Hang up and drive!

[MaryS]

http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/anchorag ... 76044.html

SUV driver trying to pick up dropped cell phone hits train

Anchorage Daily News

Published: July 24th, 2009 11:25 PM
Last Modified: July 24th, 2009 11:26 PM

An SUV driver plowed across a median and several lanes of traffic Friday afternoon before striking a train in West Anchorage, all of it ostensibly begun when the man dropped his cell phone, according to police.

Neither the man, who was not immediately identified, nor the passengers on the train full of tourists were injured in the wreck at about 2:15 p.m., police said. The man lost control of the SUV at the intersection of International Airport Road and Northwood Drive, police Lt. Dave Parker said.

The train was moving on tracks that parallel International on its north side.

"The person who called actually thought he hit it intentionally," he said.

The man told police, however, that he had been driving east on International when he lost control of the vehicle, jumping through the median, darting across oncoming lanes of traffic and striking the side of the train with the left front of the vehicle, Parker said.

"His story was that he had dropped his cell phone and was attempting to retrieve it," he said.

The SUV was totaled. Damage to the train was not immediately known, because it continued on without stopping, Parker said.

The man was not immediately cited, but police and the Alaska Railroad were continuing to investigate.

[DegenerationX]

Hopefully there was at least someone on the phone with him.

[Marat]

Nothing like seeing a 17-year-old girl backing out of a parking spot with one hand on the wheel and one hand on the cell phone to send my choo-choo 'round the bend.

IMHO, cell phone talking while driving should draw the same punishment as a DUI.

[Kermit]

I shudda posted the one about the wrecker driver who was texting on one phone and talking on another.
Hit a car, went onto a lawn and hit a house a glancing and ended up nose-down in a swimming pool.

The fool wasn't hurt (except maybe financially!).

[Dgstan]

With all this hand-wringing over the budget crisis, why don't we start enforcing the laws we have on the books. Anyone who's seen using a cell phone while driving is fined $1000. The budget crisis is solved in 48 hours.

You're welcome Arnold.

[Lurker]

What would Willie Shoemaker say?