The Buckets by Greg Cravens for April 19, 2024

In the 90s I saw a woman reading a paperback book while driving on the highway! And drunks have been causing accidents since horses were ‘invented.’

car phones have around since the 60’s

Car crashes used to be caused by alcohol and drugs. Now crashes are caused by cell phones, alcohol and drugs. Drivers have to be super alert, watching for the driver who will veer right into them because they just got a text.

My wife and I nearly got wiped out this past Sunday leaving a restaurant we had gone to after church. We had just gotten the green light and I was a second or two slower on accelerating when a guy blew through the intersection at about 50 mph, texting. I thank the good Lord we weren’t hit. As a general rule, I try to avoid profanity, but I lost my composure and said some things that expressed my feelings, but were something I’m glad only my wife heard.

“Pictures or it didn’t happen.” is being replaced with “Real or AI?”

Quite a while back (before Google maps and sat navs) I saw someone driving with a huge unfolded map across the steering wheel with him trying to figure out where he was going.

Any number of distractions before cell phones.. bench seats and mini skirts were definitely responsible for some.

It was tough. We had to drink and drive.

We found other ways to be idiots back then.

Cell phones? Distracted driving has always been a problem: road hazards, rubber-necking, alcohol, reading newspapers, books or maps, singing to loud music, pets climbing on your lap to look out your window, mini skirts, dropped cigarettes, needing to take a leak, talking to your passengers, turning around to take a swing at the kids fighting in the back seat.

The rule against distracted driving is pretty broad—a driver is responsible for maintaining control of their automobile at all times, in all road conditions.

My uncle, Otto Wrek, had a used car lot and metal salvage yard in St Joseph, Missouri in the early 1900s.

talking on the phone is bad enough it’s the ones that stare at their phones and read the social media feeds that are terrible.