It seems the much-distracted, father-daughter driving duo who openly confessed their mutual cell phone addictions in the pages of The News & Observer last month has stirred up no end of commotion among the local rabble.
Far be it from me to exonerate this featherbrained pair of motorists, the junior member of which racked up three phone-instigated car wrecks in as many years. (By all accounts, her inability to properly estimate public sentiment at this revelation just about evenly matches her overall lack of judgment and self-control.) But if ever readers needed evidence to explain why there’s senseless tragedy, injustice and unabated evil in the world, I’d be more inclined to point them in the direction of the convoluted blathering of the two women who defended their obsessive need for cell phone distractions behind the wheel in yet another recent installment of the same Road Worrier column (“They call from the car, carefully,” Jan. 19). I haven’t a doubt that neither entertains the slightest suspicion of how absurd her arguments sound in the court of public opinion. And by comparison, they give Buckley and Tyler Strandberg the aura of self-flagellating saints.
One mark of an adult mind (as contrasted with the juvenile version of that equipment) is its ability to extrapolate actions into the future to contemplate possible outcomes and their implications for all concerned. But by their shortsighted rationalizations, Gilda Branch and Susan Jancuski reveal that neither age nor motherhood has contributed a scrap of maturity to either’s thought process. Each places her own interests and priorities squarely at the center of the excused misconduct without a shred of consideration to civic responsibility for the welfare of others.
Perhaps one day these ladies will share with us whatever measure of comfort her twisted justifications might confer waiting at the car wash while the blood of an eight-year-old she’s run over in a school crossing is scrubbed from her front bumper.
I vouchsafe no pity and spare no contempt for those who value human life less than their own personal comfort and convenience.
Both Ms. Branch and Ms. Jancuski are examples of the “it’s all about me mentality”, not caring at all who there actions might harm. What will their justification be when they eventually harm someone? Well, when that happens, it won’t be just the court of public opinion they will have to answer to, and then maybe they will learn (despite Ms. Jancuski’s assertions that she learned at age 16) how dangerous and irresponsible talking on a cell phone while driving is. Until then I guess we should all hope to be far away from both of them while they are driving, and pray for Ms. Jancuski’s children when they are in the vehicle with her. Oh, I forgot she won’t be distracted by her phone, but will when she turns down the radio to talk to her children!
I wish I could say the judicial system would put things to rights, but I’m skeptical it can be depended upon to do so.
Case in point: just last week, a North Carolina woman received a prison sentence of less than 18 months for hitting and killing a bicyclist last November and fleeing the scene. Her license had been revoked at the time, too. Although it appears no phone distractions were involved, it was evident nonetheless she had no business placing herself behind the wheel of a vehicle. It’s interesting that the prosecutor used words similar to yours to characterize her behavior.
My impression is that the relatively light sentence didn’t sit well with the community, either.