Drinking and driving is now a firm societal faux-pas. However, impaired biking and receives scant attention because of the lack of high profile instances and a bicycle’s absence from impaired driving laws in Canada, according to Margaret Miller, national president of MADD Canada. Impaired walking (i.e. walking with the head down solely focused on texting with a Blackberry) is even worse. This story goes through stories of each scenario in sufficient detail to emphasize the dangers of these actions being no less than impaired driving.
Let’s start with impaired biking. A Toronto woman Misty Bailey tried to stop boyfriend Darcy Allan Sheppard from riding his bike after drinking before he died in a crash involving former Ontario attorney-general Michael Bryant in Sep 2009. Many don’t consider trying to stop an inebriated friend from biking home. The main reason could be because of the loophole in the fact that a bicycle is not considered as a vehicle under the Ontario Highway Traffic Act anyway for careless driving. However, the cops could charge the impaired cyclist with another crime of public intoxication. In some areas of the United States, such as California, drunk cyclists can be slapped with a DUI and charged roughly $250.
Sure, an impaired cyclist could ultimately cost lives in the case of a fatal accident. What about impaired walking? I’m talking about pedestrians who pay 100% attention either texting on their smartphones, or listening to their iPods with their headphones at high volume to impair their listening ability for vehicles. Have you been in situations where people walked straight at you, typing into their BlackBerry, bumping into you, giving you a momentary stare while being upset about typing session being interrupted, and marching on without so much as an “excuse me”? I also recall a story of a gentleman walking while texting on a BlackBerry, and following the lady in front of him to avoid obstacles. However, he got so carried away typing on the BlackBerry while following the lady in front of him that she eventually turned around and gave him a stern stare…in the ladies washroom! Those are embarrassing stories, but at least they did not involve a fatal accident. I’m sure they have been in the news in the past, but imagine a pedestrian typing on a smartphone walking straight into your path as you are driving your car down a side street. It would be tough for the accident not to be fatal, unless you are driving uber slow (even the momentum of a car at 20 km/h is sufficient to kill a pedestrian).
Learning lessons from embarrassing stories such as following the lady in front of you until you have entered the female washroom is trivial. However, the effect of a fatal crash is irreversible, as a life cannot be resurrected like Jesus Christ was rumored to be resurrected as described in the Bible. Please spread this message to at least 5 of your friends (you can spread it to more people if you want, as I can’t really keep track)!
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