Bill Gates Is Creating Road Hazards Across America
Last night on the drive into town to my 8-year-old son's basketball practice we were on a heavily trafficked city interstate around 5:15pm...rush hour and happy hour drivers were everywhere with bumber-to-bumper vehicles across 4 lanes. I was sitting in the passenger side, and I saw a large truck in front of us. As we pulled alongside I saw "Microsoft" boldly painted on the truck cargo area.
This was the Microsoft Across America campaign I had read about a couple of years ago! (Before you click the link, know that you will be bombarded with an annoying song before it gives you any information.)
As we were driving up beside, I moved from looking at the information on the side of the 42-foot long truck to looking into the cab. I was surprised to see the driver had a relatively large TV monitor mounted where the rear-view mirror is typically located...it was large enough that I could see what I'm pretty sure was CNN news! I would guess the screen was around 13" to 15". And, more disconcerting, the driver had his face pointed up at the monitor and not at the road!
We got away from that truck as safely and quickly as possible.
I can understand equipping these trucks with a TV to use when the truck is parked; but watching TV while driving in Friday night rush-hour traffic at 65 mph is absolutely nuts. Bill Gates should have better sense than to allow such irresponsible and dangerous driving practices from his personnel. I wonder how many accidents his computerlab-on-wheels has been involved in since this campaign started?
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Comments
different countries different rules - but here in New Zealand you can't get a warrant of fitness (6 month requirement to be on road) if the driver can see a tv screen
Posted by: dave | November 17, 2007 10:48 PM
Dave, that sounds like a great law!
It would be interesting to do a study of the laws in different countries and their corresponding accident statistics...I would think such a study would exist somewhere.
Posted by: Rebecca | November 18, 2007 12:42 PM
I believe in Iowa it is illegal to have a television screen in view of the driver (the second row minivan ones would be fine). That goes for a laptop screen as well.
Posted by: LonerVamp | November 20, 2007 10:13 AM
Most RV's have a monitor in place of the rear view mirror and a camera out the back. He was probably looking at the traffic behind him, not the news.
Posted by: Kathy Cooper | November 20, 2007 2:27 PM
Well, I admire you giving him the benefit of the doubt, Kathy.
However, I was close enough looking in his cab long enough to clearly see on the large monitor screen what looked like a news reporter sitting behind a desk talking, while a scrolling news marquee went across the bottom of the screen.
Lonervamp, you piqued my curiosity; I looked around just a little, and I couldn't find an Iowa law covering this; not even on the DOT site or within the Iowa Driver's Manual: http://www.dot.state.ia.us/mvd/ods/dlmanual/dlmanual.pdf. However, maybe there's one out there somewhere...
Here's an interesting story about the dangers of TV-watching drivers: http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2002-08-12-car-tv_x.htm
Posted by: Rebecca | November 21, 2007 2:13 PM