.

Watching people sign each other is a riot, especially when there’s more than two of them and they are completely engrossed in a highly animated conversation.



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A couple of years ago I would have been run over in a parking lot in Waugh Chapel (Odenton) had I kept walking. An SUV's driver was texting. I saw him a ways off and realized he had no absolutely clue anyone else was even on the planet with him. At my walking and his driving rate I would have become a new hood ornament. I stopped just short of where he was headed and he never once realized I was even there, no more than 2 feet off his side, as he flew past me. I was so close as a cautionary warning I could have reached my hand out and slapped the side of his SUV as he passed by but thought the better of it. With the entitlement society today who knows how he would have reacted.

willtill said:

The only traffic experience that continues to bother me is when I'm approaching an intersection and there is someone opposite of me; waiting to make a left hand turn in front of me. Even with modulating headlights and a white helmet/high visibility mesh riding jacket... I'm always wondering "do they see me?"

A green light through an intersection should always be treated as a danger zone, while on a bike.

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I saw someone killed that way. I was stopped at a red light in Hanover. I was the first car in line. The crossing road (Rt. 170) had green lights. Cars were lined up waiting to turn left once the traffic cleared. When the line of cars had passed the van in the turn lane began her left-hand turn. Unfortunately there was a motorcycle following the cars that she never saw. He had his headlights on but it didn't matter. She pulled in right front of him. He never had a chance to react. He smacked into her front grill, flew off his bike, did a somersault, and landed directly in front of my stopped car. I was the first one to him but despite the fact he was wearing a helmet, his forehead was caved in. He was killed instantly. Sad, it wasn't his fault, and he had no time to react, but in a bike van collision it was clear who was going to win.

aray said:

A couple of years ago I would have been run over in a parking lot in Waugh Chapel (Odenton) had I kept walking. An SUV's driver was texting. I saw him a ways off and realized he had no absolutely clue anyone else was even on the planet with him. At my walking and his driving rate I would have become a new hood ornament. I stopped just short of where he was headed and he never once realized I was even there, no more than 2 feet off his side, as he flew past me. I was so close as a cautionary warning I could have reached my hand out and slapped the side of his SUV as he passed by but thought the better of it. With the entitlement society today who knows how he would have reacted.

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I’ve always wanted to push a shopping cart in front of people like that..

aray said:

I saw someone killed that way. I was stopped at a red light in Hanover. I was the first car in line. The crossing road (Rt. 170) had green lights. Cars were lined up waiting to turn left once the traffic cleared. When the line of cars had passed the van in the turn lane began her left-hand turn. Unfortunately there was a motorcycle following the cars that she never saw. He had his headlights on but it didn't matter. She pulled in right front of him. He never had a chance to react. He smacked into her front grill, flew off his bike, did a somersault, and landed directly in front of my stopped car. I was the first one to him but despite the fact he was wearing a helmet, his forehead was caved in. He was killed instantly. Sad, it wasn't his fault, and he had no time to react, but in a bike van collision it was clear who was going to win.

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That is sad.

I’ve been in the same situation many times; following a line of cars through an intersection and aware that there is opposing traffic waiting to make a left turn. I always use the last car as a shield by being safely close enough behind it, and to the right of it.

I’d rather do that than hug the centerline hoping that the opposing left turning traffic see’s me as the last vehicle in line.



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aray said:

A couple of years ago I would have been run over in a parking lot in Waugh Chapel (Odenton) had I kept walking. An SUV's driver was texting. I saw him a ways off and realized he had no absolutely clue anyone else was even on the planet with him. At my walking and his driving rate I would have become a new hood ornament. I stopped just short of where he was headed and he never once realized I was even there, no more than 2 feet off his side, as he flew past me. I was so close as a cautionary warning I could have reached my hand out and slapped the side of his SUV as he passed by but thought the better of it. With the entitlement society today who knows how he would have reacted.

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I used to work in Bethesda, and there was a particularly nasty intersection right at my office. It was T-shaped, and the right-turning traffic, with the light, would NEVER check the crosswalk. Probably a dozen times I came close enough to smack a car, and twice did. Once was with my foot (he caught it and spun me around, luckily pulling his bumper cover off it's mount), and the second was when I barely saw it coming and put my hands in front of me, figuring it would spin me around. It didn't, but I put a huge dent in his RAV-4's C pillar. He stopped and started yelling at me, so I told him to talk to the Park Police car that saw the whole thing. He sped off.

Bethesda is rife with distracted or just bad drivers. One woman almost ran over me while coming to a stop (I was 1/4 of the way through the crosswalk). I rapped my wedding ring on her passenger window to draw to her attention that I was, in fact, not a ghost, only to see her passenger piss herself. Karma.

One of the funniest ones (since no injuries) was a guy in a Corolla backing out of a loading dock, and a stopped Audi, waiting to make a right at a stop sign. This was in Bethesda, too. The Audi driver was BLARING her horn at him, and dumb dumb never heard it and backed right into the front of the Audi. I rushed over to make sure the Audi driver was ok - she was pretty old. The Corolla driver gets out of his car and starts with the, "let's keep this out of the insurance!" I told the woman that her damages were going to be about $2,400, or twice the worth of the guy's car, and recommended that she call her insurance. I also asked her to email me the estimate, which she did... $2,500. She was pretty grateful that I helped out in that regard.

-John

In 2011 I was on a college campus on Easter evening. Was crossing(walking) a parking lot, saw an SUV enter the lot, so I stood in marked handicap spaces in the middle of the lot to let the SUV go by. I look at my phone to tell my now girlfriend that I was there, and I look up to see the SUV driver with phone to her ear, looking somewhere else, and smacks into me. Turned out she was on the phone trying to figure out where a party was located that she was trying to find. She lied about having a passenger in the car, and said nothing about being on the phone. That yielded an interesting response when her insurance called me for my statement. I can't stand distracted driving.

I can’t even count the number of times I’ve almost been hit walking my pup around Mt Airy. People running red lights, not yielding, etc. Most of the time they on their phones but just as many simply don’t look right while they are turning right. The town council has only recommended people wear high visibility jackets etc. Nothing about actually policing or protecting its citizens.

KJackson said:

One thing that I have always wondered about is police using their radios or sometimes even their computers while driving. How is that allowed? Or do they receive special training to be able to do that?

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That lesson is right after the one that teaches them not to use turn signals for turns or lane changes.

Reptile said:

That lesson is right after the one that teaches them not to use turn signals for turns or lane changes.

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Darn coppers.

ktigerJ said:

I can’t even count the number of times I’ve almost been hit walking my pup around Mt Airy. People running red lights, not yielding, etc. Most of the time they on their phones but just as many simply don’t look right while they are turning right. The town council has only recommended people wear high visibility jackets etc. Nothing about actually policing or protecting its citizens.

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Mt. Airy just got a police force. Maybe it can start going after distracted drivers for things now.

DaemonAssassin said:

Mt. Airy just got a police force. Maybe it can start going after distracted drivers for things now.

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We did indeed. I’ve been complaining for years about the speed on the road outside my house. It’s 25 and people go up it at well over 50. I’ve stopped numerous drag races over the years as well. The mayor’s suggestion was to stand in the middle of the street and get tag numbers. Guessing he doesn’t like me much.

We need to stigmatize texting and talking on a cell phone the same way drunk driving is now.

A few years ago I was struck by a distracted driver and sustained injuries.

Put the G-D phone down and drive!

I would love to be able to ride my motorcycle to work, Mount Airy to Bethesda. But I'll be damned if I have a deathwish... between distracted drivers and the Mario Andretti's weaving across 4 lanes of traffic just to get 2 car lengths ahead, I would rather be in an armored vehicle than on my bike in that mess.

I have travelled west on 70 several times over the last couple weeks... I have seem MANY 1 car accidents I can only assume was distracted driving. I even witnessed an eastbound minivan plow into the guardrail at Frederick with no one else around them. had the guardrail not been there they would probably have continued on into me as I was headed west.

no wonder they need self driving cars, people are idiots.

as a side note, every time that car insurance commercial comes on where they say 'Libery Mutual came to my son's rescue when he had a flat tire in the middle of the night", I end up screaming at my TV, "LEARN TO CHANGE A FLAT TIRE YOU F&*KING MORON". I must be getting old.