Texting-while-driving duo drive readers to disgust

The Jan. 24 article about a father-daughter duo and their texting while driving habits set off a maelstrom of response (read the story here). Find some of the letters, including one from Buckley Strandberg, in Sunday Forum this Sunday. In the meantime, here are some more letters about it.

I was flabbergasted when I read your Jan. 24 “light-hearted” article about Tyler and Buckley Strandberg.

First, I found the overall tone offensive. Here were two people blatantly admitting to the public how they have placed countless others in jeopardy – because of boredom and fear of wasting worktime! Yet, throughout the piece, I found this was treated like a segment from a reality show centered on the activities of immature and irresponsible adults.

I have a perfect cure for their boredom: They should visit and talk to families and friends of victims whose lives have been torn apart by the reckless behavior of people like them. Go to the ER and witness the immediate physical pain and terror of people injured by selfish and thoughtless drivers (who, many times, walk away uninjured!). Follow up with a trip to a rehab facility to see what can go on for a lifetime. Then, they can come and tell me they are bored.

Live in the moment, be aware. And if their addiction to the phone is still so intense, they need to find an amusement park and drive bumper cars while texting and talking to their hearts’ content.

At least the rest of the world would be safe from their childish and dangerous behavior.

Donna Pesavento Caira
Morrisville

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What is it going to take for this young woman and her father to wake up? A traffic accident that kills someone? They are poster children for why texting, blackberries and using cell phones need to be outlawed while driving. Let’s all work to get these selfish, irresponsible drivers off of our roads.

Dr. J. David Carlson
Cary

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Those who text and call (not to mention surf the Internet and read the newspaper – unbelievable!) while driving are, to my mind, the equivalent of terrorists on our roads. They cause wrecks (28 percent of them) and kill innocents.

We need strong legislative action immediately to declare any but emergency phoning while driving illegal and punishable to the greatest extent of the law. What are we waiting for?

As for the Strandbergs, I’d suggest they use some of their bored time at the wheel contemplating how they will feel when their addiction kills one of them or some other person’s dear ones on the highway. Imagine how pointless their 24/7 multi-tasking and social networking will seem then.

Nancy Corson Carter
Chapel Hill

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The article on Buckley Strandberg and his daughter both infuriated and sickened me. Their blatant disregard for life, both their own and others, is disgusting.
I am in my 43rd year working as an RN trying to preserve life and currently working in neurology. I see on a daily basis the absolute devastation a motor vehicle accident brings. The Strandbergs are obviously wealthy to be able to afford the insurance to continue to drive, especially with verbally expressing no remorse or intent to change their habits.

Mr. Strandberg’s lame excuse for needing to use his driving time because of his job is an indication of his lack of values and his selfish inability to make lifestyle changes with his fellow man in mind, including his own child. How could he not be aware that he is not “just sitting,” but that he is exercising his privilege to operate a deadly weapon in comfort and to arrive at his destination in far fewer hours than it would take to walk?!

If no laws are passed, maybe the answer is to have these people who text while driving put a flashing orange light on the top of their cars to alert others to stay away from them and perhaps have a better chance of surviving with people like these on the roads.

God forbid any of my own precious children or grandchildren are on the road with little Miss Zone-Out or her father.

Rose Greene
Raleigh

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Outrage describes my reaction to the texting father and daughter in the front page article in your Jan. 24 paper. The timely topic deserves national attention considering the staggering statistics regarding accidents and deaths of those texting and their victims.

Despite all the evidence and three significant auto accidents, they don’t think the facts apply to them. The cell-phone-using driver is four times more likely to be in an accident. The use of cell phones and texting is equivalent to lengthening the reaction time just as a blood alcohol level exceeding 0.08 does.

The Oprah Winfrey show has taken up the crusade with a campaign promoting the pledge to make our cars no-phone zones. A guest on her Jan. 18 show shared the story of her mother being killed in an accident caused by a texting driver running a red light at 45 miles an hour. Is that call worth someone’s life?

I hope their cavalier attitude doesn’t kill someone or themselves. I will honk and shake my fist at texting drivers or those reading the paper on the steering wheel. Join me in making your car a no-phone zone.

Deborah Lane
Raleigh

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I am puzzled at the lack of the same support for cracking down on driving while using a cell phone as there is for cracking down on drunk driving. When you compare the practice to drunk driving to talking on the phone and driving, phone use while driving holds its own both in degree of impairment and in added danger to others.

Are both voluntary impairments? Yes they are. Do both practices increase the chances of causing an accident? Yes, they do. Are you just as dead when a drunk driver hits the rumble strip and overcorrects and crosses the center line and hits you head-on as when someone who is engrossed in a conversation on the phone does the same thing? Yes, you are. For the drunk drivers, they at least have the excuse that after a drink or three, they become less likely to recognize the fact that they are impaired. I don’t think over-texting does that.

When I read of the young lady who had crashed three cars while using the phone, I was annoyed. Think it might have been viewed differently if she had three accidents after drinking? Does someone have to cause a horrible fatal accident to someone else’s family before using a phone while driving is taken as seriously as drunk driving?

Lewis Walston
Fayetteville

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I was saddened to read “2 can’t stop phoning while driving” (Jan. 24 front page). Not only are their actions an affront to society, but there they were smiling in a photo as though they’re somehow to be absolved from being potential dangers not only to themselves but to anyone unfortunate to be sharing the road with them.

Driving is not a right, it’s a privilege. Sharing the road safely is a necessity for the welfare of society as a whole. Otherwise it’s anarchy. The daughter has crashed three cars in as many years while texting and talking on her phone. The father admits to similar behavior and says he set the example for his children. It’s OK for these folks to kill themselves, but the tragedy is that they can potentially take some innocent with them.

The issue is how to protect ourselves against drivers who put their interests above everyone else’s by dehumanizing the rest of us. They don’t see other drivers, just coffins.

Chris Forsyth
Durham