iPod distraction leads to deadly crash

The link.

Quote :

According to police, the driver lost control, crossed over two lanes of
traffic and slammed into two pedestrians on the sidewalk who had just
walked out of the hospital.

19-year-old Nicole Gallo of Clifton Heights was pronounced dead at the
scene. Her best friend, Christine Bochanski, 20, of Lansdowne is listed
in critical condition at Crozer Chester Medical Center.

The driver, Rachel Jankins of Havertown, was treated and released from the hospital.

Investigators believe Jankins may have been distracted by an iPod at the time of the crash.

"She apparently was having problems with her iPod, reached down, wasn't
paying attention, lost control of the vehicle," Superintendent Michael
Chitwood explained. "The vehicle crossed over the two northbound lanes,
went up onto the sidewalk, the young girls had their back to the
vehicle, the vehicle just ran over them."

1. It is my understanding that listening to your iPod with a pair of headphones is illegal while driving for a good number of reasons so this driver is already an ass. BUT...

2. ...If her iPod was connected to her tape deck via one of those fantastic cassette tape type things that I use and love then here's a tip: if you are experiencing problems with it or need to change a song turn the volume all the way down until you reach a red stoplight to fix the problem. Please don't multitask and drive.

I'm not terribly surprised. My 19 year old cousin was hit by a train. We're pretty sure she was texting & listening to her iPod at the time. The train engineer said they blew the horn many many times, and those whistles are damn loud, yet she never looked up once.

A few years ago my friend nearly got hit by an oncoming driver who dropped a CD and was reaching down to try and get it. =/

Fucking... Wow. o_o I was nearly hit by a car once, but that was because it was a very dark afternoon/early evening, there was no sidewalk, and snow on the ground made a bunch of kids walk in the middle of the road instead of toughing it out on the snowy grass. A car had to stop at the top of a hill because they were in the way, and another (speeding) one behind it didn't realise there was a stopped car and a group of kids at the top. He thankfully missed all of us, but he slammed into a tree. Didn't hurt himself, just mashed up his car.

I can only imagine how fucked it must be to be in critical condition with A DEAD FRIEND over an iPod. >_<

iPod is devil's tool for getting rid of people. At least I am convinced.

It's a dumb way to die, but not nearly as dumb as that girl who fell in a manhole while texting and sued the city of New York for her stupidity.

I once ran off the road while trying to open a hot dog while driving. Learned my lesson real fast on that one.

iPods don't kill people. Stupidity kills people.

My sister once decided that she didn't need to steer the car if the road was straight, so she leaned down to search for a CD. We almost went off the road (at which point I learned that it is, in fact, possible to gasp and scream at the same time). She got mad and blamed the car for not going straight and said there was something wrong with the tires.

I never let her drive my car again.

She has now totaled two cars, had to have a third repaired repeatedly, and had a DUI.

Yeah, my sister's driving scares me.

Lady Anne wrote:

She got mad and blamed the car for not going straight and said there was something wrong with the tires.

Physics, motherfucker. Do you know it?