February 27, 2007 2:07 PM PST
Laptop use may have caused collision
A California man whose car drifted into the opposing lane and caused a head-on collision may have been using his laptop at the time of the accident, according to reports.
The victim, a 28-year-old computer tutor, was found dead. His cracked laptop was still running and plugged into the cigarette lighter of his 1991 Honda Accord when the California Highway Patrol got to him, according to an Associated Press report in the San Francisco Chronicle.
The victim's car crashed head-on with a Hummer at approximately 8:30 a.m. PT south of Yuba City, Calif., on Monday. The couple in the Hummer sustained only minor injuries.
In a software-driven world, it's easy to forget about the nuts and bolts. Whether it's cars, robots, personal gadgetry or industrial machines, Candace Lombardi examines the moving parts that keep our world rotating. A journalist who divides her time between the United States and the United Kingdom, Lombardi has written about technology for the sites of The New York Times, CNET, USA Today, MSN, ZDNet, Silicon.com, and GameSpot. E-mail her at candacelombardi@gmail.com. She is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not a current employee of CNET. 
