While the following incident did not happen here in Virginia, the circumstances of the incident are important for anyone in the country.
A woman was driving her car recently at a fast speed. A police officer noticed this and pulled her over. When the police officer approached the woman, he noticed that she was wearing a specialized piece of eyewear — which turned out to be Google Glass, the much-hyped device that basically acts like a smartphone implanted in your glasses. The officer wrote her a speeding ticket, but went a step further: he gave her an additional citation for what basically amounted to distracted driving (she was ticketed for watching a monitor that was visible to the driver).
Some believe that this is the first incident of a driver being ticketed for using Google Glass while driving. Even if it isn’t, the story itself speaks to two things:
- There are still way too many people out there who toe the line in terms of distracted driving
- There will always be emerging technologies that have the potential to distract us while driving
Look, no one should ever drive while distracted by another device, just like no one should drive while they are intoxicated. It is a tremendous privilege to be able to drive, and those who do sit in the driver’s seat need to be responsible.
Distracted driving is unacceptable, plain and simple. If a distracted driver causes an accident, they could be held liable in civil court for the injuries they have causes others.
Source: CNN, “Drive in Google Glass, get a ticket,” Heather Kelly, Oct. 30, 2013