Re: 鈥淚f your phone is dead, you鈥檙e not driving distracted,鈥� column, April 21.
When I first read the story about that unfortunate motorist who suffered Soviet-style judicial abuse, I admit to scanning it and not bothering to wonder about ramifications. But, after reading Lawrie McFarlane鈥檚 column, I聽had to wonder.
I鈥檓 functionally deaf. I wear hearing aids, but I often don鈥檛 bother with them when I鈥檓 driving. According to a local driving school鈥檚 owner, I鈥檓 among the safest cohort of drivers, due simply to the fact that deaf people have to pay extra attention to everything around them when they鈥檙e behind the wheel.
Since hearing aids, when shut off, perform the same function as industrial earplugs, or non-functioning earbuds connected to a dead cellphone, am I as guilty as the person who was unjustly criminalized by the judge in the case McFarlane cites?
Frankly, I can鈥檛 wait for that court case, if it ever comes to that, especially in front of that judge whose inanity begets sanity.
T. Lorne Pedneault-Peasland
Saanich
