Did you see the video of the lady who walked straight into a water fountain at a shopping mall while texting on her phone? It looked like a slapstick advertisement for "Funniest Home Videos" until I later saw the lady being interviewed on the news. She literally walked over the edge and fell into the pool of coin-ladened water and was livid that the person at the mall released the embarassing moment for all the world to see. She'd had the person fired who released the video that went viral on the internet, and was threatening to sue the mall because they didn't come to her aid. To be honest, I don't think the person who released the video should have been fired. From viewing the video, no one could tell who it was that walked away dripping wet. To me, it seemed like a great public-announcement of what could happen if you text and walk and don't pay attention.
It reminded me of an incident my teenage granddaughter told me about before Christmas. She was texting a friend as she walked at the mall in Wichita Falls and a security guard stopped her. He told her she couldn't walk and text in the mall; it wasn't allowed. That seemed rather bizarre to me till I thought a moment. I told her he was probably worried she'd walk into a wall or another person. What if that person was a little old lady on a walker? What if they trampled on a two-year-old and busted their lip? People walk into me and they are simply looking at the store window displays. So I can imagine texting while walking could cause a problem. I did wonder if the guard would have stopped an adult, though. In light of the lady who walked into the fountain, I can see where this may be the next rule our mall puts into action.
In California, it's against the law to just talk on the phone and drive. Last summer Gov. Swartzenneger's wife, Maria, was caught driving in California while talking on her cell-phone. She apologized and then a few weeks later was caught talking while driving again. While I'd hate to see that become law in Oklahoma, I really do understand why it is against the law. It's a distraction. And the number one cause of traffic accidents is inattentiveness. In other words--people are not paying attention.
However, people don't want to give up the freedom to chat while driving. So now some legislators are talking about manufacturing cars that will jam or scramble signals of cellphones if drivers try to use them in their cars. Seems a bit extreme, but laws are not made to be broken. I suppose if we're dumb enough to text and walk into a pool of water in a shopping mall, we're dumb enough to walk into the street of an oncoming car. And legislators have a job to do--make laws that protect the public.
It does make me wonder though. If they will stop us from talking on phones because it is a distraction, will they make us stop driving with people in the car? Like our toddlers who scream when they get touched by a sibling? They already insist that we buckle-up, will the next law be to button-up and zip-it? Will our vehicles engines shut down when activated by our singing? Hmmmmn, it does make me wonder.
Comments