[SunRescue] OT: public service announcement

[Jonathan Katz]

We're geeks. [ Well, at least some of us. ]

We're prone to do geeky things.

I'm willing to wager that at least some members of this list have
used laptops while driving... or as a passenger, or have had a
passenger in their car use a laptop.

If you're out west you *may* have heard this story (slightly
mangled) on the traffic reports...

Some good friends of mine were carpooling into work. The car in front
of them lacked brake lights. My friends wound up rear-ending the car
in front of them. Airbags deployed as they should have. Airbag deploys
for the passenger who's using the laptop. So you have an airbag
deploying at an insane velocity into a laptop screen. The laptop 
screen is then propelled into the passenger's face at a crazy
velocity. As you can imagine a laptop screen nailing someone in the
face at an insane velocity isn't a good thing.

The good news is that my friend will recover. It may take two months,
but she'll recover. The docs had to pluck three peices of eyeglasses
from one eye and lots of laptop screen from her face.

This is one thing that most of us would never think of as being a 
problem (passenger using a laptop while driving.) But it looks like
it can be. Moral of the story: if you have a passenger-side airbag
don't let your passenger use a laptop while driving. It may mean
no mp3s or GPS during your long trip, but the risk/reward isn't worth
it. I know several times in the past I've been a passenger of have
had a passenger using a laptop. This behavior is definately going to
change for me.

I wouldn't recommend looking at the pictures on a full stomach
if you're squeamish, or if you're planning on eating in the 
near future. The good news is I talked to Janice on the phone and
she sounds fantastic. Note the first picture is one taken of Janice
Sunday morning (the accident occured Thursday, February 8th.) She
should be released from the hospital tomorrow (Tuesday the 13th.)
The rest of the pictures on the page are of the Jetta TDI which
they were in and of how the laptop flew apart. They're actually 
looking forward to taking the Vaio back to Fry's to return it :^)

http://bugged1.com/car/

Notice the very geeky license plates on the car ;)

Be safe && be well...

[ Oh, and yes, I got permission to send out this PSA from them. ]

-Jon
--
Jonathan Katz
e-mail: jon at jonworld.com 
website: http://jonworld.com
proprietor: http://bachelor-cooking.com
Cell: 317-698-4023 * Pager: 800-759-8888 1770869 * FAX: 530-688-5347