Drive Safe

About 6% of all car accidents are due to cell phone usage. Hasn’t your mother ever told you that you shouldn’t text or email while you drive? I know this common sense rule. I have even had friends be seriously injured while texting. However…

A couple weeks ago I was running late for a show in DC (it turned out to be the first show I have EVER been late too). Traffic was at a standstill on 395 approaching the city. The 45 minute drive had already taken me over two hours, so I was busy calling the venue and sending some emails. The traffic at this point was inching along. Move 10 feet, wait 10 seconds. Move 10 feet, wait 10 seconds. Lather, rinse, repeat. I thought it would be safe to use my Blackberry during this stop and go fun… until I hit the guy in front of me. Oops.

This angry dude gets out of his car and aggressively comes up to my window asking for my ID. I get out and show him my license as we both look at the damage. Fortunately, there was none. Not even a scratch. He thought about his options, and was seemingly reluctant to shake my hand and say we should just forget about it since no harm was done to his car.

Now the proper way to cap off this incident would have been to simply say “thank you” as I get back in my truck and go on my merry way. Instead of giving him this polite salutation, I chose to give him a firm shake and two words worth of ironic advice:

“DRIVE SAFE!”

I realized immediately that I had just hit this guy’s car due to my illegal and dangerous driving habits, and followed it up by telling him that HE should drive safe. I felt stupid twice that day.

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