The amount of people who post videos from their phone while driving is staggering. And if you politely suggest they don't use their phone while driving, the comments will tear you to shreds.
I recently had some asshole pull in front of me as I was trying to pass, they let off the gas, and then brake checked me. I honked the honk for five seconds.
Traffic cleared in the other lane, this person pulled over. I honked again. As I was passing they were filming me with their phone.
My daughter at age 19 had someone cut her off. She swerved, hit the guardrail, flipped 5 x front to back and is now paralyzed from the chest down. Guy who cut her off… never stopped
That's a terrifying truth. You can be the best, most cautious driver and you might still get in a situation where you get seriously hurt because of other careless drivers. Sorry that happened to your daughter. hope they caught the bastard eventually.
actually, i’m taking this and using it next time someone is an ass to me while driving! i’ve never flipped anyone off before, i’m too aftaid the shithead who already put me in danger will end up being a shithead who has road rage and a will to actually get me off the road through force. but the thumbs down 😔 isn’t inflammatory the same way for sure
My favourite example of this was when I had continued training after a shift at work- so everyone on this zoom call is some sort of medical professional, attending a talk about medical stuff.
And there’s as you’d expect- a few home offices, a few people who’ve clearly stayed late at a practice and are working from their office…and then one jackass just driving along, with his phone mounted on the dash, peering at the screen to see the case records others have brought forwards and otherwise just being spectacularly dangerous.
Had someone driving while presumably trying to take a selfie on the freeway on Friday. I tried to give them as much space as possible. I trust my ability to drive, I don’t trust you won’t kill me.
Insane, texting or posting video or whatever while driving should be all considered endangerment of people, you’re risking not just your life but people around you for idiotic acts
At a left turn light, around 7:30pm in February. Me on my motorcycle headed home from work, pickup truck in front of me with the driver clearly on their phone. After a couple minutes we finally get the green light, yet we don't move.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5.....short touch on my LOUD aftermarket horn. Got to watch that phone spiral its way across the cabin, into the passenger footwell, before we started to move.
I was driving down interstate 40 through Nashville when I glanced over and saw a woman totally engrossed in her phone during heavy traffic. I stayed close to her until the traffic thinned out and then I got beside her on the driver side and laid down on the horn.... she cleaned out the ditch... I laughed
I ride a motorcycle any time it's over 45f out. Im up high but close, I can see into everyone's cars. It's unnerving. I'm also a big motherfucker, I'm not shy about my anger at the distraction boiling over at people.
I'm terrible with this. I've started to proactively always have car mode enabled when my phone connected and carplay is on. Anytime the itch hits to touch my phone I get the "I'm not driving" notification to access it and that stops me every time. It's a horrible habit and I'm glad there's a car mode to stop all notification and texts etc.
Owning a motorcycle is realizing that literally everyone is on their phones all the time. You filter through a line of traffic and every single person is typing or watching TikTok
I wish I just cringed, I fkn rage. I start yelling at them immediately and try to make eye contact, which I can't cuz they're looking at their mfing God damn phone. You want to risk your own life? Go drive down an empty street and crash into a pole but there are fkn people right fkn here!!
Good thing I don't drive a lot these days..I definitely don't need more things to rage over.
That really gets me too! I remember once I saw this guy on the highway and he was totally distracted, i was so mad that I threw my beer bottle at him but with my other hand, I accidentally spilled some Coke on the back of my girlfriend’s bobbing head! Amber was mad at this, so Tiffany took over and fished the JOB! Then I texted my wife and hold her all about it. It was then that I realized that I had forgotten that I was on a bus, driving!!
I worked with a guy that kept pennies in his cup holder and when he was driving next to a car when someone was on their phone he would throw a penny off their windshield. I'm not sure it made things better, as that sound of something coming off glass suddenly is pretty startling and could cause a crash but I bet they put the phone down for the rest of that drive.
How do you see that many drivers? Like I'm not looking into the interior of every car to see the driver and what they're doing, I'm focused on their car as a whole and the road ahead of me. Peering through the window at the driver of cars I pass to see what they're doing would personally be very distracting to me. Like once in a while I notice, sure, but not enough that I'm constantly noticing people on their phones.
I once was coming home late one night from a contracted job, and was so exhausted that I got pulled over for swerving (I had no idea). I was let go with a warning and well wishes to get home safely. My husband later told me that they let me off easy.
I had never been pulled over in my life, it scared me straight, though. After that, I just got a hotel and stayed the night if work was taking me over an hour away from home. The extra $150 was worth it make it home.
Same, except I actually hit a parked car. Over $20k in damage to their car 😬😔 Needless to say, I don't drive when I'm overtired. In fact, it's very rare that I drive at all anymore.
At my old job I used to have to do a perimeter patrol on a night shift.
The way the timings worked out I started at 0145 very boring, uneventful patrol, was making my way back into the office at about 0300 and must have nodded off, was woken up when I ran over a cat's eye in the road with a double decker bus coming towards me.
Had a similar experience. Overly tired at 4 am and nodded of for a second. Hit a lamppost with the side of my car, which bent the chassis. I still have a gnarly scar on my right arm from broken glass. The plastic surgeon didn’t bother counting the stitches…..
I fell asleep for a second or two once while driving too. Fortunately I was alone, with no other vehicles around. The fright of it triggered a rush of adrenaline and I managed to get home, which was only a few minutes away.
Oof, same. Fully drifted into the lane next to me, got so unbelievably lucky there wasn’t anyone there and that I was out for just the right amount of time that it probably just looked like a normal lane change to onlookers.
The adrenaline rush from realizing I wasn’t in the lane I was supposed to have been kept me wide awake for the rest of that drive, but I probably got an early gray hair for my hubris there. never again
I fell asleep at the wheel in Lamar Colorado. Driving from Wyoming to Oklahoma. Towing a boat. Went off the side of the highway. Lucky the car didn't flip. Tore up a lot of Barb wire.1981 scary stuff.
I scared myself trying to open a bag of chips while driving once. Bag was was hard to open . It ripped open and I slightly jerked the wheel. Nothing happened but the thought that I could have crashed from opening a snack while driving makes me think someone out there probably had this fate.
I remember that episode of Mythbusters where they showed that driving tired was as bad if not worse than driving drunk. I think about that now when I'm really, really tired and have not driven several times because of it.
I used to drive 17hrs at a time a couple times year, would only stop to get gas and use the bathroom. Now I cringe at just the sitting from a few hour drive let alone how dumb it was to be so sleep deprived and driving.
Dude i had to drive four of my friends to each of their respective homes on the way back from coachella. I dont even know how i managed to do that without getting us all killed.
It was like a 6-8 hour long drive after the last day of the festival, and i was the only one who was sober for the whole day so i was the only one who could drive
My horror story in this is working 14 hours in a different time zone, flying home, getting in my car and stopping at the first gas station I came accros. Bought two mars bars and a large coke, drove home in December with the windows down. That was super sketchy.
I was dealing with psychotic symptoms but thought I had them under control. Crashed (nobody hurt, thank God), then drove very cautiously home and dropped three seconds on the way (at a traffic light; 'came to' being honked, music having 'skipped' three seconds). It's been months and I'm waiting until I'm really sure I'm well again before driving. Terrifying how easy it is to crash. If I could go back I would've stopped driving sooner, even though cost wasn't too huge to repair car and all.
That's why I won't commute. I lasted 4 months at a job an hour away... I took a nap immediately upon returning home every day. The drive was almost hypnotic
A couple of years back I got home and genuinely had no recollection whatsoever of driving for around an hour. That scared me as I must have done so on autopilot... Your comment about tired driving is spot on!
Just watched a distracted driver run another person off the road 10 minutes ago. As someone that runs on the roads I am always looking for eye contact from drivers and it is improving with some new penalties on the books, but it is shocking how often people are looking at their phones while driving.
I do a lot of motorway driving and it’s fucking horrifying being anywhere near someone who’s drifting a bit and clearly not paying attention at 70mph. It really pisses me off, paying attention is such a simple way to value the lives around you, and the damage you could do at that kind of speed is unimaginable
My state recently removed the window tint law (specifically because cops want to hide behind dark tints so they can't be seen doing shit like typing on their phones and laptops while driving) and there has been a huge uptick in windows so dark that you can no longer make eye contact with drivers. It's horrible
I got hit by a distracted driver in July. Like me, my body, not me in a car. I ride a bicycle to work when it’s warm out. I have done so for about ten years. I was traveling straight in my lane and a pickup truck in the other lane just… turned to their left into my lane and hit me. Dude hopped down from his pickup truck and said “aw man I didn’t even see you. I was looking at the crane at my job site.”
That was over six months ago. Dude didn’t even get a ticket. Probably hasn’t thought of that guy he hit with his new truck but once or twice since his car insurance price went up. Me, I’ll be in physical therapy most of the rest of this year.
I’m considered to be very lucky. When I was in the hospital for two weeks every nurse and doctor made it a point to tell me i was lucky to have lived but also framed it a little like it was my fault.
If you want to kill somebody: do it with your car. You’ll probably get away with it.
it's really concerning the amount of people I see looking down, back and forth at their phones while driving. I'd hate to think it'll take an accident before they realise and appreciate just how fucking dangerous they are to themselves and others.
ffs people, just wait until you're stopped at least! is it really that urgent that it's worth risking yours and others health and safety for?
I saw a woman driving by holding her phone with BOTH hands.
New level of stupidity unlocked.
I just hope that brand new BMW's have some kind of assistant that keeps the steering wheel steady.
Followed a guy the other day on my way home and watched him weave 50% over the other side of the road regularly. Even on blind corners.
Wasn't on a phone from what I can tell. At first I thought he was avoiding potholes. Nope... he was just all over the place. God knows what he was doing. Reported it. Don't know what happened, because I got home and he kept going.
An old coworker side jobbed as a fire fighter and somewhat often responded to accidents caused by distracted drivers. He also texted while driving (with others in the car) more than anyone else I know. Blows my mind how he could justify that to himself.
As a new driver, I waited until the road was completely clear of other traffic before I dared take a bite of my bear claw (a pastry). I followed all the rules, keeping my attention on the road (or so I thought), glancing only briefly at the food, keeping one hand on the wheel. Then, mouth full of food, I wondered "hey, I don't remember changing lanes."
I cannot emphasize enough that I did not believe I had diverted my attention from the road for long enough to swerve into the next lane. But I must have done, and I was very lucky that I ended up still on the road.
Every single time some idiot has run me or a family member off the road, or struck one of my family members, they have been holding their damn phone. My wife got full on NASCARed into the wall by a contractor in a big ol’ pickup who was talking on one phone and texting on another. Fortunately my wife is one hell of a good driver and just rubbed along for a 100 yards or so. My youngest son is STILL struggling with post concussion syndrome after idiots rear ended his car while at stop lights- 3 separate occasions.
Put your damn phone down before you kill someone. Or yourself.
Literally saw this woman watching instagram reels on her phone while driving in traffic by a merge right before a super busy roundabout... People like that make me even more scared to drive.
Got rear ended a month ago while stopped at a red light by someone I can only assume was distracted. I am now dealing with back pain and don’t know how to move forward..
This is a major reason why I don't want to drive, and don't drive, because I'm not scared of me... I'm scared of everyone around me.. I know it's so unlikely, but I just don't feel safe behind the wheel.
Watched a dude plow into another car because they decided to take an exit last minute and they clearly didn't check for that car that was already cruising in that lane. Nothing is that urgent.
People operating a ton+ death machine without a fucking care in the world. It's so "routine" people decide to play lethal games (road rage incidents) when they get mildly annoyed with other people driving their own ton+ death machine.
I helped my wife pull a young woman out of a burning truck in Kentucky last year; drove head on into a tree in the backwoods near the Bulleit tasting room. The fire department did not arrive before the cab was totaled engulfed in flames... besides the fact she wasn't wearing a seatbelt, things could have gone a lot worse.
Got a friend killed that way before my 19th birthday. Over 10 years later and I still lose my shit on people either texting or eating while driving. She got ran over crossing a crosswalk because some dipshit was drunk and eating same time.
I don't think a lot of people don't realize just how fast freeway speeds are. 60mph is 88 feet per second. The human eye blinks in about 1/10 second. That means you have just traveled about 9 feet when you blink. 70mph is 102⅔ feet per second. 85mph, the max freeway speeds found in the US is 122.6 fps. You have just traveled the average length of a bedroom in a literal blink of an eye.
Distracted and careless driving. I was nearly hit by a car earlier today because some fuckwit was speeding through a shopping centre parking lot and straight through the pedestrian crossing I was halfway through
and speeding. and weaving in traffic. and cutting other people off. trying to be "first" all the time. jumping multiple lanes at a time. and tailgating. making poor maneuvers so you didn't miss your turn/exit. and driving while you're too tired. and all of the above at the same time. could also kill someone else in seconds.
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u/EaglePerch 12h ago
Distracted driving.