Perhaps there's not much people can do about drowsiness, but they are totally responsible for failure to pay full attention! Our area is supposed to be filled with smart, well-educated people. Why do they choose to endanger their lives and ours by dialing cell phones, putting on mascara, etc? They have to know that their attention is not on the road.

We need to markedly increase the penalties for causing accidents. Of course, it's going to be a tough sell with the rural Gods of the General Assembly who will see that as a "Northern Virginia problem."

I was recently riding in a cab in DC and saw a woman waiting at a red light in her SUV. The cab driver pointed her out, just as he was mentioning how annoyed he was that people didn't use hands free cell phones.

This lady (shall we call her Mrs. Darwin?) had a cell phone in one hand and was putting on makeup with the other. When the light turned green, she hurtled forward without her hands on the wheel, her eyes still on the mirror checking her look - and she narrowly averted an accident when traffic suddenly stopped again and she had drifted slightly out of lane. (Sometimes you drift out of your lane when you're not looking. That's why you can't put on makeup when you drive.) What made it more frightening was that she had one of those baby shades on the back window. I hope there were not any children in the car. They sure would have learned some interesting vocabulary from the car she almost hit, because that guy was not amused and rolled down his window and let forth quite a flurry.

Fairfax Driver, smart people do not have cell phones and mascara wands in their hands when they are actually driving. Few of us have to be accessible all the time, but a lot of us sure act like we do. It only takes a few stupid seconds to cause an accident and a whole lifetime to feel bad about it. Why risk that?