Crazy Videos: Driving With Feet Enables Two-Handed Texting

Driving With Feet Enables Two-Handed Texting….You see people on their phones all the time, but that took the cake,” Ms. Delong…

by, Robert Box

Just as children across the United States are beginning a new school year and driving safely in school zones is already of great concern, distracted drivers are becoming more brazen with their texting-while-driving habits.

A woman was seen in Pennsylvania last week driving with one foot on the steering wheel –so she could text with both hands.  The incident took place on the Schuylkill Expressway, a busy traffic thoroughfare in Philadelphia.

Sarah Delong and her husband, Shawn, witnessed the reckless texter and couldn’t believe their eyes. “Someone is going to get killed, that’s why I was so mad. You see people on their phones all the time, but that took the cake,” Ms. Delong told a local Philadelphia news station.

Ms. Delong shot the video from the passenger seat of their vehicle while Mr. Delong drove.

“At one point we beeped at her and I yelled ‘get off your phone!’ And she looked and smirked at me and went right back to doing whatever it was on her phone,” Ms. Delong said.

Unfortunately, there may be a trend of drivers becoming more and more brazen with their texting addiction and driving skill overconfidence.  Two weeks ago, a Colorado woman was observed driving on a freeway with her foot on the dashboard and her eyes buried in her phone as she texted away.

Incredibly, the offender in the video above isn’t the first.  A video was posted a couple of weeks ago of a man driving with his foot so his hands could be free to use his phone.

The offending drivers may be publicly shamed into more responsible driving behaviors by the videos that have gone viral on Facebook, but since there are videos, why doesn’t law enforcement use the videos to issue citations?  It’s not that easy.

At least in the case of the Philadelphia foot-driving, double-fisted texter, authorities have to catch a person in the act of performing the deadly stunt.  The video may not be sufficient to issue a citation, however, at least in Pennsylvania.

Safety First Consulting is a contributor of SM Corridor News and helps businesses identify OSHA compliance issues in their workplaces, manage their safety programs, and we become accountable for the results. In addition to offering custom written safety programs for companies, Safety First Consulting provides required safety training, industrial hygiene sampling, noise sampling, and workplace inspections. You can read more from Robert Box under Business.