Last night on the drive into town to my 8-year-old son’s basketball practice we were on a heavily trafficked city interstate around 5:15pm…rush hour and happy hour drivers were everywhere with bumber-to-bumper vehicles across 4 lanes. I was sitting in the passenger side, and I saw a large truck in front of us. As we pulled alongside I saw “Microsoft” boldly painted on the truck cargo area.
This was the Microsoft Across America campaign I had read about a couple of years ago! (Before you click the link, know that you will be bombarded with an annoying song before it gives you any information.)
As we were driving up beside, I moved from looking at the information on the side of the 42-foot long truck to looking into the cab. I was surprised to see the driver had a relatively large TV monitor mounted where the rear-view mirror is typically located…it was large enough that I could see what I’m pretty sure was CNN news! I would guess the screen was around 13″ to 15″. And, more disconcerting, the driver had his face pointed up at the monitor and not at the road!
We got away from that truck as safely and quickly as possible.
I can understand equipping these trucks with a TV to use when the truck is parked; but watching TV while driving in Friday night rush-hour traffic at 65 mph is absolutely nuts. Bill Gates should have better sense than to allow such irresponsible and dangerous driving practices from his personnel. I wonder how many accidents his computerlab-on-wheels has been involved in since this campaign started?
Tags: awareness and training, Bill Gates, Microsoft, risk management