Texting Driver Who Slammed Cyclist: I, Like, 'Just Don't Care'

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/16/texting-driver-hits-bicyclist-i-dont-care_n_5158966.html?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000592

Holy E36 M3

She looks like a jersey shore wannabe. Sounds like a wonderful person.

"I don't care, I love it, I don't care"

yeah, just go ahead and ban her for life from ever driving.

Have a nocturnal seizure, lose your license for 6mo to a year in the us. Hit someone with a car because you're doo berkeleying busy to look up....

On one and, this is HuffPo, which is like a leftist American version of the Daily Mail, so you should take this with a big cube of salt.

On the other hand I'm sure there are people that dumb out there.

In reply to GameboyRMH:

I've read it on other sites as well. Then again, that may not mean much either.

I was really hoping this would be an Onion article...

Word for word could easily have been.

Oh and look. HuffPo took it from Gawker.com. Brilliant!

What a crock of E36 M3 all around.

Another story: here
Another story: here
...

"I don’t agree that people texting and driving could hit a cyclist." Haha, what?

doc_speeder wrote: "I don’t agree that people texting and driving could hit a cyclist." Haha, what?

There's a culture of denialism among text-n-drivers, they think it's totally safe and that there's some conspiracy to make them stop doing it. It would be a beautiful thing if they were only putting themselves in danger.

This is probably how I'll die someday.

johndej wrote: "I don't care, I love it, I don't care" yeah, just go ahead and ban her for life from ever driving.

IMO, ban her from all forms of electronic communication as well.

On my way to lunch I see a 20 something woman pulled over. Se is still gabbing on her phone as the officer is walking up to talk to her. Wish I could have stayed to see the results. Clueless people ...

They enacted a no cell phone use law here in IL this year. The sad thing is I see MORE near-misses than before. Now, rather than holding their phone up where they get a glimpse of the road as the text, their eyes are completely off the road looking at their "hidden" phone...as if no one else can tell.

Is it too much to hope that she suffers greatly from the same indifference?

I mean... if someone was to take pics and text friends about the awesome spectacle they were seeing live in front of them - and too busy watching her bleed out after being partially eaten by timber wolves or savaged by a roving gang of orangutans... instead of calling 911... that wouldn't be too much to wish for, right? Afterall, it's these little life lessons that teach us empathy for our fellow man.

I don't suppose it would be possible to turn a car into a Faraday cage? I think that needs to happen.

Will wrote: I don't suppose it would be possible to turn a car into a Faraday cage? I think that needs to happen.

It could be done with the right window coatings...but then passengers couldn't use their phones while riding in the car either, to say nothing of losing the ability to receive any really important calls.

GameboyRMH wrote:

Will wrote: I don't suppose it would be possible to turn a car into a Faraday cage? I think that needs to happen.

It could be done with the right window coatings...but then passengers couldn't use their phones while riding in the car either, to say nothing of losing the ability to receive any really important calls.

And once they touch that phone to the window they'd go from 0-99 bars because the cage is also a giant berkeleying antenna.

N Sperlo wrote:

GameboyRMH wrote:

Will wrote: I don't suppose it would be possible to turn a car into a Faraday cage? I think that needs to happen.

It could be done with the right window coatings...but then passengers couldn't use their phones while riding in the car either, to say nothing of losing the ability to receive any really important calls.

And once they touch that phone to the window they'd go from 0-99 bars because the cage is also a giant berkeleying antenna.

Not if it's grounded as a faraday cage should be.

Having just gone through this with my little incident outside of Target... forgive my French.. but Berkley her.

I am a serious cyclist, I can rack up over a 100 miles a week (and save a lot of gas) without any effort, but every time one of these clueless people gets that little bit too close to me, I really start considering getting my bigger boat and getting the hell away from them all and not coming back

Thankfully all I had was massive bruising, a sprained wrist, and my shoulder got beaten up again. I could not imagine having to deal with a broken back. Thankfully he did not become a paraplegic, but now he gets to deal with that pain for the rest of his life while Miss Clueless just worries about getting her license back

I saw in a couple of articles that she had used her phone 44 times while driving before this. Is phone use while driving against the law down there?

Anyone checked face-e-bookie-page-e-thing to see if she's getting masses of hate mail?

mad_machine wrote: Having just gone through this with my little incident outside of Target... forgive my French.. but Berkley her. I am a serious cyclist, I can rack up over a 100 miles a week (and save a lot of gas) without any effort, but every time one of these clueless people gets that little bit too close to me, I really start considering getting my bigger boat and getting the hell away from them all and not coming back Thankfully all I had was massive bruising, a sprained wrist, and my shoulder got beaten up again. I could not imagine having to deal with a broken back. Thankfully he did not become a paraplegic, but now he gets to deal with that pain for the rest of his life while Miss Clueless just worries about getting her license back

This. I get buzzed every time I get on the bike, and I'm sick and tired of it. The idea of a helmet-mounted GoPro just for the purpose of calling the cops with plate numbers has been appealing more and more lately.

szeis4cookie wrote: The idea of a helmet-mounted GoPro just for the purpose of calling the cops with plate numbers has been appealing more and more lately.

I have long thought that a camera system mounted front and rear would be incredibly useful in the event of a crash. It could be rigged up so you could see it on your phone (mounted on the handlebar) or just have it recording in case something should happen. With the compact-ness and relative affordability of a go pro setup, that is becoming more and more feasible every day.

Incidents like the one in the article and what cyclists everywhere endure daily are just symptoms of a driver's ed and licensing program that is overwhelmed. We need to have more driver training, and more severe consequences if we are going to improve the quality of drivers on the roads. It really irks me that there is such hype over "gun control" (don't turn this in to a gun control debate), but it seems like any reckless idiot can get behind the wheel and put countless lives in danger every day.

In reply to EastCoastMojo:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fly6/fly6-cycling-accessory-hd-camera-and-tail-light-co

I believe it works on the same principle as the Russian dash-cam: continuous recording with only the most recent minutes kept in memory.

I would absolutely buy one and put it on my road bike. It'll nice to have video evidence of what causes my death.