| Fighting Families and Tinted Windows | Toronto Star Wheels - 06/05/04 | |
We can see you when you’re driving with one hand and slopping hot coffee down the front of your shirt with the other. We can, unfortunately, see you when you’re busy probing your various bodily orifices. We can see you when you’re rockin’ on to your favourite tunes, and we can see you when you’re bickering with your family.
And lately that last one, driving while arguing (D.W.A.), seems to be happening with alarming frequency.
Just yesterday while motoring down a major highway, my attention was drawn to a Jeep Cherokee being driven in a somewhat erratic manner. Impaired? Nope, turns out the driver was D.W.A. Each time he spoke, the Jeep driver leaned farther and farther across the front seat towards his passenger. It was as if he wanted to make sure his words reached their mark.
For his part the passenger sat stiffly facing forward, only snapping his head around sharply when he spat a response back at the driver. You could almost see the angry words flying between the two.
Last seen speeding down an off-ramp, it’s hoped that the bickering duo reached their destination safe and sound, if not in spirit then at least in body.
Oddly enough I’ve spotted several other carloads of Bickersons lately. While such rolling arguments are unfortunate and can be dangerously distracting, it’s easy to understand how things deteriorate to such a state. One seemingly innocent comment gone awry is all it takes to fuel an argument between weary passengers stuffed into less than generous seating and held hostage by a road trip that’s gone on far too long.
Throw a few kids into the mix and you inevitably end up with the classic family triangle: child vs. child vs. parental referee, which of course then leads to the uttering of those immortal words: “If you guys don’t cut it out I’m going to turn this car around.”
Amazing isn’t it, how in the space of just a few short miles, things can go from chatting amicably to icy silence. Passengers turn a cold shoulder and feign a sudden interest in the view out their window, while scowling drivers clench the steering wheel, their brow deeply furrowed, their steely gaze seemingly fixed on the road ahead.
But far from focusing on their driving, many post-argument drivers are in fact still seeing red; their cognitive abilities else wise occupied as they continue to seethe, rehash, regroup, or search their brain for the perfect comeback they should have said. In reality, the effects of D.W.A. linger long after the verbal sparing has ceased.
So, as tempting as it is may be to begin a discussion while in the car, one does after all have a captive audience, it may be best to avoid discussing things of a sensitive nature, especially with the driver. It is never a good idea to raise the ire of the person in charge of heavy motor vehicle traveling at a high rate of speed down a crowded highway.
Admittedly though, avoiding such distracting discussions, especially amongst family members, is easier said than done.
Perhaps then, in the interest of safer roads (not to mention family harmony), this year when the police hit the road for their annual traffic enforcement blitz they could add a new element. Along with the usual “Wreck Check”, R.I.D.E., and Operation Impact, these official keepers of the peace could also launch S.O.S., (Stop Our Squabbling).
Surely a campaign such as Operation Q.T. (Quarrel Termination) would go a long way in reducing the mayhem, both on our streets and in our cars.
Please note: all knowledge of this subject was gleaned strictly from the observation of other motorists, as things never deteriorate to such a degree in the author’s vehicle... -well, okay, almost never.