In New York State, it’s against the law to hold a cell phone up to your head and talk while you’re driving. You’re supposed to use a hands-free device or speakerphone instead. Still, many people can’t be bothered, and it’s quite evident how this affects their driving.
The one thing I see most often is people who are driving unreasonably slow. Once you get near them… either they’re 100 years old, or they were just busy talking on the phone. And for some reason, talking on the phone prevents some people from keeping up with the flow of traffic. I can’t count the number of times I’ve been stuck behind some moron doing 10-15 mph below the speed limit, because their attention span doesn’t reach far enough to cover driving and talking at the same time.
When I finally get past these people, I often will give them a dirty look or honk the horn. I’ll also often yell (mostly for my own comfort, since the windows are closed), “get off the phone and drive the car!”
What really gets me, though, is when I do this, and the offending party gets mad back at me! Um, hello? YOU were the one breaking the law! YOU were the one holding up a 10-car line of traffic because YOU felt the need to chat was more important than the 10 people behind you needing to get somewhere, sometime TODAY.
At least there’s a happy ending to the story. A few weeks ago, I was merging into Interstate 481 near Syracuse, and there was yet another idiot driver doing 10 miles an hour on the ramp, because talking on the phone was making it tough for him to negotiate the curvy onramp. Here I am, slowly getting angry… when we merge into traffic and there’s a State Trooper in the left lane. Goodbye, cell phone driver!
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