Wow.  I had been planning to write a post about people who text message/read email while driving. I had this sucker sitting in the queue and then lo and behold there is something related to it in the national news.

Now, I’ll be honest: I’m not too sure if this is true or not but for the sake of this post I’m just going to roll with it. Evidently, Governor Corzine, who wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, was being driven in his SUV by a state trooper.  The trooper was doing 91 mph and allegedly reading text messages on his cell phone.  91 mph in a 65 mph zone.  Ok, that’s just nuts. The most I’ll do is possibly 80 in a 65mph zone and that’s only because if you don’t then the people around you on the beltway will run over you and kill you.  But 91?

So I admitted to driving over the speed limit. I’m also guilty of reading while I’m driving.  However, I put a stop to that when I had a small incident in North Carolina. The one lane road that I was on split in a really weird way. I was busy reading an email and I wasn’t yet familiar with the road. The next thing you know is that I look up from my phone and I have to jerk the steering wheel abruptly to make sure I didn’t end up in oncoming traffic.  I wound up in the turning lane of traffic going the other way. Luckily, there were no cars and little to no traffic.

But 91 mph while texting? In an SUV? 91 mph in an SUV is pushing it as it is.

I put people who read email messages while driving right up there with people who talk on cell phones, read the paper, apply make up, and any number of things that distract them from paying  attention to the road and their car. Hell, I try not to do it while walking, either. Every time I see someone text messaging while driving I want to nudge their car a little with my car just to remind them to pay attention.