For more in this week’s distracted-driving file, we turn to Senator John Thune with this message from Highway 212:
It appears this tweet is from the passenger seat of a moving vehicle. I can’t see enough of the face in the rearview mirror to tell who’s driving, but I’ll assume that that the Senator’s aide is handling the wheel while the Senator himself mans the social media.
But look at that phone depicted in this Twit-pic streaming video of a baseball game. If the passenger is watching the game, that’s fine, but you’d think the passenger would watch that video on his side of the car, perhaps holding the phone in his lap, where the moving images would not distract his driver, whose attention is required to protect the second-most powerful Republican in the United States Senate. However, in this photo, the phone streaming video has been placed at the center of the dashboard, squarely in front of the navigation display, clearly in the driver’s field of vision. Even if you’re a good driver, it’s hard not to be distracted by sudden movement. Your driver brain actually kinda sorta oughta be on a hair-trigger for sudden movement—swerving cars, leaping deer, suicidal drug abusers poised to ruin your political career…. If you want to maximize your chances (and everyone else’s) of making it safe and sound to Leo’s Good Food for sour cream raisin pie (wait—the sign said good food), you might want to keep that video away from your driver.
You might also not want to tweet an example of distracted driving on the eve of your Attorney General’s sentencing for operating a motor vehicle while using a mobile device. I know, Senator Thune, I know, you’re not doing the driving, so you’re not violating SDCL 32-26-47.1, which prohibits using a mobile electronic device while operating a motor vehicle, or SDCL 32-26-47.2, which prohibits accessing, reading, or posting to a social networking site while operating a motor vehicle. I’m just saying that it’s never a good week to be playing videos where your driver can see them, but this week is a particularly bad week for setting that bad example for highway safety.
Thune is a long-time supporter of self-driving cars. He should upgrade this sedan to a Corolla, Sonata, Civic, or one of the other 100 cars that supports the new comma three plug-and-go openpilot kit… and enjoy better-than-human highway driving.
The driver still has to watch the road, but the chance of having an accident is greatly reduced.
Kind regards,
David
If shiny happy Marlboro Barbie is the second most powerful magat, the party of Lincoln has fallen well below the poverty of decency threshold line.
The timing for Thune’s Facebook post couldn’t be worse. I agree Cory, why is the phone with game on sitting in front of the vehicle’s land navigation system?! Doesn’t the driver need to know where he’s going? How could this not distract the Thune’s chauffeur?
C’mon people-this is South Dakota country, where if you are an important Republican you can carelessly run over a man, grind his bones into the asphalt and deny knowing anything about what happened for almost a year before facing trial for it and receive a slap on the wrist!
This happens in GOP controlled government.
The same people that elected Ravnsborg elected Thune.
Well Cory, Thune’s time has come and gone. Sad isn’t it? He’s been a loyal Republican his entire life but now with the trumpies, that’s meaningless. From now on they are the party of lies and simple pursuit of power. I’m not sure what Thune has ever really stood for, in beating Daschle he deprived South Dakota of tons and tons of projects that would have come South Dakota’s way, but somehow he’s just there. Maybe he has a secret life that he’s passionate about but otherwise he just looks lost in the ozone.