Acting Like Nothing Happened

I don't know; maybe I'm just stupid or I don't get it. I have had 'incidents' where I was caught on a speed camera going above the speed limit so obviously I had to pay the fine but one thing I could say for sure besides feeling the loss of a few bucks was that I had to be careful. Similarly I know that when police are out and about, it's a good bet they are standing by looking to pull someone over so why tempt fate and continue burning rubber down the highway and end up with an even higher ticket if you can avoid it? I'm asking these somewhat rhetorical questions because I'm hoping that maybe it will help me understand why some folks just don't get that when the cause of an action is known, why keep doing it?

In this case (as you can probably guess from the accompanying picture) I'm referring to this recently released photo of a bus driver on the Ride On bus in DC a few days ago. Apparently she was reading while driving the bus. Now many readers know about my pet peeve of people reading, texting, eating, shaving or doing anything else that is distracting from the road and often nearly causing accidents; but what I don't get is that we are less than a month since that deadly Metro accident here in DC where it is speculated that the operator of the train that crashed into the other was likely distracted by texting. Now I am by no means implying that that is what was the only cause of the accident at that time, but knowing that it was under suspicion, why would other drivers want to continue doing similar activities as if they have a fatalistic streak?

Perhaps the driver felt that as a Ride On bus bus driver she wasn't under the scrutiny of the public but I think she needs to think again. Any and all drivers who now operate public transportation are going to undergo scrutiny now the likes of which probably hasn't been seen before. Already we've had postings to YouTube with passengers filming drivers texting or reading on their cell phones. They have photographic proof that there are some drivers out there who continue to flaunt their texting skills rather than their ability to operate a vehicle and behaving as if there's nothing wrong with doing it. I myself find it a little disturbing.

Now I wouldn't want to go the course that some people are going with this line of thought which says that we need to watch drivers constantly like hawks. We need to have cameras on them to ensure that they are only driving and nothing else. Well my question to them would be "who watches the watchers"? Why add all that unnecessary expense (which will only be passed along to passengers in the form of fare increases) when it should be common sense that activities that distract from driving can be dangerous. A spokeswoman for Ride On buses explained that she was confused as to how this could have happened. She mentioned that drivers are "specifically trained to not read while driving." So let me get this straight; they actually need to train and explain why it would be dangerous to read while driving? Perhaps the drivers worse than we thought.

Again, I'm not condemning drivers nor am I saying that the computer systems that run these trains or buses be upgraded to replace humans completely but what I am saying is that there apparently isn't enough screening of drivers or operators to ensure that they understand their responsibilities. I'm sure that if investigators or amateur cell phone reporters actually went out and did some surveys and filmed some footage, they'd find that the majority of drivers out there are doing what they're supposed to. It's the small majority that is ruining it for everyone else and also making it much more dangerous on the roads if what they appear to be doing continues in earnest.