Some people are just better at finding new ways to get themselves into trouble.
Holly Busby, who calls herself a 'textaholic' driver, missed the memo: text messaging on her cellphone while at the wheel of a car is, well, dumb. But even driving through the height of rush hour traffic doesn’t stop the Edmonton driver from texting.
'I'm infamous for texting at a light, and not realizing it went green, and people honk, and one time I even missed a whole light writing a big long text,' she laughs.
That’s nothing. Recently, she was sending text messages and she nearly ran over a pedestrian in a marked crosswalk. Oops!
'And I thought, like, what if they were a meter closer? It was a little scary,' she says.
Not scary enough to make her stop though—just scary enough to make her want to improve her dubious skills.
'I'll be able to text better while driving, and be more attentive, which I actually am better [at now] than when I started.'
But recent studies disagree. Researchers find that dialing a cell phone and occupying one hand, which should be on the wheel, is a dangerous distraction to a driver.
'It clearly puts everyone at risk,” says an AMA spokesman, who says that adding text messaging to the mix “magnifies the risk—20, 30, 40 times.'
Washington State is the first jurisdiction in North America to explicitly ban drivers from sending text messages while driving and from talking on a cellphone without a headset.
The thought of that law only makes Holly Busby more defiant. She proudly claims that she can already send text messages safely while driving her standard-shift car, smoking a cigarette, and drinking her coffee. Not only that, if you ask her, she’ll tell you she's also perfected the art of steering with her knees.
Imagine!
And some people enjoy sending messages to their friends even more than Holly does. Spacelocker has more ways to stay in touch than even a clever girl like Holly can dream of.
Spacelocker’s Meet Me At My Locker feature is a place like the hallway in front of your high school locker. It’s your place in cyberspace to meet and interact with SpaceMates, friends, and new users who are currently at their lockers.
Click on a user who is your friend to be linked to their locker page. To send your friend a message, type on their message pad and click on Send Message. Or send your friend a stikkmm, or a sticky, or a free virtual gift. Or decorate their locker page with widgets, graphics, videos, pictures, music, and games.
You don’t need a driver’s license. And you sure won’t knock anyone out of the crosswalk. And it’s a whole lot more fun than driving with your knees.
Allan Ross is the writer ofSpacelocker.com. The first Online School Locker on the internet
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