Today on the way to Sintra I came across two autozombies in IC19. Autozombies are a new category of motorists, who are characterized by trying to drive and exchange messages at the same time. A new epidemic that joins the already known ones: auto-accelerates and auto-drunkards. What's the most serious...
It is relatively easy to diagnose autozombie syndrome in a motorist. They circulate along the road to 'theses', oblivious of everything that surrounds them, responding only to the stimuli of the cell phone and the horns that kindly alert them to some lane departures and/or imminent accidents.
It is not a terminal illness (there is a cure…) but usually the cure comes in the form of a shock treatment: crash into a tree, crash into the back of another car, crash into a rail, etc. . There are autozombies that die during this treatment process, and they take some healthy motorists with them, which is even sadder.
Analogies aside, handling your cell phone while driving is a real public health problem. A behavior that must be socially disapproved of by all of us — as much as driving under the influence of alcohol, not least because the consequences are similar.
Don't be an autozombie. After all, the cell phone can wait. True?