August 8, 2004
Legislation or Darwin
The Christian Science Monitor reports that the first DVD death case is going to trial. Turns out a guy had a movie playing on a DVD player installed in his dashboard when he crossed the yellow line and crashed head-on into another car.
Listening to the radio, drinking, eating, shaving, putting on make-up, talking on cell phones, reading maps....now watching movies? All while driving. You'd think there'd be law against such a thing! Turns out there is.
There are laws about where DVDs can be installed in cars. Laws that state they can't be played (on the dashboard anyway) when the car is moving. There are even laws about hands-free cell phone use. I guess this driver didn't know about the laws.
Maybe there aren't enough laws controlling what we do while driving! In case that can help, I'm here to offer some suggestions.
- It should be okay drink something (non-alcoholic of course) AND listen to the radio as long as you don't also talk on the phone or eat.
- Shaving should be allowed but not make-up application (which takes too much concentration -- or maybe that's just me).
- Books on tape are fine but no reading real books while driving.
- Looking at maps while driving should be strictly prohibited by anyone over 40, you can't see a damn thing on the map anyway.
- Text messaging is definitely NOT okay while driving even if you use your hands-free enabled phone to do it.
- No talking on the phone while going through busy intersections or while driving a stick shift.
- Composing lists in your head while driving is okay but not writing the lists down on paper.
- Some eating should be allowed, I think, like french fries and gumdrops. But anything that requires a utensil (yogurt) or two hands (Whopper) should be strictly forbidden.
I'm not for making more laws really. If only we could apply Darwinian theory to the situation and let this "problem" take care of itself....but alas. If the first DVD death case is any harbinger of what's to come, Darwinism isn't going to work. The DVD watcher lived. The law-abiding driver and his passenger did not.
Posted by Lori at 10:40 AM | Permalink