Va. woman while on cell phone walks in path of truck and is killed.

[napi21]

This was just on the CNN crawl.

A Virginia woman, while talking on her cell phone, walked behind a garbage truck as it was backing up, and was struck and killed.

Hmmmm. People can't drive while talking on their phone! Now they can't walk, see & hear EITHER!!!

[Cronus Protagonist]

1. Another Darwin Award Recipient

You might be a Republican if...
http://cronus.com/quiz

Commentary by a Republican...
http://cronus.com/republican

The REAL Republican Platform...
http://cronus.com/platform

Bush's Illustrated Resume
http://cronus.com/bushresume

Isn't That Strange?
http://cronus.com/oil

:)

[madmax]

2. Dumb people can't be saved from themselves.

Every time I'm out I notice more and more people just can't do a freaking thing anymore unless they have the damn phone stuck in their ear. In the grocery store, the book store, the cleaners - they're everywhere.

And one can tell it's not about something related to the task at hand. They forgot something or whatever, it's just DIARRHEA OF THE MOUTH all day long. STFU!! Go home and call everyone in your phone book!

I have a cell phone and the only reason I have one is in case I break down somewhere. I've had it for over a year and never have used it once! <rant over>

[notadmblnd]

6. it bothers me too that cell phones are everywhere

I gave up my land line years ago. But when I go out my phone gets left at home. As far as I'm concerned it's just a leash and I don't need it.

[theHandpuppet]

9. I'm with you...

To top it off, too many of these obsessive yakkers apparently believe their conversations are still PRIVATE (ie, as if no one can overhear them), even when they're incessantly blabbing about most "intimate" details of their lives right in the middle of the grocer's checkout line.

Damn, I wish those things came with a self-destruct feature.

[tango mike]

3. too bad for her, bet this happens more than we think

although trucks have the 'beep-beep' when backing up, pretty hard to not notice them.

Nonetheless, big trucks and even passenger vehicles have blind spots. The new generation of in-vehicle backup video images may seem like overkill, but if it prevents even one child from getting run over it will be worth it.

[napi21]

8. OH, BS! If you're too dumb to pay attention to your surroundings,

you deserve what you get. Too bad I sound unsympathetic, but I'm tired of some people hoping someone else will always be watching out for them to do something stupid.

[atre]

22. You're assuming attentiveness is part and parcel of intelligence

I have - for what it is worth - a relatively high IQ. I also have scholarly work that is published. Yet I still make stupid errors everyday, like not noticing the light is red or forgetting to bring important documents to meetings when needed. A professor with whom I have worked also has the same problem to an even greater degree, and I don't think anyone would accuse him of being an idiot (spacey and aloof, yes; idiot, hell no).

I can assure you that attentiveness has virtually nothing to do with intelligence. In fact, if any study were done on the subject, I think you would find an inverse correllation (judging by my experiences with many academics).

If you guys want to pretend you're immume to these types of mental lapses and therefore in some way genetically superior to people who make such errors, by all means continue on with your delusion.

This is bad P.R., folks. What if a member of her family by chance perused this very thread? Let's have a little decency, please. Personally, I find cheering on death (see: "Yeah!" above) is as sick when Democrats do it as when Bush does it.

[lightbulb]

32. running a red light is more than a casually stupid error

"Yet I still make stupid errors everyday, like not noticing the light is red or forgetting to bring important documents to meetings when needed."

Anyone who is prone to making the stupid error of not noticing the light is red should not have a driver's license. I'm not trying to attack you personally, but an automobile becomes a flat out death machine when operated by people who are prone to such oversights. Sure, we all make dumb mistakes when we're not paying attention. But when I hop in my car or on my motorcycle, all focus goes to the road, and dumb mistakes simply are not made. There's just no room for them out there. We're all counting on each other for survival, after all.

/rant off

[atre]

42. Is lack of reading comprehension more than a casually stupid error?

Try re-reading that sentence and see if you can spot your mistake. Hint: you made an assumption that happens to be erroneous.

[napi21]

40. We obviously disagree on the definition of idiot.

It does not take intelligence or a high IQ, or lack of either to be an idiot. I agree, everybody has memory lapses. I would hope the "not noticing a red light" is very infrequent!

My definition of an idiot is someone who simply disregards common sense. Some people can do many things at one time, and some can't. You know the old joke about walking and chewing gum at the same time. If you are so imersed in a phone conversation that you aren't paying attention to the loud beeps of a truck baking up, or any other life threateing situation, you should have enough common sense to stop in a safe place, finish the conversation, and then proceed.

Idiots are not all intelligent or dumb, old or young. They simply do not use their brain when they should.

[canuckforpeace]

46. Hence the term "absentminded professor" n/t

[progressivebydesign]

4. That happens a lot, cell phone or not!

I still remember an elderly couple in Ojai, who were out walking and were both killed by a backing garbage truck. Sad... I'm too paranoid to walk behind trash trucks or buses, I can't move that quickly!

[BeyondGeography]

5. We'll be hearing about Blackberry-related deaths next

The so-called Crackberry is highly addictive.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

7. Must've been a helluva conversation.

I'm really trying to feel sorry for her, but having watched the idiots attempt to drive and blather on cell phones, I'm not doing well.

[Blue Gardener]

43. Drive, talk on the cell phone AND smoke a cigarette

While driving a big-ass SUV in heavy traffic. Saw that woman the other day...what an idiot.

[VOX]

10. Wonder what the person on the other end heard?

Actually, I'm very sorry that this woman was killed. But the way people put themselves (and others) at risk while using their damned cell phones, I'm not at all surprised that it happened.

[SotarrTheWizard]

11. looks like we have. . .

. . . a nominee for this year's http://www.darwinawards.com>Darwin Awards

[soleft]

12. Tragedies like this happen all the time, cell phones are not

People make tragic mistakes because their minds are elsewhere. Have you ever seen the video - actually it's old black and white super 8 footage, of a woman getting struck by a train because she was watching a slow moving train pull into the station and ran to cross the tracks not realizing a fast moving train was coming in right behind it. The man next to her stopped, but the woman kept going.

I once heard about a guy who woke up on a train and realized the train was just pulling away from his stop. Not even fully awake he jumped up and tried to get off the train and was killed.

It's sad

[Pithlet]

15. Yes.

I'm reading a book right now about just how much of an illusion our perception of continuous conscious awareness is. There are so many things going on in our brains all the time, processing all of the input, and we aren't aware of 90% of it. If someone is even just a little tired or stressed, it can make a big difference.

[Roy Robertson]

18. Sounds like an interesting book: reference, please? (nfm)

[Pithlet]

33. Phantoms in the Brain.

By Dr. Vijay Ramachandran (I'm sorry, I don't know if I spelled his name right; I don't have the book right in front of me at the moment). He co-wrote it with a science writer who's name escapes me at the moment, also. I'm running a little bit of a fever, so I'm foggy right now.

It's fascinating. He was on Nova recently discussing the phenomenon of phantom limbs, so I went and bought a couple of his books.

[lpbk2713]

35. I saw that fascinating episode of Nova.

I was amazed at the story of how someone scratching their face can experience a sensation in a limb that is no longer attached. (The two areas of the brain are adjacent and they melded together due to non-usage.) I found the doctor's work very interesting.

[Pithlet]

38. The books go into further details

and also give more examples and case studies. He also describes tricks that you can do yourself to create phantom like experiences. One of them is supposed to make it feel like your nose has stretched out two feet long! I haven't tried them, yet.

There's a lot more than just the phantom limb stuff, too, like the consciousnesses stuff I was talking about initially.

[Roy Robertson]

44. I've always wondered why having a cell-phone conversation

would make you any more oblivious to your surroundings than having a "normal" conversation with someone next to you. Apparently it does, though.

Reminds me of a psych experiment in which freshmen volunteers watch a short video containing a lot of random busy activity, like 4 people in a room tossing basketballs to each other. The volunteers are asked to keep track of something in the video, like how many times the black tee-shirt guy tosses the ball to the white tee-shirt guy. After several minutes of this, a guy in a gorilla suit walks into the scene with the ball-tossers, waves to the camera, and walks out, while the ball-tossing continues. When the video ends, the experimenter asks the volunteers how many of them saw the gorilla. A LOT of them don't see it, and many even have to be shown the video again to convince them there really was a gorilla.

Thanks for the book reference. I'll see if I can find it tomorrow.

Roy

[Butterflies]

16. That waking up on the train story was on "The Twilight Zone"

The man had a crappy life, so he kept falling asleep on the train and dreamed about a 19th century town called "Willoughby" (?) where he felt he belonged. In the end he dreamed the train was at that town and he sleepwalked off of the moving train and was killed.

I'm not saying it didn't also happen in real life though.

[atre]

23. That wasn't a woman, it was a young girl nm

Otherwise, I agree completely with what you are saying.

[hlthe2b]

13. this doesn't surprise me: I see this self-absorption all the time...

In the grocery store, I can't tell you how many times I've been "crashed into" by the carts of idiots immersed in their cell phone calls....I especially love the pissed off looks they give you when you point out that whatever line they are cued into has moved forward and the checker or counter staff are motioning them to come up. How dare I interrupt their conversation and train of thought!

[ObaMania]

14. Yup, happened in the town where I work..

.. I love it!

That's how it is here (other places too, I'm sure. People think they and their calls are so f'n important! The one that kills me is the dude rappin' on his cell while using the men's comfort station at work! That should be a lesson to other idiots who just have to have a cell stuck to their head all the time.

Gee, I hope it makes Oddball tonite!

[bill]

17. Just a little splash...

of chlorine in the gene pool

[DS1]

19. big fucking deal. next!

:eyes:

[George W. Dunce]

20. Nothing worse then people

with the cell phone on the belt. Hey look at me I have a phone!!!! WOW I am so impressed can I get a belt clip for my phone and wear it like that!!! I also can't stand people forcing their conversation on me. In elevators or store lines STFU I could care less get over youselvs.

[DS1]

21. Signal to shovel in three seconds flat

Talk about skipping the middlemen

/off to hell

[0007]

24. What the fuck is it with cell phone?

Half the folk I see shopping these days are on the phone. And while driving I'm seeing more and more people using cell phones.

What is there to talk about?

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

25. I'm not sure what these people are always talking about

on their cell phones. I think it is annoying too. I think one of the reasons people are constantly talking on their cell phones is because most people now have plans with lots of any time minutes and unlimited night and weekend minutes.

[skygazer]

26. Listen to you people!!

Okay, I get annoyed all the time at self-important people and their cell phones. I work at a grocery store and they're always coming through my checkout line yakking away and being rude about it and I see them doing dumb things driving, etc.

So this woman wasn't paying attention and got run over and killed. How is that funny!? It might just as well have been a kid with a walkman or an elderly person thinking about an appointment. Or you. It's not funny and it's not payback - it's a bummer of a thing to happen to ANYBODY.

Sometimes I can't believe how cold people can be.

[Serenades]

28. the strangest

And the most weird thing about all of this is that the same people talk about how dumb the freepers are for making light of the deaths of iraqis and the like are the same posting on this thread. Talk about coldhearted. This is ridiculous.

[TX-RAT]

29. I agree

[lightbulb]

34. It gets hard to overlook

"Sometimes I can't believe how cold people can be."

I'd venture to theorize that a lot of people here feel mortally violated when their lives are put at risk by careless phone-talkers while driving. Even though this woman wasn't driving, she may still represent the same problem in the eyes of a lot of people; a symbol of the type of idiocy that threatens all of us on the road. People find it hard to feel pity when something threatens their lives.

Just and idea. Or maybe there are just a bunch of heartless bastards here. But I seriously doubt that.

[fishnfla]

27. $100 bucks says her family sues Nokia and the garbage co both

[lpbk2713]

30. And if the party on the other end of the phone has deep pockets.......

them too.

[skygazer]

31. And the repugs will howl

about "frivolous lawsuits" and suddenly everyone who posted on this thread will be defending the woman and talking about what a tragedy it was.

[H2O Man]

36. Free minutes!

Get your 15 minutes of fame on your new cell phone!

Sorry. Sad when anyone dies, but I was disabled by a person on a cell phone who failed to notice two stop signs and a red light.

[mitchum]

37. Thank god she wasn't driving...

or someone else could have suffered from her stupidity

[devilgrrl]

39. No great loss...

Anyone that stupid deserves death - what an idiot!

[Mr_Spock]

41. Wow, I'm sick because I am smiling about this. I've been cut off SO

frequently by woman driving SUV's who are on the phone and don't know, or care or who didn't see a yield sign or the fact that I was driving beside them. I have absolutely NO sympathy for someone who's friggin' life is dominated by talking on their God damned cell-phone. Call me a mean person.

[ilovenicepeople]

47. Mean Person

:hi:

[jdj]

45. these trucks go BEEP...BEEP...BEEP very loudly when in reverse.