Tag Archives: vomit

Driving Distracted

As often happens when I’m driving with the kids, one of them started getting carsick. When someone in the back seat is gagging and spraying all over my luxurious vinyl interior it’s pretty tough to concentrate on driving. I pulled over to the side of the road.

Claire was fine, but it got me thinking about something I’d read in the book “Traffic” and on the author Tom Vanderbilt’s blog, How We Drive. He writes about the dangers of driving while talking on the cell phone and I had a hard time understanding the difference between talking on the phone and talking to a passenger. Dialing the phone could also be compared to fiddling with the radio or GPS. Why do cell phones pose a distinct hazard that those other activities don’t?

An article in the Washington Post cites research:

A 1997 study in the New England Journal of Medicine and a
report by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety in 2005 found
drivers who use cell phones while driving were four times more likely
to be in a crash.

Hands-free devices may also cause a hazard, Froetscher added. A
study by researchers at the University of Utah found no difference in
driver concentration between using hand-held or hands-free devices. In
fact, talking to a passenger while driving is much safer than talking
on a cell phone, the Utah researchers noted.

I assume the reason is a matter of context. The passenger riding shotgun is experiencing traffic along with you. This means they see and hear what you hear, and adjust their conversation accordingly. They may even notice and point out things you haven’t. If it’s your mom, she may even slam hard on the passenger brake, signaling her dissatisfaction with your hoonage.

The National Safety Council backs this up:

“When you’re on a call, even if both hands are on the wheel, your head is in the call, and not on your driving,”
Froetscher said. “Unlike the passenger sitting next to you, the person on the other end of the call is oblivious to
your driving conditions. The passenger provides another pair of eyes on the road.”

My puking kids don’t have that ability, however. I’ll have to continue to resort to pulling over and grabbing a towel and spare pants from the trunk.

My Car Made Her Puke

My daughter Claire has been retching as we approached our car lately. She says it’s the “smell” but I think it’s psychosomatic; she remembers times she had motion sickness and when she sees the car it triggers an upset stomach. Well, today she went and puked in the parking lot of a rest stop. More details and a technicolor photo after the jump…
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My Car Induces Vomiting

barf buddyMy daughter Claire has started retching every time we approach the Brick now. She complains about having to get in because it’s an “old car”. I think she’s gotten motion sickness so many times that she now associates the car with vomiting and has a psychosomatic reaction. Or maybe we didn’t clean up the puke well enough from her last incident. At least we have vinyl seats.

I tried to fix the situation by getting a “new car scent” deodorant disc to clear the air but I don’t think it helps. It would take a carpet replacement to get this car to come close to smelling like new; instead the thing now smells like a bar of soap. Claire keeps telling me I should buy the red Cobra Mustang she saw in Auto Trader. Sure thing.