Growing Problem: Distracted Drivers, 2010-style

A lot of people are angered or annoyed by distracted drivers and their god-awful driving habits. Instead of just operating their vehicles safely, concentrating on the "rules of the highway," and being on the lookout for the fuzz, people do all kinds of wacky things instead.

In the past few weeks, I've seen a lot of strange activities go on in other cars around me while I drive. I am going to make a list of some of those things, but I have to say right up front that observing these activities was not a distraction to me, not in the least. I only observed these infractions as I scanned carefully back and forth, looking for incoming threats to my vehicle, or checking around for interesting free objects that may have dropped into the roadway. To be truthful, at times I may have also been trying to find a decent tune on the radio in order to aid my concentration, but this just shows how aware I was of my environment as I drove - the song has to be just right if I am going to remain on top of my game.

I also have to add that while I was watching out for dangerous "drivers" and noticing their terrible driving, and thinking about their ungraciousness, and perhaps yelling a bit at them inside my car, and also sometimes checking them out as I drove past "to see what kind of person drives like that," my own concentration was not compromised, nor would I allow it to be ever, because I am a good driver.

So, now that that's out of the way, a few things I have seen (some I made up for illustration purposes):

Distracted Driving List 2010, as Seen on this Nation's Highways & Byways

• A woman eating a Ranchero Chicken Soft Taco while merging onto the highway (speed limit 65, but most people drive at least 70)
• A man (I think) adjusting the default margins in Pages for the iPad while also performing a "rolling stop"
• A very short individual, who could barely see anyway, reading a Bible (or Thesaurus?) and writing comments in the margin with a green permanent marker
• A different woman eating a snack-size Oreo McFlurry while parallel parking on a pretty busy street

Until activities like these stop, none of us are safe. If I see any other distracted driving, I'll post the activities of the perps here. Or, feel free to leave your favorites in the comments!

Distracted Driving Accounted for Nearly 5500 Roadway Deaths in ...‎ -6 hours ago For the second year in a row, national statistics show that distracted driving had led to 5474 deaths and 448000 on US roads in 2009. ...