A Close Shave

I have been thinking about when I was a teenager and my parents taught me to drive.

Sometimes my father instructed me. If my father wasn't available, my mother did. They had different styles. But they both emphasized the same thing over and over.

They told me to keep my eyes on the road.

There were a lot of distractions in those days. There are even more these days. I'm sure you've heard the reports of both adults and teenagers texting while behind the wheel — and slamming into the back of the vehicle ahead of them.

That's bad enough, but even before texting, I saw a lot of things that demonstrated to me that there were many people — licensed drivers — who never would have met my parents' standards.

I've seen people eating bowls of cereal while driving in rush–hour traffic. I've seen drivers who were looking in the rear–view mirror and combing/brushing their hair or applying makeup. I've seen drivers tying their ties and dabbing themselves with cologne.

I've even seen a few people who were actually changing their clothes while driving along.

In all honesty, I kind of thought I had seen it all.

But then Bob Gordon proved me wrong in Digital Journal.

Gordon reports that "[a] 37–year–old woman in Florida has been charged with reckless driving after causing an accident because she was distracted as she shaved her pubic hair."

Apparently, the woman was in an accident while she was "shaving her bikini area." Her ex–husband was handling the wheel from the passenger side. Here's the kicker — she was on her way to see her boyfriend and wanted to be ready.

Her vehicle, which was traveling at 45 mph, rear–ended a vehicle that had slowed down to make a turn.

Read Gordon's account. He quotes a state trooper who called it "surreal."

Must have been a real eyeful.