Text and Drivers (as in people who Text and Drive)

This week's pet peeve (I have so many, I have to assign them time slots):

This is huge for me.  I run into people all the time (actually, they almost run into me, but that isn't what I meant) that are driving and texting AT THE SAME TIME.  These are mutually exclusive activities that both rely on fairly intense concentration.  They cannot be combined into a single event in time and space.  Not only that, if you are texting someone while driving, it is fairly likely that you just finished READING the text you are responding to.  Would you read a novel while driving to work?  NO you wouldn’t, that is just insane.  Cars don't come with reading lights FOR A REASON!  So why are you reading texts? 

What is so damned important that it can't wait for the next red light at the very least?  And here where I live, it is a MAXIMUM 25 minutes to get from any point in the city to any other point.  (I've tried it and timed it and even hitting all the red lights you can't MAKE the trip last longer.  It pretty well invalidates my 27 minute version of "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood")  Nobody in my town should ever have an excuse to do not wiat until they get where they are going to check their texts.

I understand talking on the phone while driving.  I’ve done it myself.  The trick there is always remembering that the driving part of the job is by far the dominant activity.  I can give over enough of my concentration to carry on a somewhat limited conversation.  But all neural activity gets routed back to the job of driving if anything out of the ordinary is happening on the road.  I have been known to fade out completely and quit a sentence midway through because it appeared that some guy in a truck was about to left turn across my lane.  But I don’t think EVERYONE is capable of doing this “allocation of mind resources” instantly and cleanly.  Luckily, it now illegal here to use a cell phone while driving, unless you are using a hands-free device.  I suspect that is more to give an excuse for catching Text and Drivers, but that is a good thing. 

So next time your phone is buzzing while you drive, please just ignore it.  The life you save may be your own (because I won’t kill you for drifting into my lane and busting up my SUV).