Last Thursday was the first snow sighing of the season at your Sudbury Nissan Dealer. Some people were happy about the flakes, but most that I have talked to are disappointment. What I know for certain is that it took many drivers by surprise at how quickly the roads got slick. New slick roads mixed with multitasking drivers did not end well for myself.
Thursday night, October 27th, I was driving home from dinner at T.G.I.Fridays on Rt. 1 in Danvers. The rain was just beginning to change over to snow. Being an experienced New England driver I knew that the roads were going to be getting slick. Leaving some extra room between myself and the car in front of me I soon noticed that there was already an accident off to the side of the road. I came to a stop as traffic began to back up. Not even thirty seconds after my car came to a stop I hear a big CRASH! Then my car is hit as well, from the rear. It jerks forward sharply; luckily not hitting the car in front of me because I was smart enough to leave extra space.
Fortunately there was no major damage done to my car. The crash bar built behind the bumper did its job and popped the bumper right back into place after it was hit. I did end up taking a trip to the hospital on my own for minor whiplash. I found out later from the police report that the man who hit the line of three cars, including my own, was ON HIS CELL PHONE and did not realize the traffic was coming to a stop until it was too late. Slamming on his breaks at the last minute combined with a slick snowy road will never make for a safe combination.
Having been a victim of an accident caused by a driver talking on his cell phone has made me much more aware of just how dangerous texting and driving or talking and driving really can be. Luckily no one was seriously injured. Sadly though, the man who caused the accident was taken away in a ambulance (seen in image above) but has no major injuries. Was it karma that sent only him to the hospital in an ambulance and not anyone from the other three cars involved? Was it his old age that made him more fragile? Whichever the reason, this would have been 100% avoidable if he just had the common courtesy to himself and others around him to save the phone conversation for later when he was not in a moving vehicle. I had been skeptical about the banning of cell phones in cars up until now. I fully support the banning of cell phone use while a car is in motion. My solution, build into the phones, and car, a device that discontinues phone usage once the car passes a certain mph, like the way some car doors will lock themselves.
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