Yesterday I'm on my way to pick up some stuff I need in a pretty busy town. I'm rolling along with traffic which is about 55-60 on this stretch of road. The highway is two lanes in each direction and as I come around a corner there sits a car stopped in my lane. No other traffic or anything else to make him stop, he's just sitting there in my lane. I grab the binders and start hauling it down then look in my mirror and see the car behind me standing on the brakes and there's traffic hammering down in the other lane so I cant switch lanes to go around. There's not enough room on his right to swerve around so I just keep squeezing the lever until I get slowed down enough. Once the traffic in the other lane clears I go out around him and see his window is down so I wound that Twin Cam up and let him hear what my pipes sound like up close. As I go by I see why he's stopped. He's texting somebody, totally oblivious until he hears that Twin Cam sound off.
I went around him and got to where I was going about a 1/4 mile past the asshat so I go in and conduct my business. When I come out of the store guess who I see sitting in the lot across the street on his phone. Yup, he must have gotten the point and decided to pull off the road this time to make his call.
When does the Purge start this year?

Edit- I should mention this dude was 30-40 years old, not a teenager.

 

What!?

He stopped in the middle of the lane to make a text?

FFS What is wrong with these people!!?? Sometimes natural selection, Darwin Awards, Karma, whatever you chose, needs a helping hand.

(he's lucky I'm not still driving my rig... I'd have ploughed right into the fker!)

 

it will never end....

 

Texting, Twitter, Facebook or any myriad of other distractions. All I know was he had his head down staring at his phone in his hand and was typing away. The look on his face when I racked the pipes was priceless though. He might have had to change his shorts after that. LOL

 

I see it constantly. Used to be only teens, now it's everybody. Texting, or on the internet. I blow my horn at them, or rap my pipes. Usually they don't react, or look annoyed that I interrupted their session.

It will only stop when the phone manufacturers are sued for wrongful death, and then they will make a driving mode that only allows Bluetooth calls and navigation. The phones have a driving mode now, but it's easily bypassed.

 

Quick story , about two years ago I was hit by another truck while driving in my Ram 1500 . The other driver came into our lane hit the Jeep filled with kids and a mom and flipped her vehicle over, then he broadsided me and spun my big truck around like a feather . I spent two days in the Hospital . Since it happened in my home town I knew the Chief of police and he informed me that the driver had admitted to texting while driving . When I went to the Magistrate for the hearing he pleaded down from reckless driving to careless driving and paid a small fine after putting myself and the other womans children in the Hospital . A slap on the wrist . When I retire in a few years I'am going to get active in our States Motorcycle association that lobbies for motorcyclists in Harrisburg PA . Until we change the laws so texting carries the same penalty as a DUI nothing will change . Also we now know this social media, cell phones , Facebook, Twitter and texting is a full blown addiction, just like a drug addict or alcoholic .

 

Wait until you're on a twisty back road and you see a cow standing in your lane. Cow has an excuse though! The punk you encountered will never learn until it's too late.

 

The oldies here stop in the lane when they realize they've missed their turn into Walmart or their neighborhood. I'm not sure what they plan to do once they've passed the turn lane, although I've seen some cross the median to do a U turn. One old lady impaled her car on a sign she drove over on the median. I'm always watching for these dingbats.

 

so you'd be in favor of gun mfg being sued if someone shoots and kills someone? or suing the car mfg if someone runs into someone on the highway driving faster than the speed limit? where does it stop? if you do it for one, then it must apply to all. whatever happened to personal responsibility?

 

I'm an ex NYer who moved to NC for 20 years and then now down to Central Florida.

In NY, where drivers are always in a hurry and who drive like idiots most of the time, do, at least, make rolling right hand turns into driveways or on to sideroads that do not require a stop. When you see their signal, you slow down but can anticipate them continuing to turn and get out of the way allowing you to proceed with out stopping.

In NC, I found most drivers (locals or the halfbacks from Florida) nearly always come to a stop before making a right hand turn. I contributed that to the severe deep drainage ditches along the mostly narrow mountian roads that resulted in a depression in the driveway or side road that they wanted to go through slow and avoid any possibility of driving a wheel into the ditch. It fustrated me, but I dealt with it.

Now down here in FLAT florida, with most often nice wide roads and no drainage ditches, can anyone explain WHY, WHY, do drivers (of all ages) come to almost, if not, to a complete stop before making a Right Hand turn into a parking lot driveway or on to a side road. Too often with busy traffic, in both my car and on the bike, I have had to come down to a nearly full stop and wait for then to make the turn. I've learned to anticipate this, but curse at them under my breath every time because there is no good reason for them to hold up traffic.

I know I took Drivers Ed a long long time ago, but I was never tought to stop before making a turn unless there was a stop sign. Who teaches these drivers today that they need to stop before making a rhigh hand turn.

I'm also a grumpy old man, who has been driving for many years, that is fustrated with the stupid drivers of today for so many reasons. This one being one of my biggest peeve.