Passes & Canyons Blog

This happened to me. We need to do what we can to make sure it doesn’t happen to you or someone you love.

The Colorado House hearing on SB24-065 (Use of Mobile Electronic Devices While Driving) was postponed from Wednesday of this week to Tuesday of next week. It will be held on Tuesday, April 9, in the Legislative Services Building located at 200 E. 14th Avenue, directly south of the Capitol. However, the time is now a bit uncertain because instead of 1:30 p.m. as initially announced, it will take place “upon adjournment,” meaning that right after the main House session adjourns for the day the committee will cross the street and hold the hearing. Upon adjournment could mean as early as 9:30 a.m. This could get tricky.

This is the big one. This bill needs to pass. The idiots out there who think their phone calls are more important than our lives–like the guy who T-boned me on January 18–need to be served notice that this will no longer be tolerated. It happened with drinking and driving. The Mothers Against Drunk Driving group raised a ruckus and this country finally came to the realization that drinking and driving was a deadly hazard to each and every one of us and public attitudes changed. It’s happening with cellphone use while driving and it’s happening here in Colorado next week.

I really don’t know if there will be opposition to this bill. There was none when it passed through the Senate but the last time it was up for consideration there were opponents arguing that it would unfairly affect poorer people who would be less likely to be able to afford the fines.

Will that argument be raised again this time? Because that is such a piece of BS that I will absolutely speak out to counter. First off, avoiding such fines is an extremely simple matter: just don’t use your damn phone while driving. You don’t even have to do anything to avoid a fine, you just do nothing. You just obey the law.

More than that, what about the poor people who are the victims of the distracted drivers? Don’t they count? When they get injured or their cars get totaled because some fool ran a red light and crashed into them they incur real expenses. Hospital bills. Time lost at work. Repairs or a new car. Heck, I had insurance but it paid me a pittance, so when I replaced my totaled car I bought a used one and had to put up an additional $10,000 on top of the insurance money to pay for it. All because some guy I never met and probably would never have known existed felt that his phone call was more important than safely operating the 3,500-pound vehicle he was supposed to be driving.

And I consider myself absolutely blessed because although my car was trashed I was completely uninjured. But how long does it take a car going 15-20 miles an hour (mine) to go two feet? What fraction of a second is that? Because that fraction of a second was the difference between this guy smashing into the back half of my car and not directly into where I was sitting in the driver’s seat. And he was speeding. He hit me hard. The collision tore open the rear end of my car so that although the trunk lid was still closed, tools from my trunk were strewn across the road.

I have supported this bill every time it has come up in recent years but now it’s personal. We have got to get this bill passed. I know people will still use their phones–some of them at least–but with the passage of this law they will know what they are doing is wrong and that will deter at least some of them. And for those it does not deter, they will pay a heavier price. Not heavy enough, but we can worry about raising the penalties later, once we get the general law enacted.

I urge as many of you as possible to show up on Tuesday to support this bill.

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re a biker when you want to be buried with your bike because you’re not done riding yet.

You don't see these guys using their cellphones but how much do you want to bet that people in cars take this road while using theirs?

I see that the American Motorcyclist Association is endorsing “Cell Phone Courtesy Month,” zeroing in on the “Focus on Driving” item in the list. Great idea, but we all know just about how much impact it is likely to have.

Just for background, Cell Phone Courtesy Month is something created by “etiquette expert Jacqueline Whitmore” and frankly it strikes me as being as much a promotional ploy for her business as anything, but if she gets some traction on it, good for her. Most of the items in her list have nothing to do with driving or motorcycles; they’re just common courtesy items that we probably all wish people would follow. Things like “Keep it private” and “Avoid ‘cell yell'” that we are all too familiar with.

But item number 12 is this:

Focus on driving. Practice wireless responsibility while driving. Don’t make or answer calls while in heavy traffic or in hazardous driving conditions. Place calls when your vehicle is not moving, and use a hands-free device to help focus attention on safety. Always make safety your most important call.

Wow, don’t we wish!?

Of course, Colorado has a law against texting while driving and we all know how that has totally brought an end to that practice, right? Yeah, right.

Meanwhile, people don’t have to be on their cell phones to create hazards for motorcyclists. Once again just this week I had the opportunity to loudly announce to someone wanting my lane that “Hey lady, I’m here!!!” She wasn’t on her cell phone; she was just annoyed at the slow driver ahead of her and wanted to zip around. Probably even checked her mirror, too, but did not turn her head to do a head check. Typical.

So I’m not going to get excited but it sure can’t hurt. What the heck, maybe it will make your next dinner in a restaurant more pleasant.

Biker Quote for Today

ATGATT: If you don’t think you need a helmet, you probably don’t.

Hang up and drive!

I was cruising up I-225 on Sunday, in the middle lane, and came up behind a car that was going significantly slower than the rest of traffic as well as the speed limit. As I got closer I saw he was also wandering in and out of his lane.

Pulling up closer behind him I could see something in his hand up at the top of the steering wheel. When I deemed it safe I pulled around him and as I passed I looked. He had the steering wheel in his left hand and that same hand was holding his cellphone. With his right hand he was either punching in a phone number or texting or who knows what. I motioned for him to hang it up but of course he didn’t see me. He wasn’t seeing any of the other traffic around him, he was looking at his goddamn phone!

Now you might think this was some kid who didn’t know any better, but he wasn’t. This was a guy with gray hair and a salt and pepper beard. And he could not have been any more clueless. I was just glad that I was now ahead of him and on a bike that could leave him in the dust. What is wrong with these assholes?

We had this discussion a couple years ago while out on the OFMC annual trip and I found it very interesting that Bill said he was confident that he could drive safely while talking on his cellphone. Bill, of course, is one of the older guys. It was Brett, one of the younger guys, who quickly replied, “Everyone thinks other people can’t drive safely while using their cellphone but they think they can.”

Well, here’s what I say. No one has any business using their cellphone while they’re driving. No one. Not you. Not your buddy. Not me, although I can honestly say I never have because I don’t own a cellphone.

Just hang up and drive.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Only a biker knows . . .: Motorcycle wit and wisdom, #26

Biker Quote for Today

When in doubt, gas it out. It may not solve the problem, but it will definitely end the suspense.