Surprise: Car-texting is stupid and dangerous, shuttle-texting is too

We passed a Rolls Royce last night along with hundreds of other vehicles on I-95.  We were in a shuttle and I thought we might die at any moment.  Our shuttle driver steered erratically toward the left hand side of the lane and back to the right.  It occurred to me that if I lived, it might be the first time I became car sick on a straight freeway with a clear line of sight out of the windows and tornados of freezing air blowing on me.

Our driver's English was limited and when he spoke we couldn't understand much anyway. All the weaving on the road was disconcerting. It took a while to figure out. He was texting while he drove trying to sort out a scheduling snafu with another client.  Suddenly he turned in his seat and handed his phone back to Greg and said, "Read that.....they are wrong...."  Those were the only words we really picked up out of his tirade.  Suddenly we understood that we didn't have a shuttle that needed mechanical work, we had a driver that was distracted.

He was thoroughly distracted by a string of texts that started with a fare requesting a scheduled pickup on Saturday.  It was only Friday and that same fare was texting saying they were waiting for him to come and get them. Where was he? Then there was the angry phone call.  He drove better when he was on talking on the phone than when he was trying to text.  We were relieved when he put the phone down and announced that it was stupid and dangerous to be dealing with that while he was driving.   Stupid, dangerous, and driving we understood and fully agreed with. We survived, he smartened up, and the view from the hotel was pretty last night.  Today I am walking everywhere! Good morning from Miami where the skies are grey and the trees are green.


     

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