CONTACTTRAFFICABOUT TOM VANDERBILTOTHER WRITING CONTACT ABOUT THE BOOK
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Smackberry

Seattle-area police chief hits other car while reading text messages.

Note media use of “accident.”

And a further note: Even though causality is clear here, the passive voice reigns supreme! E.g., “a minor traffic accident that happened while he was checking his BlackBerry in his unmarked police car.”

The accident happened “while” he was checking, not because he was checking?

(Horn honk to Nathan)

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This entry was posted on Friday, March 27th, 2009 at 10:06 am and is filed under Traffic safety. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “Smackberry”

  1. j. gunn Says:
    March 30th, 2009 at 5:51 pm

    a mugging occurred while the defendant received valuables and monies from the plaintiff; a large handgun was also present.

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Traffic Tom Vanderbilt

How We Drive is the companion blog to Tom Vanderbilt’s New York Times bestselling book, Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us), published by Alfred A. Knopf in the U.S. and Canada, Penguin in the U.K, and in languages other than English by a number of other fine publishers worldwide.

Please send tips, news, research papers, links, photos (bad road signs, outrageous bumper stickers, spectacularly awful acts of driving or parking or anything traffic-related), or ideas for my Slate.com Transport column to me at: info@howwedrive.com.

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