Time after time I find myself observing the comings and goings of the various people in and out of my place of work. Given my job, I meet a lot of different people; tourists, locals, children and adults. I work at a CVS pharmacy where I manage the store while the manager is off, a shift supervisor in title. My job is to hold down the fort and keep the store running while maintaining a professional and efficient work schedule. This leads me to observe the people coming into the store since I have to make myself readily available to assist them when they require help finding an item. As of late I have noticed a definite increase in cell phone users, most notably in the younger persuasion. And it is during these times that a sense or feeling of grief temporarily comes across me. See every time I see a young adult with a cell phone strapped to their face as they open the door I am reminded of the day I almost lost a second mother. It always keeps me wondering if technology is out distancing the ability of today’s youth to handle such responsibilities.
The story of my second mother takes place 2 years ago when she was driving across state to visit one of the stores belonging to the local gas station; she is a Subway district manager for the gas stations that have them. Her job is to visit the stores and make sure they are adhering to the Subway code of conduct. She has several under her jurisdiction and as such she is on the road a lot. I have always liked her and even if she was not my biological mother, she IS my “other mother” regardless. One day she was headed to the next state up and was about a mile away from her store when suddenly a car from the next lane crossed over and hit her dead on at 60 mph. For those of you who don’t understand; when you have one car going 60 mph and another car going 60 mph and one hits the other head on, the force of the impact registers at 120 mph. That like taking a race car and going at max speed into a wall. Both the car and my other mother’s minivan came to a dead stop. The surrounding cars all stopped and no one else was involved. As everything was getting sorted out, my second mother was passing out and to this day she thinks she was about to die, but a motorist had run up and put his hand on her arm and asked her if she was alright. Aside from the motor of the minivan resting on her legs, a broken thigh bone, and head trauma, she was still alive and able to speak that she was still with the living. The other driver wasn’t so lucky. The young girl died on the impact.
Why did this happen? What would possess a person to suddenly swerve into oncoming traffic? The answer sadly came from a friend of the girl whom she was texting with; at the moment of the accident. The friend had been carrying on a text conversation with the girl, and at some point the girl must have forgotten to watch her driving and had veered into the other lane. It will be a mistake their family and friends have to live with for the rest of their lives, and a sad reminder for my other mother for the rest of hers. It’s hard for her these days getting around; she had broken her thigh bone very close to her knee joint, the doctors didn’t think they could put a pin into what was left of the bone in that leg but they managed. Every time it gets cold or her arthritis kicks up she has to lie down and double her medication. Every time she has to feel that pain, she feels the pain of the loss of that young girl. And every time she remembers all of that, she realizes that a young girl died by crashing into her. Maybe it was because my other mother is such a gentle soul, maybe it’s because of the shock of finding out that she alone had survived when one younger had not, but regardless she holds herself to blame for the loss of that life.
So each day I see a person walk to my store with their head in a phone, or so wrapped up on texting whomever they are texting to the point they wait for someone else to open the door, I just want to run up there and scream at them to come back to the here and now, or they might just look up one day and see a minivan they’re about to crash into. I don’t think they realize just how much they affect others around them when they turn off the world and turn on their cell phones.
Man Jack, I totally agree with you. It is definitely worse than driving drunk. I totaled my 1987 full size Bronco while driving down highway 231 about ten years ago. I to was on my cell phone and when I turned it off, I threw it over in the passenger seat. When my phone hit the seat it bounced and almost flew out the window drawing my attention away from the road. I was going about 60 mph and slammed into a guard rail on the side of the road mangling both my truck and the rail. I managed to walk away with nothing but a busted lip and a body full of adrenaline. Luckily I don't have to wake every day knowing that my stupid actions caused someone else any injury, pain, or death. I did however end up buying a nice, brand new guard rail for the Florida D.O.T. The texting age has definitely added to the danger associated with cell phone use and people need to do as the bumper sticker says, "Hang up and drive!"
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