Why Wet Roads and Cellphones Don't Mix

[Umbran]

I didn't do anything special, or that anyone else wouldn't have done. In fact just about everyone who used the road after me stopped to see what aid they could render too.

Don't sell yourself short. Years ago, driving home from college for X-mas break through the Adirondacks, we hit a patch of black ice and wiped out. Our minivan wound up off the side of the road, upside down. I'm the first one out, and everyone checks out okay (to first approximation - as well as I can tell that folks hanging upside down from their seat belts are okay).

So, I'm by the side of the road, trying to flag down someone to get help. I'm there, by the side of the road, in my now-torn sweatjacket, our upside-down vehicle in plain view. Four cars went by before one so much as slowed down. The fifth, thankfully, was a state trooper.

 

[Aurora]

Here in California a little drizzle can cause major issues with the road ways and people are constantly getting into their cars and dialing someone up. Cel phones are great, but they can cause some interesting problems.

It always amazed me in San Diego how a little rain can REALLY screw up the streets. I mean, yeah, it hardly rains so when it does all the oil and crap on the roads gets pretty slick, but still, it's like people don't know how to drive in little rainy weather. :\

 

[crystal]

kudos to you for stopping and helping out. I know about 9 years ago me and hubby was in a terrable accident. We had hit some mud on the road, spun out and flippen our car a few times.I was pregers with my daughter. Some guys stopped and helped us out of the car and called an ambulance. They left soon after when the cops arrived. I never got their names. I wish I knew who they where so I could thank them for helping. They where angels for helping.... So too are you....trust me the woman you stopped for is verry thankfull....

 

[BOZ]

i only talk on the cellphone while driving if 1) i'm heading to someone's location and need to get information from them or 2) for the life of me, i tried but just couldn’t find a better opportunity to talk to someone and really needed to talk to them.

even then, i don’t like doing it. it’s rare, because i know how dangerous distracted driving can be.

 

[Bloosquig]

You did a good thing man people can be pricks. I'm sure you had other things on your mind but did you try HER cellphone? If she was using it I would imagine she had coverage there. Or she might have been swearing at it trying to get coverage.

I had a friend tell me about a scary sight this morning on the way to work. A woman with her lights on in the car doing her eye makeup staring in her mirror driving with her knees and talking on her hands free cell phone. They really need to administer some stiff fines or something to cut down on the downright stupid things people do in them. I'd give up driving if I had a good way to get around but Cali isn't well designed for pedestrians. :\

 

[GreyRat]

Hope that woman ends up ok HSB; and actually learns a lesson.

I've been on public buses where the driver was talking on a cell. The driver is always indignant when asked to hang up and actually concentrate on driving. Dude, if you *want* to win a Darwin award, fine, just don't endanger your dozen hapless riders at the same time, ok?!

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

I'm sure you had other things on your mind but did you try HER cellphone? If she was using it I would imagine she had coverage there.

She'd been thrown out of her car onto the edge of a field. Her cellphone wasn't anywhere near where she was lying and it would've been futile trying to find one object that small in a hayfield even assuming it hadn't been broken during the wreck.

 

[Harmon]

It always amazed me in San Diego how a little rain can REALLY screw up the streets. I mean, yeah, it hardly rains so when it does all the oil and crap on the roads gets pretty slick, but still, it's like people don't know how to drive in little rainy weather. :\

It is because no one really has to drive in it, so they never learn.

Few years back my cousin (a CHP officer) told me that he had been working the required chains stop on highway 80 going over the Sierras, and he stopped a car going east with Minnesota plates. He asked the driver if he had chains, he didn't. He asked the guy how long he'd been away from Minnesota, just on vacation he was informed. Under the weather conditions he thought a native Minnesota-ian could handle the roads- "been driving your whole life in the snow I take it?" "Ya," the guy laughed. He waved him through.