Tuesday morning before dawn

On my way to work this morning, I was southbound on Main Street in Owasso. The street is 4 lanes wide with a 35mph speed limit until it reaches the business district. It becomes two lanes with dedicated left turn lane in the middle, and the speed limit drops to 25. I was approaching the 25mph zone when I noticed a car coming south very rapidly. That's not unusual because the police station is on Main Street. But this car passed the PD and caught up to me quickly. It moved left, going through the left turn lane for opposing traffic, and stayed just behind me while maintaining the same pace. At the red light on 76th Street, it moved up alongside and stopped. It was an OHP patrol car. The driver was intent on his cell phone, either texting or dialing with the phone on the bottom side of the steering wheel!

There are times I really need to have a camera ready, and this was one of them. It was just before dawn, so there wouldn't have been enough light. Still, it's one hell of an image - a cop disregarding traffic markings apparently because he was so distracted by the phone.

Later, since I have an advanced case of staircase wit, I realized I should have yelled, "Hey! Put the damned phone down and pay attention to driving!" In Kenosha, that would be enough to get me arrested.

In other news around Tulsa:

Texting teen driver plows into power pole

No, I didn't write the headline. It's straight out of the Tulsa World.