ben@moncol.UUCP (Bennett Broder) (06/19/85)
During the past few years commuting of New Jersey's Garden State Parkway, I have seen drivers do many things while driving. These include drinking coffee, eating and even reading maps. But the sight I saw this morning tops them all. I saw a man, driving a two ton automobile at nearly 70 miles per hour SHAVING!! I couldn't believe my eyes. He had the rear view mirror adjusted for a proper view of his beard, and was paying more attention to guiding his cordless razor over his beard than he was guiding his car over the pavement. I wonder if there is a law on the books to prevent this kind of stupidity. Can anyone top this? Ben Broder ..vax135!petsd!moncol!ben ..ihnp4!princeton!moncol!ben
man@bocar.UUCP (M Nevar) (06/20/85)
The shaving thing is pretty good, but I've seen that pretty often. It is stupid, though. Your posting reminded be of this month's Car & Driver issue. Patrick Bedard's article in particular. He writes of some stupid things he has seen people doing on the roadways: "A van approached on the cross street and made a left turn across my bow. The driver's mouth was oozing foam. He was steering with his left hand while his right pumped away on the (tooth)brush handle. Look ma, no cavaties. Another time I saw a woman penciling her eyebrows while she was driving. This was on the L.I.E.(Long Island Expressway). She had her lips pursed tightly, the way you do when you're concentrating.... Just last Sunday...I eased past a Mustang moving along pretty well in one of those center lanes (San Diego Freeway). The driver was a California-blond thing, early twenties, I'd guess, and her jaw was ratcheting away... I thought she was talking to herself. But then I saw she had a book propped against the steering wheel. She was reading aloud, maybe learning her lines for a play or something... But she wasn't focused on her driving. That was obvious. On I-65 in Indiana, I saw a Ford with U.S.- Government plates moving at exactly the double-nickel. ...I could see a book resting on the steering-wheel spokes. From New York Magazine: 'I was stopped at a traffic light in lower Manhattan one morning. Just as I stepped on the gas, I got smacked from behind by a large truck. I jumped out of my car. The truck driver slowly climbed out of his cab. "What happened", I asked. "I didn't see you," he answered, which was hard to believe, since my car is a bright orange Volvo. "What do you mean you didn't see me ?" I said. I was reading," he said. "It happens." My car suffered $1,200 in damages. His truck was fine. I'm sure this goes on all the time, too. I got hit under just the same circumstances. The truck driver was shaving..... Mark Nevar
waynez@houxh.UUCP (W.ZAKARAS) (06/20/85)
That one is easy to top. How many times have you seen a woman putting on makeup while driving? I see it all the time. WayneZ...
jims@teklabs.UUCP (Jim Simmons) (06/20/85)
ne this line is a killer. How about driving (?) down the road (make that a busy street) with a child about two years old standing on your lap? Isaw that last week on my way home from work.
res@ihuxn.UUCP (Rich Strebendt @ AT&T Information Systems - Indian Hill West; formerly) (06/20/85)
> During the past few years commuting of New Jersey's Garden State > Parkway, I have seen drivers do many things while driving. These > include drinking coffee, eating and even reading maps. > ... > Can anyone top this? Here in Illinois a few years ago a police officer pulled a car over after observing it wandering all over the road. The lady driving the car explained that she had been taking off her girdle while driving. Rich Strebendt ...!ihnp4!iwsl6!res
toma@tekchips.UUCP (Tom Almy) (06/21/85)
Perhaps this is a case of "Not Doing Smart Things While Driving". I stopped at a light behind small car containing a (presumably) mother, about 4 year old daughter, and a small infant. The daughter was riding standing in the back seat with her entire upper torso sticking out the window (the side windows sloped on this car), the baby was in an infant seat (Oregon state law), but the infant seat was not belted to the car (I could see this because in my Vanagon I can look down into other cars). Need I say that the mother was not buckled in either, but if she didn't care for her children's safety she probably wouldn't care for her own either. She was also smoking a cigarette, but that is a case of "Doing Dumb Things While Driving". Tom Almy (many hubs)!tektronix!tekchips!toma
robg@mmintl.UUCP (Robert Goldman) (06/24/85)
well, i don't know if it beats shaving while you drive, but almost every day, on my way to work near hartford, ct., i see some person reading while driving. usually this rolling menace will have a folded-up copy of the wall street journal in his lap, propped against the steering wheel. Robert Goldman MultiMate International
ugdomino@sunybcs.UUCP (Michael Domino) (06/24/85)
> But the sight I saw this morning tops them all. I saw a man, driving > a two ton automobile at nearly 70 miles per hour SHAVING!! I couldn't ... > Can anyone top this? > How about this: While I was living in Denver I frequently had to pull over to consult a street map. One fine day I parked my car (a little Ford Fiesta) in a nice wide parking lot in front of a roadside fruit market. I was about 20 feet off the road way (a two lane road), there were a dozen or so people walking to and from their cars, the day is clear and sunny, traffic is somewhat heavy. I am studying my map, and my golden retriever is breathing down my neck. I push her over a little bit and as I do I look in my rearview mirror in time to see a pickup truck veer off the roadway behind me (about 100 feet back) and come right toward me. I don't think anything of it until I notice that the truck IS NOT SLOWING DOWN. I look in the mirror at the driver and to my horror I see that he is removing his tee shirt OVER HIS HEAD and has the shirt completely covering his eyes!! My engine is running but there is no time to get out of the way. He plows into the back of my car, driving it forward into a telephone pole, then careens to the left back onto the roadway and hits a van traveling in the opposite direction broadside and drives it into a ditch, bounces off that and hits another car traveling in the same direction that has swerved onto the shoulder to try to avoid a collision, putting THAT car in the ditch on my side of the road, then finally falls into the ditch and comes to rest. No one was injured (!!), not even my dog. My car was totalled and now I know what a ping pong ball feels like. Happy to be here, Michael PS-- I was wearing a seatbelt, and would have suffered lots of head, neck and internal injuries had it not been for that and the headrest. I was only shaken up, the dog ended up stuck on the floor in front of the back seat. I pried her out and then had to exit through a window. -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Michael A. Domino uucp:[bbncca,decvax,dual,rocksanne,watmath]!sunybcs!ugdomino SUNY/Buffalo Computer Science csnet:ugdomino@buffalo arpanet:ugdomino.buffalo@csnet-relay voice:(716)881-6420 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
tron@fluke.UUCP (Peter Barbee) (06/24/85)
Of course you've all heard about the accident after the prom - seems the accident was rather severe, both persons died, the man bled to death from a severe groin injury and the woman choked to death |-).
rdz@ccice5.UUCP (Robert D. Zarcone) (06/25/85)
> > She was also smoking a cigarette, but that is a case of "Doing Dumb > Things While Driving". > > Tom Almy > (many hubs)!tektronix!tekchips!toma I have been smoking while driving for seventeen years. The only time I've found it a "dumb" thing to do is when driving a standard in a heavy shifting situation. Just thought I'd add a comment from someone who has experience with what I ASSUME you are speculating about. If not, please give me further details. Thank you. *** REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR MESSAGE ***
pugsly@isrnix.UUCP (David Roth) (06/30/85)
I think he was trying to bring out that smoking was a dumb thing to do in any case.
David A. Roth
...decvax!pur-ee!isrnix!pugsly
Indianapolis,IN