On the way to the metro this morning, I witnessed something that gave me quite a jolt. A man with a cell phone glued to his ear jogged across a busy thoroughfare when the light was red for him. After he passed the median, he kept going. A car was coming in the centre of three lanes just as he got there, slammed on the brakes and hit him. With a screech and thud my heart stopped as I watched him bend at the waist and then bounce off the hood of the car and roll back onto the road. By some miracle, the man got up, phone still glued to his ear, and ran up the street. I couldn't believe it. I imagine he felt some pain after the shock wore off later on. That poor driver must have been shaken by the experience, as well.
The point of my telling you about this is not to wonder at his good fortune, but to underline the inevitability of the event. People lose focus while they're on the phone. I've had many occasions where I've had to honk at oblivious jaywalkers and judgement-impaired pedestrians as they wander into the street absorbed in their phone or music player. If this sounds like you, then I'm asking you to keep your head up, your eyes open, and to be more aware of what's going on around you. The last thing I'll say is that guy is damn lucky the driver wasn't on the phone.
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