A small accident in the car

on Saturday grounded someone I know. He was waiting at the lights when someone ran into the back of his car.  

Nobody was hurt but he was badly shaken by the incident. The policeman who attended the incident has told him he is in no way to blame. He was stationary at the time and had been for some moments. The other man was simply not paying attention. He was using his phone at the time. 

S... is fuming of course. I don't blame him. He has to be without his car while it gets repaired. There is all the paper work and the inconvenience and the way it prevented him from giving a friend some help. Even with insurance this is going to cost him something. The other driver has presumably been reported and will no doubt face court at some point. 

I will likely never know what the final outcome is but, when he was telling us what had happened, S... said, "Couldn't that call have waited? He was just chatting to his girlfriend!"

If I was the girlfriend I'd ditch him immediately. Why? He's grossly irresponsible. Perhaps she is too - if she knew he was driving and talking to her.  

It reminded me of something else. A former neighbour has recently published a piece of research in which he argues that using cannabis does not impair your ability to drive.  It is serious, academic research. He is now doing some more work on the same issue. I have looked at it and I can understand why he has come to those conclusions. Perhaps I should then agree with him but I don't.

I don't because I would like to take his argument a step further and say, "But if you are the sort of person who is prepared to break a law which says using cannabis is illegal and driving with the effects of cannabis in your system is illegal then are you a responsible driver?"

Possible physical impairment is still an issue but combine it with the mental attitude and the answer to that question surely has to be "no".