TXTing while driving...

[Alex2507]

Probably not anymore after flying through the windshield.

No seat belt either, huh? You should have run her off the road and spanked her yourself.

Look, I'm just as angered and saddened by stupidity and tragedy as the next guy. Cracking a joke and moving along is how I best deal with stuff I can't affect.

As a serious idea for correcting the behavior of the mildly mentally challenged but still teachable may be a time out. It would work in conjunction with a fine. Making the offenders leave their cars on the side of the road for a few hours would condition them to want to throw their own phones out the window the next time it rang.

EDIT: Oh yeah ... women only. Men are better drivers.

 

[jinjuku]

A couple things come to mind.
Plus, if you're willing to honk at someone because of a one-second pause after a light turns green, you should be willing to honk at them if they're potentially going to get in an accident and cause you a lot more than one second.

This:

Plus this:

Get their attention and then tell em about it.

Both offer a nominal 8 ohm load

 

[Swerd]

This:

Plus this:

Get their attention and then tell em about it.

Both offer a nominal 8 ohm load

Add one of these

 

[jinjuku]

Add one of these

I doubt that is legal...

 

[Rickster71]

Look, I'm just as angered and saddened by stupidity and tragedy as the next guy. Cracking a joke and moving along is how I best deal with stuff I can't affect.

I hear you there brother.
I guess it's a little change of pace from reading about, "What's the best complete 7.1 HT for $500?"

I'm all for a ban on texting......I'll get back to you on the $500 HT.

 

[Adam]

I'm all for a ban on texting...

I'll second that.

sent from my iPhone

 

[j_garcia]

PEOPLE are the problem, plain and simple. Laws or no laws, people will still do it. It has been illegal here for 2 years and I see it every single day. I saw a guy driving a TAXI, WITH A PASSENGER, looking at his iPhone completely oblivious to the fact that he was straddling the lane the other day. It is ridiculous.

It was already said in the article:

No call, no text, no update is worth a human life.

Far too many people are so wrapped up in themselves that they could care less about their fellow humans. Society got along just fine before we were able to talk in our cars, and I don't see the ability to talk to someone in your car moving anything forward. Has anything improved as a result of this capability? I don't see it.

 

[darien87]

I think talking on the phone or texting while driving is stupid. But I don't even have a cell phone so perhaps I'm not the right person to be answering this question.

I remember when the cell phone ban was first passed here in Cali I saw a cop driving down the road with a phone to his ear!

Bottom line is you're distracted. But my wife brought up an interesting point once when we were talking about this subject. She asked me, "How is it any different having a conversation with someone sitting next to you in the passenger seat than talking to someone on the phone?" I didn't have an answer for her. In both situations your focus is not solely on your driving but it just seems a lot less dangerous to talk to someone in your car than it does on the phone.

I've heard there's a smart phone app that will disable your phone when you're in your car. I don't know if it only disables texting or disables the phone completely. I think it's called "drive safe.ly".

 

[Adam]

She asked me, "How is it any different having a conversation with someone sitting next to you in the passenger seat than talking to someone on the phone?" I didn't have an answer for her. In both situations your focus is not solely on your driving but it just seems a lot less dangerous to talk to someone in your car than it does on the phone.

I mentioned above that it's actually more distracting to me to have someone in the car with me. Then again, I'm not trying to broker million dollar deals over the phone - I mostly just talk to my family.

 

[GO-NAD!]

I may not have been around as long as most of you, but I have learned one thing. People are stupid myself included. Sometimes you have to protect them from themselves. I think cellphone use is dangerous, but the solution is not in laws. It's in automating vehicles. The next generation is not as eager to get their license as mine was or the one before because technology is more interesting to them. Automating vehicles will eliminate a lot of traffic accidents. Unfortunately we aren't quite there yet.

Ahhhh, but that raises another question. When an automated vehicle has an accident, who is at fault - the "driver" or the manufacturer? Hmmmm...

I support banning cell phone use while driving - especially texting. However, cell phones aren't the only distractions. Should we allow coffee drinking (guilty), yelling at the kids in the back seat, looking at hot women on the sidewalk, etc. Where do we draw the line?

 

[j_garcia]

We don't need to draw the line. People need to take responsibility for the fact that they are driving a vehicle and that it has the potential to kill. It doesn't matter what the distraction is. Drive under the influence or tired? Your responsibility. Bad brakes, bald tires? Your responsibility. You are a bad or inattentive driver? Your responsibility. Looking at your GPS? Your responsibility.

 

[markw]

We've got stupid people driving to blame for this.

That goes for drunk drivers, cell phone talkers and texters. Most are smart enough to know what they can and can't do, and when, and still not become a threat to themselves and others.

Now, I don't care if some drunk, distracted cell-phone talker, or texter plows into a bridge abutment and kills themselves but I do take issue to when their selfish actions can cause me harm.

When that becomes a possiblility, I want the law to step in and protect me from their inconsiderate stupidity.

I'm seeing a lot of stoopid people swerving, quickly changing lanes to make an exit, or driving verrrrry slowly on the roads around here and wouldn'tmind seing them pulled over.

 

[lsiberian]

Ahhhh, but that raises another question. When an automated vehicle has an accident, who is at fault - the "driver" or the manufacturer? Hmmmm...

I support banning cell phone use while driving - especially texting. However, cell phones aren't the only distractions. Should we allow coffee drinking (guilty), yelling at the kids in the back seat, looking at hot women on the sidewalk, etc. Where do we draw the line?

The manufacturer of the faulty vehicle. Your insurance would be essentially for them. But in Texas outlawed drunk driving years ago and people still do it. Women put makeup on. People read newspapers. I'm sure some guys even ...

The solution is shoot them all, but that isn't legal either. They already have laws that could work against cellphone driving. Why not just tie it to drunk driving and make the punishment similar.

 

[Swerd]

But my wife brought up an interesting point once when we were talking about this subject. She asked me, "How is it any different having a conversation with someone sitting next to you in the passenger seat than talking to someone on the phone?" I didn't have an answer for her. In both situations your focus is not solely on your driving but it just seems a lot less dangerous to talk to someone in your car than it does on the phone.

I agree with you.

We seem to have developed a social convention that allows talking with a passenger in our car while not looking at them. Its OK to keep your eyes on the road. A passenger in your car sees the same traffic conditions as you do. If something suddenly comes up requiring immediate attention or action, they understand if you don't keep talking as if nothing had happened.

If you're talking on the phone while driving, the other person on the phone can't see that. Even though it makes no sense to describe it, we act as if it were improper or impolite to momentarily ignore someone on the phone, even if it leads to dangerous driving. Using a hands-free phone seems to have little to do with that.

Also, poking in a number, selecting a name from a phone number list, or looking at a screen, require taking your eyes off the road. None of that happens when talking to a passenger.

I'm pretty certain that cell phone jammer is not legal. It raises the question of which is worse, a short range cell phone jammer or engendering the lives of others while driving on public roads. I wish it was as easy to enforce laws against cell phone use while driving as it is to ban sales of those jammers.

 

[Adam]

Even though it makes no sense to describe it, we act as if it were improper or impolite to momentarily ignore someone on the phone, even if it leads to dangerous driving. Using a hands-free phone seems to have little to do with that.

I must just be rude.

 

[Alex2507]

copied from wiki ...

A 2009 experiment with Car and Driver magazine editor Eddie Alterman that took place at a deserted air strip showed that texting while driving had a greater impact on safety than driving drunk. While legally drunk, Alterman's stopping distance from 70 mph increased by 4 feet; by contrast, reading an e-mail added 36 feet, and sending a text added 70 feet.[1]

 

[lsiberian]

copied from wiki ...

Without this citation I might have thought you conducted the test yourself.

 

[haraldo]

A couple things come to mind.

One - you can't effectively ban driving distractions. People get distracted by all sorts of things, including thoughts. I love the fact that I can talk to people while I'm in my car, hands free on my phone through my car speakers and built-in mic. I find it less distracting then when there's someone else physically in the car talking to me. So, should we ban passengers in cars? Spouses, children, friends, dates? I'm guessing not many will think so.

Two - we don't need to rely on laws to keep people focused. You can always be an active participant in society. For example, honk at them. A honk and friendly wave might bring them back to the task at hand. Sure, they might get all mad and flip you off, but at least you tried. That wouldn't be easy for me to do, as I tend to take social anxiety to a whole new level, but I'd like to think that I'd get in the game if I thought that lives were at stake. Plus, if you're willing to honk at someone because of a one-second pause after a light turns green, you should be willing to honk at them if they're potentially going to get in an accident and cause you a lot more than one second.

Perhaps we should just ban stupidity, like this:

 

[Rickster71]

I support banning cell phone use while driving - especially texting. However, cell phones aren't the only distractions. Should we allow coffee drinking (guilty), yelling at the kids in the back seat, looking at hot women on the sidewalk, etc. Where do we draw the line?

I support it too, with a big + to a texting ban.
As for where to draw the line (as far as distraction) and why they chose the cell phone.
It's because that piece of technology leaves a paper trail. It's an easy, provable way to implicate the distracted driver.

We humans always ruin a good thing; it's been that way since the beginning.
There is an old saying, "Hoist with his own petard." A line from Hamlet, it's actual meaning is "cause the bomb maker to be blown up with his own bomb"
We are a strange bunch. On one hand we complain that security cameras are an invasion of privacy and that it's an example of 'Big Brother' watching.
Yet many spill their personal info, locations, vacation plans, and pictures on Facebook Ad nauseam.

 

[randyb]

I support it too, with a big + to a texting ban.
As for where to draw the line (as far as distraction) and why they chose the cell phone.
It's because that piece of technology leaves a paper trail. It's an easy, provable way to implicate the distracted driver.

We humans always ruin a good thing; it's been that way since the beginning.
There is an old saying, "Hoist with his own petard." A line from Hamlet, it's actual meaning is "cause the bomb maker to be blown up with his own bomb"
We are a strange bunch. On one hand we complain that security cameras are an invasion of privacy and that it's an example of 'Big Brother' watching.
Yet many spill their personal info, locations, vacation plans, and pictures on Facebook Ad nauseam.

I have been driving for almost 50 years. Since the widespread introduction of cell phones and PDA's I think that peoples driving habits have become MUCH worse. You can pretty much tell who is texting or on their phone when driving. They generally are not paying much attention to the flow of traffic and drive like they are drunk. Ban them.