I hope this doesn't make sense to you folks.

[cjsmith]

Seen in someone else's journal, a story: a maniac driver runs a red light at apparently a pretty good clip, and hits a car whose female driver is on the phone.

First comment indicates a wish that the cellphone got permanently implanted in the head of the woman who was hit. It goes on to say she was probably putting on makeup at the time.

Wow. First off, let's note the casual bigotry. If the driver who was hit hadn't been noted in the story as female, that lovely throwaway comment about the makeup wouldn't have been in there. Would the first part have been? Next let's take a look at the fact that the commenter is more ticked at someone for being on the phone (and yeah, being female) than at someone who RAN A RED LIGHT AND HIT ANOTHER CAR. O-kay. I know there are links between cellphone use and distraction while driving, but this gal DIDN'T run the light, and was thus to my mind quantifiably less dangerous at that time than the person who did run the light. I sure know which driver I'd rather share the road with. But this commenter defended his comment, saying it was every driver's responsibility to look out for others and he just hates it when women put on makeup in the car.

Bat shit, holy man.

Comments

[dawnd.livejournal.com]

Actually, there have been studies that show that, although cell phones ARE a distraction and can lead to accidents, they are no more likely to do so than any other distraction, such as talking to another passenger in the seat next to you, or changing the channel on the radio, or trying to deal with an unruly child in the backseat, or any of a number of other things that are currently still legal and likely to remain so. The problem is a lack of attention, not the phone in particular.

But yeah, what a load of horsecrap that the woman was somehow to blame in this scenario. Glad you spoke up.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Another good point. I don't subscribe to the Cell Phones = Satan religion, but I've learned not to argue with those who do.

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

I can't cite anything, but I had read somewhere that eating while driving is far more distracting and causes more accidents than cell phone usage. This makes sense to me - dripping ketchup on your pants leg *is* distracting.

[lkeele.livejournal.com]

There was a story in the news (when I was just learning to drive, thus I had it shown to me many times) about a young girl who was changing the station on her radio, and ran over some pour soul mowing his lawn...