Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Driving While Texting

Yesterday afternoon, while I was on my way home from Craft Group, I had a close call with another car in traffic.

It was not my fault.

He was completely in the wrong.

He was checking his Facebook while he turned the corner, didn't look for me and he his eyes glued to his phone in his right hand.

He had two children in the back seat.

I had just taken off from the lights at the end of Fitzgerald Avenue and was only just picking up speed. 

It could have been worse - the lights could have been green before I got there and I could have been going faster and cleaned him up because I couldn't stop fast enough.

At the next set of lights, I was behind him and he was still on his phone.  So, while the lights were red, I took a photo - making it obvious to him I was - and he took no notice of me.  He was oblivious to what was going on around him... this is dangerous.

As we took off from the lights, he tailgated the person in front of him, failed to indicated to get onto Compton Road and then cut off another vehicle and almost caused the one who I ended up behind - a ute/pick-up - to rear-end him.  This guy wasn't speeding or going too fast, the phone guy just slammed on the brakes and caused us all to nearly rear-end each other (me?  I drove very slowly on purpose by this stage). 
By the time we got to All Gass Street, he was tail gating another person and was still on his phone.  I didn't want to be part of a major car accident, so I took All Gass Street - so did the ute/pick-up in front of me - and found another way home.

Today, I went to the Logan Central Police Station and reported the idiot.  When I told the lady at the front desk, she was astonished as his behaviour but happy I came in and told her.  I filled out an road incident report and handed it over... admitting I took a photo with my phone while stationary.  She said it okay, but what he was doing wasn't.

I hope they catch him before he causes an accident or kills anyone.  With me, it was a close call... with another person, it might not be.

Don't text and drive.  Your phone isn't that important!

2 comments:

  1. It's now the law not to use your phone while driving any vehicle.
    I see idiots on tbe road all the time but I don't have hard evidence on hand to report any cases to the police

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    Replies
    1. It was fortunate I did have hard evidence. I went to the police station the next day and reported the man... even admitted to using my phone while in traffic (while we were stationary) to take a photo of his car to get the model and rego and the police told me that it was good I reported myself, but really when he started cutting off more and more people, it was right of me to tell them.

      I lost sleep because of what he did to me and other people... next time he might not be so lucky that people will get out of his way... and next time he might actually hurt somebody or himself or his children.

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