Talking on your cell phone while driving simply not dangerous enough for you? Texting while steering with your knees just doesn't hold enough risk? Why not do both together!?
That's what an Australian tow truck driver (with a car attached to his flatbed) figured he'd try over the last week, texting on one phone while chatting away on another. Naturally, this ended with disastrous results, as driver Nicholas Sparks (no relation to this guy) crashed into another car being driven by a 68-year-old woman, then smashed through a fence, careened off a house, and finally rolled into a swimming pool.
The sheer stupidity of the event notwithstanding, the mechanics of how one would actually pull this off -- while driving a tow truck! -- boggle the mind. It isn't clear whether Sparks was using a hands-free system to talk on the phone, but if not he likely would have had to have one hand on the voice phone, the text phone held between his knees, and his other hand tapping out his text message. Presumably one knee would have been available to steer the truck. I guess he couldn't have been using his teeth since he was actually talking on one of the phones and thus his mouth would have to have been engaged otherwise.
The driver was charged with three traffic violations, including reckless driving.
The sad thing is that driving while using a cell phone is already illegal in Australia, which leads one to wonder how effective laws like this can ever be. Are we simply experiencing growing pains as people slowly come to realize the dangers of driving while engaged with their mobile devices? It took decades -- and increasingly harsh laws -- to make seatbelt wearing commonplace, and that battle still rages over such issues as compulsory helmets for motorcyclists, while personal liberties advocates essentially claim a birthright to do whatever they want behind the wheel.
Complicated stuff.
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