I'm Alive...

...but barely.  Although I have very strong opinions on the matter, I normally don't get on too high of a soapbox on the issue.  But, I am stepping on that box  because I was almost killed this morning.

Today I walked across Limestone (a very busy 6 lane street in Lexington) as I do every morning to get to school.  I waited for the light to turn red and for the green lit up pedestrian to appear. I looked both ways and was almost completely across the crosswalk when I heard the man in the hauling truck I was walking in front of shout the F word very loudly.  

I was so startled by this that I stopped in my tracks as a woman in a large black SUV barreled through the very red light about three feet away from me at about 30 miles per hour. 

She was, of course, chatting away on her cell phone and sipping her coffee.  She never noticed the red light, or that the other three lanes of traffic were stopped, or that I was standing in the crosswalk. In fact, the woman never once touched her brakes.  Thank God the driver of that truck saw her coming and yelled out so that it got my attention because I was not able to see her around his truck.  

The irony of this all? I spent all night drafting jury selection questions for my litigation skills class in which I am representing the defendant who allegedly hit and killed a female pedestrian while talking on his cell phone (it's a made up case, but still...).  AND, I wrote my graduation seminar paper last semester on the negligence of driving while distracted by your cellular phone.

Most Americans do not realize that talking on a cell phone while driving has been found to be more dangerous than driving while legally drunk.  Most recognize that texting while driving is dangerous; but, they are mistaken because the true danger is not holding the phone: it is the cognitive distraction.  Thus, it is just as a dangerous to talk on a hands-free Bluetooth device as it is to talk with your phone to your ear. At least 1/3 of all car accidents are caused by drivers using their cell phones. SERIOUSLY, hang up and drive. 

I promise you lady in the black Escalade, your conversation this morning was not worth my life.