Wednesday, June 9, 2010

My "don't tweet and drive" story






So it's not smart to mess with your iPhone while driving. You shouldn't be tweeting, surfing, watching, emailing, listening, playing, managing, facebooking, or weather checking.
We all know this and if you all are like me, here is your quote:

"I know it's extremely dangerous to tweet while driving and I SHOULD stop."

Well consider me STOPPED.

Before I go into great detail about the Breathalyzer test I had to take, let me set this up a little bit.

It was mid-afternoon this past Saturday and I was leaving from my part-time job at The Home Depot to head home for the evening.

While on the road, I'm checking my updated tweets and emails. I felt I was doing a pretty good job of multitasking my phone and the road in front of me but as you will find out, apparently I wasn't...

I pulled in to my local grocery store(which I am currently mayor of by the way) to buy a 6-pack of beer and a couple groceries. while spending about 10 minutes in front of the ice cream section trying to make up my mind, I noticed the crazy old Jay C security guy was REALLY following me around.

Dude, I'm not going to steal this extreme moosetracks ice cream. I would gladly pay $20 bucks for it. It's like chocolate crack.

Anyway, he keeps following me around, but I figured it was just my imagination.

On my way home, I notice a couple County police cars following me. No big deal, I put my iPhone down and try to be the best driver I can be.

They light me up as I turn on HWY 150.

While pulling over, I'm trying to think of any reason at all why they would be stopping me. My license plate is up to date, all my lights work. I then see a second police car show up with it's lights on as well.

The first officer walks up to my window, and I notice the second one looking through my passenger side at me. He is probably taking a long hard look at the 6-pack of Blue Moon on my passenger seat.

With the standard cop tone, the officer says "Sir, the reason I pulled you over is because we noticed you drifting through a stop sign and swaying side to side on the road.
"Have you had anything to drink today?"

I honestly hadn't had a beer in the past three days so my answer was "no. I'm on my way home from work."

The cop starts questioning me about where I work and what I do etc. Then he asked me to take a really deep breath and breathe in his face.
My first thought is, "Oh crap, I bet I have really bad breath right now."
Then he says, "Would you be interested in taking a Breathalyzer test?"
"You actually had an off-duty Jeffersonville police officer following you as you went to Jay C.
He called in saying you were driving erratically."

Geez, so I had a bunch of cops staked out for me outside the Jay C store while I was getting my ice cream and beer. Maybe they even called the old security guy and told him to follow me around.

The officer comes up with the Breathalyzer test and there I am on the side of the road taking a test to prove I'm not drunk driving.

"You're clean," the cop says with a slightly surprised tone.

Me being the honest person, I told him the truth (Because it's not an Indiana law yet).
I was on my cellphone and I will take this as a sign to kick the habit.
The officer seems pleased that I told the truth and they let me go.

So here is the lesson. Experts tell us that tweeting and driving is just as bad if not worse than drinking and driving.
Well they are right because I got pulled over for drunk driving, had to breathe in an officer's face, and took a test just to PROVE I wasn't driving under the influence.
That's how bad my driving must have been, all because I was looking at updated tweets on the phone.

So I no longer look at my iPhone while driving. I'll just have to make do until I arrive to where ever I'm going.

Maybe all these people are right, that I really am a horrible driver. After all, this marks the SECOND time I have been wrongly pulled over drunk driving.

-Alex


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