Death By Device?

We are all going to die by our devices. No, I don't mean devices in the "addicted to oil and fossil fuel" sense, as our planet dies (though this isn't looking good at the moment), nor do I mean our use of various forms of stimulants (read: Starbucks), drugs, or alcohol. I am referring to our real devices: our cell phones and crackberries.

I was driving down the interstate yesterday on a five-lane highway going seventy miles per hour, and both the person driving in the lane on the left and the person in the lane on my right were swerving in and out of their lanes, not paying attention to the road. Upon closer inspection, both were looking down in their laps at some kind of device, and typing while they were driving.

I know what you are thinking...but Gerard, you are the king of multi-tasking! What's a little driving while texting? This should be no problem for you! Guilty. My wife tells me I'm going to kill us, and she may be right. But, I am starting to see the error of my ways. After watching these two cars squeeze me (I had to accelerate or be crushed), I am swearing off device usage while driving. I have a fifteen-minute commute! Whatever it is, it can wait, can't it?

If you've been watching the news, you've seen that this is starting to get media attention. Congress is ready to act. If you've even driven in D.C., it's not hard to tell why. I'm not the first to have the beegeebees scared out of me while driving. My only question is how many people have I terrified? Did they swerve to miss me? Get so scared they soiled themselves? Have a close call? I can only say I haven't heard any accidents, but I was probably too busy texting or taking conference calls on my crackberry to notice anyway.