Texting and driving

Sullie said:
I'm not saying other forms of distraction, or drinking and driving are acceptable. I'm just responding to the OPs question.
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Do you mean that there is problem with me eating a burger with one hand and holding a cup of coffee in the other hand and steering with my knees while
reading a newspaper? Can't you do some simple multitasking while driving? :D

smokinbasser said:
Darwin seems to be able to thin the ranks of the village idiots out there.
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The only problem is that they thin the ranks of innocent village idiots......like me.
 
So, California already has pretty extreme laws regarding using a cell phone while driving. Everything has to be hands free, that means no speaker phone, no texting, no looking for directions etc, and the fines are STEEP. First offense is around $300 if I remember right, next fine is more, 3rd is more and eventually they suspend your license. And people STILL do it.

So what's the solution?
 
It's some thing that can't be stopped and there is nothing people can do about it , it's the truth , you cant control what people do , doesn't matter what the law is there will always be people Breaking them and you will never be able to stop them all
 
gruntinhusaybah said:
So, California already has pretty extreme laws regarding using a cell phone while driving. Everything has to be hands free, that means no speaker phone, no texting, no looking for directions etc, and the fines are STEEP. First offense is around $300 if I remember right, next fine is more, 3rd is more and eventually they suspend your license. And people STILL do it.

So what's the solution?
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There is none. DUI carries stiffer penalties and people still do it. The only partial solution if you want to call it, is to spend less time on the roads - especially at more problematic times. I for instance do my grocery shopping at 5 am on Sundays.
 
Hands free is almost as dangerous as holding the phone. See the 2012 white paper by the national safety council.
 
Inattentive driving has always been a problem. Remember the Donner Party? Yep. The Titanic? Yep. Hindenburg? Yep. Costa Concordia? Uh huh. Asiana flight crash at SFO in july with pilots "Ho Lee Fuk" and "Wi Tu Lo"? Yes.
 
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Spudly94 said:
It's some thing that can't be stopped and there is nothing people can do about it , it's the truth , you cant control what people do , doesn't matter what the law is there will always be people Breaking them and you will never be able to stop them all
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That's true, but what do we do? Just carry on and pretend that everything is OK?

I am always amazed when I see the results of DUI trap. You would think that even people who have been drinking would be smart enough to avoid them.
Of course, IMHO, anyone who drinks and drives isn't that smart anyway. They don't seem to understand that it will cost them thousands of dollars either
in fines or to hire a lawyer to fight it. My guess is that they just don't care. Take away their license, they still drive. Take away their car, they buy another one.

I don't remember which South American country made DUI a capitol offense. (Chile?) You drove while drunk only once. I don't think they do that anymore.
 
It's yet another distraction. Good luck wishing it away. Or worse, lawing or corporal punishing it away. It's hardly expensive when compared to other more pressing social ills. I'm glad I live in the city and can bike and walk to most places. It's best to avoid driving as much as possible. What a mess the average roadway is. I can't wait for traffic automation. Text away while the machine does the boring stuff.
 
Years ago a "friend" of mine borrowed my vehicle. I got a call from him an hour later that he ran off the road and head-on into a tree nearly killing himself and destroyed the truck beyond recognition. How did it happen? His pack of ciggerrettes fell onto the floor and he reached down quickly to pick them up and that was the end of that. You can't legislate common sense or stupid unfortunately. If it is proven that someone got hurt or killed due to txting, make-up, etc. etc. then the penalty needs to be severe.
 
smokinbasser said:
Darwin seems to be able to thin the ranks of the village idiots out there.
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All fine and good until you realize some of the idiots are driving trucks and the people getting killed are not idiots texting.

The root problem is human behavior. You could try to improve peoples behavior by running ad campaigns and raising public awareness to the problem or you could try some technical solution. I don't believe people will suddenly become sensible, we are silly beasts. The solution will probably come in the form of smarter cars. Making hands free simpler to use and a standard feature on new vehicles would go a long way. Having dash mounted screens that display your phones content as standard features. Eventually cars that drive themselves or have automatic breaking features etc.
 
sideways said:
All fine and good until you realize some of the idiots are driving trucks and the people getting killed are not idiots texting.

The root problem is human behavior. You could try to improve peoples behavior by running ad campaigns and raising public awareness to the problem or you could try some technical solution. I don't believe people will suddenly become sensible, we are silly beasts. The solution will probably come in the form of smarter cars. Making hands free simpler to use and a standard feature on new vehicles would go a long way. Having dash mounted screens that display your phones content as standard features. Eventually cars that drive themselves or have automatic breaking features etc.
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My car and truck both have autopilot buttons on their steering wheels. They don't do jack for steering and brakeing though. Defects if you ask me.
 
Codger_64 said:
My car and truck both have autopilot buttons on their steering wheels. They don't do jack for steering and brakeing though. Defects if you ask me.
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I'll be happy when the next innovation comes along that takes the driver out of driving. :thumbup: Motor vehicles kill more people than I am comfortable with. Here are the statistics for the world on deaths not related to aging. #9 for everyone? Seriously?
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs310/en/

#6 in the developed world
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_causes_of_death_by_rate#Developed_vs._developing_economies

Over 30 % of the kids who die ages 15-25 in the US are killed by motor vehicles.
 
I wonder if it would be technically possible to have some sort of electronic jamming device that would be portable enough to take into a vehicle (or be confined to a vehicle) and capable of shutting down all communications within a specified radius or directionally (front and back), without affecting emergency vehicles..
 
That sounds pretty crazy...but I bet they could make it so your phone has to be plugged in to turn the car on and this would deactivate your phone while you drive. Kind of like those built in breathalyzers for people who have had more than one DUI.
No matter what they do people will always find a way around it and some people will always do it. All you can do is educate people as much as possible about it, especially starting young and enforce stricter penalties.
 
Codger_64 said:
Inattentive driving has always been a problem. Remember the Donner Party? Yep. The Titanic? Yep. Hindenburg? Yep. Costa Concordia? Uh huh. Asiana flight crash at SFO in july with pilots "Ho Lee Fuk" and "Wi Tu Lo"? Yes.
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Good post Codger!!! Funny stuff!!!!
 
Having lived in two places that added texting-and-driving laws, I remember the traffic got a lot better very briefly after the law was enacted then it got far worse a while afterward as people began ignoring it.

I believe this is because something like this happens:
1) It's not prohibited, and people do it. Most can do it safely or know when to do it safely. Survival of the fittest has already took the low-hanging fruit off the road through single-car accidents and/or they learned not to text-and-drive due to something that happened.
2) When the law passed, everyone got really nervous and didn't touch their phones. So you now have everyone paying attention.
3) After a few months, the lowest-skilled, least-intelligent, and youngest drivers all resume doing it, but now instead of holding their phone in front of them at the top of the steering wheel where they can look ahead and at the phone in quick succession, you have them holding them down and looking away for very long periods while they're typing. Now you have them with one hand on the wheel, both eyes off the road for seconds at a time, and fumbling with the phone in a more awkward position.

So, in effect, the law made the situation worse.

The solution, as I said all along, was not another law, but to enforce distracted/reckless driving laws more widely than they have been. It doesn't matter if it's a 16-year-old texting or a 35-year-old slapping their kid in the back seat, both should be pulled over and ticketed if they're driving recklessly and distracted to the point that they're liable to cause an accident.

Some people can, under the right circumstances, text quite safely while driving. They're the same people that can operate their car stereo or talk while driving, and may even be the people that know when it is or isn't safe to do something in addition to driving.
 
I see it all the time. As a former EMT it pisses me off because I've seen some pretty bad MVAs in my life. The other thing I cannot stand is when people drive around with a dog in their lap. They obviously have no idea that if the have an accident, and the airbag deplys "Patches" is going to die instantly and they might as well. It's far too easy to get a drivers license these days.
 
RevDevil said:
I see it all the time. As a former EMT it pisses me off because I've seen some pretty bad MVAs in my life. The other thing I cannot stand is when people drive around with a dog in their lap. They obviously have no idea that if the have an accident, and the airbag deplys "Patches" is going to die instantly and they might as well. It's far too easy to get a drivers license these days.
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I would hate to have to have Jake removed from my stomach and face surgically. I keep him harnessed and belted in the passenger seat so he has no chance of getting between me and the controls no matter what. Have to plug in your phone to disable it and start the car? "Yeah, this flip phone just starts the car. Then I can open up my mega smartie pad and velcro it to the steering wheel, talk to Jack and surf pron while I drive to work". No, I have the solution. Do what I do. Your phone rings, find a safe place to pull over and return the call.
 
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