This from an article at semissourian.com
The guy driving the tractor trailer had dropped his phone while driving. Of course he had to get the phone back, I'm sure something very important, matters of life and death even, were hanging over his head. Once he came back up from the phone search, he was too close to the truck in front of him to avoid hitting it. The front axel on the semi broke, dropping the cab onto the ground where the fuel tanks ignited. The explosions that ensued included the tires exploding and threw two firefighters ten feet while also throwing rubber and other debris about.
The article doesn't mention anyone being seriously hurt and does explain that the firefighters' injuries were not serious. The truck that got hit was trailing a road work crew, giant arrow flashing, in part as a safety measure to avoid situations like this. It's pretty dangerous to work on a road crew on the side of an interstate. This crew was installing rumble strips in the breakdown lane, those things that wake your ass up when you doze off on that long drive. I don't know if it's quite ironic, the crew installing a safety device being involved in this sort of accident, but it's something.
The Wired article I stole this from mentions safer technology and using your phone more sensibly. I don't think that's the solution for the most part. I think most drivers could easily just not use their phones while they are driving. Calls can be made and returned while stopped, and most of us probably wouldn't miss the little bit of time we stopped to be safe. That amount of time is certainly small compared to the amount of time lost to an accident, not to mention the safety of people in your car as well as those people in other cars, those people you don't know.
I've blogged about this kind of thing before. It's sort of an issue with me. I would really hate for my life to be impacted by an accident because of the selfishness of someone else. If I leave the house, I'm almost guaranteed to see someone driving poorly while talking on the phone. I'm just as likely to see an accident narrowly missed, not avoided as that would take people being mindful of the situation. These people never even notice how close they came to an accident. Whether it's a minor fender bender or an exploding truck shooting tires and wheels into the air, car accidents are shitty to force on other people.
Hang up and drive.
