PSA…

I almost hit a woman yesterday in OKC when she blindly stepped out into traffic while fiddling with her phone…

So it’s kinda ironic that I get this in a email last night…

PLEASE get off the damn phones if you’re trying to cross the @$!$%& street!!!

h/t JP

Comments

PSA… — 23 Comments

  1. Its not just kids, its adults too. I live very close to a college campus and near half of the walkers are plugged in to music or glued to their phone screen. Completely distracted / engrossed in their own private little world.

  2. We named such people ‘Phombies’, for ‘Phone Zombie’.
    It’s a non-survival trait.

  3. the guy that rear ended me two weeks ago, was also on his phone, looking down at it and not paying attention. While I drive I am usually on bluetooth, or I wait to respond to someone after I have reached my destination..

    This whole society that has been created is going to really be hurting if there is a total collapse of the power grid and communications are lost.

  4. Walking into traffic, into people, lamp poles, street signs, and buildings … I’ve seen all those in the last two months. It’s maddening, dangerous, and can only end badly.

  5. j.r.- Yep, I was at OKC VA, which is surrounded by med schools… sigh

    Art- Exactly, but it’s NEVER ‘their’ fault… Doesn’t do much good when they are dead.

    JUGM- True, but at least they’d be looking around!!!

    CP/LL- I could go for that! 😀

    SoCal- It does, but they all paid for their stupidity…

    Rev- Exactly, it DOESN’T end well!

  6. Back in the day we had an unofficial driving ‘charge’ of DWHUA. now it is WWHUA. IIRC, the first classic case of that was the girl that walked right into a fountain at the mall, and is now suing for having an obstruction placed in her path. You just can’t make up this level of stupidity (nor can you fix it, no matter how many fines get levied).

  7. I have my cell phone turned to Mute when I am out and about. Let the machine answer it and I’ll get back when it’s MY time.

  8. Tell me about it. My wife loves to fiddle with her phone when walking in a new area – she starts by looking at maps and gets distracted. Though at least she normally stops walking.

    It still drives me crazy, because she never says “wait a minute” – instead she lags behind a moment (normal, on a crowded sidewalk) and just stays in place. Unless I keep looking behind me I could be 50 yards down the road before I realize she’s not caught up – perhaps we should rope ourselves together like mountaineers.

  9. Gomez- Agreed!!!

    NC- Heard that!

    Java- Wow… NOT good, and she’d probably be pissed if you roped the two of you together…

    • Yup. But it might be worth it. Less chance of losing her in a crowd that way, even if she’s scolding me.

  10. All this time and I somehow missed you were in Oklahoma. If you’re ever in Norman, let me know. Would love to buy you a beer!

  11. So, I’m guessing she never heard of situational awareness?

    I’m old…I remember when I had to carry a roll of quarters with me to use in the pay phone to call back the office or patients to confirm appointments after I had already left the office.

    I do remember when you could “drop a dime” to call someone, but I was too young to be on the phone then…lol

  12. Java- Good point!

    Kyle- I’m down in Wichita Falls, but close. We can work on that… 🙂

    Suz- Nope, to them their ‘device’ IS their entire world… sigh I STILL carry a roll of quarters in the truck… LOL

  13. Makes me so mad that people drive and talk on them, too! Recently stopped at a light behind a pickup with gov stickers on it that said, “no cell phones used while driving”, and he was on his cell phone… obviously arguing with someone, because he wasn’t paying attention to anything else…

  14. The combination I’ve seen that looks deadly is cell phone + handicapped curb; people unconsciously move down the little include and end up standing in the street when they probably think they are still on the sidewalk. They do it while talking to people who are with them, too.

  15. A friend and neighbor got upset the other day when I let his call go to voicejail (which I refuse to set up, so callers get the “voicemail is not set up on this number” recording and can’t leave a message). When I called him back a while later he said he thought maybe he should call someone in case something happened to me.

    I ‘splained:
    1) It’s my phone, I pay for it, and I have it for my convenience, not everyone else’s (when I retired I turned in my agency Blackberry and radio and have less than zero desire to own anything of that type again, or any communication device I must have on 24X7).
    2) I was busy doing something and had my hands full, or I was driving, or talking F2F with someone, or on another call.
    3) The phone logs numbers that call, including his, so I know who called
    4) Have I ever failed to call you back when i get done with what I’m doing?
    5) If it’s an extremely urgent situation – defined as “attractive naked women handing out money and bottles of Macallan 18 year” call me three times in quick succession and I’ll answer. (“End of the world” doesn’t count, because I can’t do anything about that, and your definition of EOW is very different from mine).
    6) My phone is a limited-use tool that offers some value but as far as I’m concerned, that value is pretty low and does not come before other things in life.
    7) And, as far as “concerned if something happened to me” if you see my name in tomorrow’s obituary column, you were right, something did.

    The rest of the time my phone is either in my pocket on vibrate so the ringer doesn’t interrupt an F2F conversation or on the kitchen counter charging; see #1 above.

    I used to view phone zombies with amusement, now I think they’re agents of the Devil, Hell-bent on destroying Western Civilization one brain cell or front bumper at a time.

  16. “Condition White”

    I like to think of it as Darwin In Action.
    As long as they don’t walk in front of me. Hate cleaning stupid off my truck.