Possibly but these kinds of accidents happen without the help of an electronic device.Oldgringo wrote:Texting?
I was coming home from work on 3rd shift in center city Philadelphia, crossing the bridge toward 30th Street Station. I saw a taxi behind me and could tell that the driver was looking down at something, not paying attention.
- I could tell that traffic in front of me was going to slow considerably to make the corner coming up
- there was a tractor trailer in the left lane, effectively boxing me in.
I slowed quickly and pulled in behind the tractor trailer. The taxi went on and slammed hard into the car who had been in front of me. That was the start of a 3 car pileup, all resulting for the force of the taxi's unchecked speed But for the grace of God and my attentiveness to my rear view mirror, I would have been the first car in that collision. I stopped and gave a statement to police about what I had witnessed. The taxi driver had paperwork in his lap, not electronics.
Our son was stopped a a traffic signal in the left land behind another car. A driver in right lane changed lane for some unknown reason and slammed in the back of our son's Toyota Paseo without ever even hitting the brakes. The force of the collision broke our son's neck (C5) and crumpled the Paseo's trunk completely while driving it into the nearby median. God was watching over our son because the first person on the scene was a nurse who witnessed the accident and was on her way to work at hospital less than 1/2 mile away. If the paramedics had not handled the situation perfectly, our son would likely have been paralyzed today. There was no electronic device involved. Unlike me, there was no chance for our son to escape. The ambulance crew took photos of the Paseo to give to the doctor so that he would understand the force of the impact. The driver of the other vehicle did not receive a citation.
I probably spend more driving time looking in the mirror than looking ahead (I haven't had an accident in 30 years). I'm paranoid about inattentive drivers behind me and will do anything possible to get out of their way. I believe that I have averted dozens of accidents because I refuse to stay in front of someone who is obviously distracted. There is a 6 lane, 40mph road that I have to use constantly where blatant inattention happens all the time. For a 6 month period, the only citations issued by our LE on that road were for speeding. That is one of the reasons that the inattention continues in my opinion. I guess the PD has determined that it is just too difficult to prosecute those cases.