I used to be a courier driver. One day while in a left turn lane awaiting the signal another driver swerved part way into the lane I was in and by the time he looked up from dialing his cellphone it was too late to avoid mangling the right rear of my pickup not to mention the damage done to his full size Chevy Impala. My truck was totaled and I’m guessing so was his car. It even made the local news because it was during afternoon rush which caused snarled traffic beyond normal.

Not three months later while going through a parking lot toward the street a vehicle came into the lot and swung wide into the lane I was in nearly causing a head on collision. Yep, you got it, that person was busily engaged in a phone conversation and not in the least engaged in driving the several tons of full size pickup they were supposed to be controlling. Fortunately that incident didn’t create mangled metal but was avoided by less than six inches. That’s not what I consider within my comfort zone.

Courier driving is a thing of the past for me but observing what’s going on with vehicles around me is not. When a vehicle seems incapable of remaining in one lane, slows to 25-30 in 50 mph zones then speeds up to over the posted speed before slowing to 25-30 again, turn at “No Turn On Red” intersections, run through intersections after the lights have gone red and generally make me question how they ever got a license there seem to be two reasons: 1. Talking or texting on their cell phone. 2. Drunk or stoned. Whichever it is the person at the wheel is not driving the vehicle.

Now that really scares me. Rather than driving, that person is talking, texting or spacing out but not driving. Multiply that by who knows what percentage of people doing exactly the same and tell me what the chances do you, one of those that drives when behind the wheel, doesn’t carry on phone conversations, doesn’t text and doesn’t drink or get stoned on whatever while at the wheel; what chance do you stand of becoming the innocent bystander that gets crunched, injured, crippled, disabled or even killed because it was so important to the other person to do one of those things? Dog gone, if there wasn’t what appears to be a worldwide financial depression happening, this could be something that might really get me down.

So what’s the solution? Hmmm, wish I knew. There are those that believe hands free equipment makes a difference. I don’t quite know how you’ll do hands free texting but OK. Likewise it sure isn’t going to change a thing with the drunk or stoner. Seems to me what we need isn’t hands free cell phone equipment. So maybe the answer is not the hands free cell phone but rather the hands free vehicle. Yep, that’s the ticket!