Keep Your Eyes on the Road When Driving. No Texting! No Nothing! Except Driving. By: Mr. George D. Patnoe., Jr!

 Keep Your Eyes on the Road When Driving.

 No Texting!  No Nothing!  Except Driving.

 By: Mr. George D. Patnoe., Jr!

 April, Friday 13th, 2018.

I know, I know, that many drivers of any type of an enclosed piece of steel with an engine and at least four tires are going to read my words and they are going to say to themselves, ‘It will never happen to me, esp. since I have been driving for what may seem like one hundred years of driving.  Therefore, I can drive a mass of steel with at least four wheels and at the same time, I can text on a smartphone because I am a master of the smartphone, and I am a master of the steering wheel of the mass of steel, and I am a master of my fingers and my eyes, and my feet too.  Not only that, in many cases, I am a master of the laws of physics too.’  Really?  A master of so many things at once.  Hum?  Let’s include, I am a master of drinking coffee too.  Funny!

I was driving down the road last week, only a few miles from my house when a bottleneck in the road slowed down traffic to a standstill.  Of course, there had to be an accident and there was an accident.  A big pickup truck with it big wheels was stopped in the left lane of a two-lane road, and its front end was damaged to the point of almost no return.  Also, its fluids were dripping onto the road and there was some public servant in a uniform standing next to the truck just looking at the damaged brand new looking big pickup truck, with its massive wheels.  I was thinking to myself, ‘Where is the other car that it hit?’

Stop and go.  Stop and go.  Stop and go, until the final moment of discovery.  There it was on the right side of the road, over about 300 feet front beyond the point of impact.  Somehow the car had been able to drive about 300 feet and change lanes and stop off the road.  The car’s rear bummer was now located very close to the rear wheels.  The small car was completely totaled, meaning completely destroyed by the big pickup truck, oh no, I mean by the driver of the big pickup truck with its big wheels.
 
You must understand my dears readers, it is not cars and trucks that kill other drivers of car and trucks.  It is the drivers of cars and trucks that kill other drivers of other cars and trucks.  My immediate thought was this guy had to be on the phone, looking down on his phone, since his eyes were so high that he could see almost everything in front of him.  Yet, he did not ‘see’ the little car.  I thought that he must have been on the phone when his truck slammed into the poor tiny car and the laws of physics did the rest to destroy the car and put its driver into the hospital.

All the guy had to do was keep his eyes on the road, looking out straight out its front window, and he would not have caused over, say $60,000 of dollars in damages.  Say, $40,000 for the truck and $20,000 for the car, plus hospital bills.  Is any phone call worth $60,000 in damages?

I was talking to a UPS driver a long time ago.  He said, “It only takes one or two seconds for your eyes to be off the road and anything could happen to you.  He told me how he was once driving a big UPS truck on a bridge on a highway over water when he looked to his right to reach for his clipboard and when his eyes returned to look out the front of the UPS truck’s window,  only to see that there was now a stopped car and the door was being opened by the driver of the car.  The UPS driver said he only very slightly managed to avoid hitting the car door (And the guy too.)  He said he keeps his eyes on the road all at times now, no matter how empty the road appears to be at that time.

Ok, for you doubters of the theory of keeping your eyes on the road or highway at all times.  Let’s bring it up a notch.  Ok, how about a race car driver?  A race car driver is never going to take his eyes off the road when he is traveling from one mile an hour to over 200 hours a mile.  The only time a race car driver is going to take his eyes off the road is when the car is not moving, pure and simple.

How about a mountain bike rider who is riding his brand new $10,000 mountain bike over a really rough, rocky mountain trails with sticks and tree roots sticking up over the ground?  From my own experience, no.  Whenever I was riding a mountain bike or even a street bike, my eyes were always glued to the front of my vision so I could see what the heck was going to happen next.  I can hear those thoughts, “But it is only a bike dude.”  And I would respond, “It may only be a bike that must avoid being hit by a car, truck, or another biker, dude.”

How about riding a motorcycle?  Ok, for you doubters out there.  I have been trained to ride a motorcycle and I have taken classes and read motorcycles books too.  I have collected motorcycle accident stories.  I have ridden for thousands of miles on my motorcycle and I can tell you one thing that may surprise you doubters of keeping your eyes on the road.  If a motorcyclist does not keep his eyes on the road and if he does not keep his brain aware of what is going on around him, in front of him, behind him, and on both sides of him, he is a dead man riding a motorcycle.

Here is a lesson of physics which is very simple physics law.  Force = Mass x Acceleration.

That physic’s law applies to every moving object on earth and in the cosmic universe.  It applies to every living creature that is moving.  It applies to every dead piece of matter that is moving, like planets and cars and trucks too.  It applies to every human being that is driving a car or a truck.  And it applies to you too.  Keep that law in the back of your mind when you driving.

There are countless things could happen on the byways and highways when you are driving a car or a truck.  It happens every day.  What happens every day?  Every day, people die while they are talking on a smartphone because they think that they are safe in their car or truck.  Every day, people are killed on very small streets to major highways all around the world.

If your eyes are not looking outside of your car’s or truck’s front window to see what is happening beyond the internal space and time dimension of the inside of your personal bubble termed your car or truck, you may not live long enough to enjoy the rest of your life living on the outside of your personal space and time dimension bubble of the inside of your car or truck.

So keep your keep your eyes focused on the road so you can enjoy talking on the phone later!