Cell phones and driving.

My local Moxie Java coffee shop has a picture of a smiling girl on the counter right by the exit. Under her photo is her name, and the years 1998 - 2006. Under the year she died it says "Do not text and drive."

They've had complaints from customers that having that picture there is tasteless and offensive, and the manager's standard response is, "That she died before she was 19 is what is offensive"

I'm inclined to agree.

 

Coming from a pedestrians POV, I support such an idea, drivers already have WAY too many distractions (aside from just not seeming to care, but that's a different convo for a different time) and as Laura said you can't get rid of them all but I think you should try to get them down to as few as possible. Talking, texting, checking email, etc, it all needs to be banned. I can't explain how many times, I've had to pay attention for me AND the car because they aren't and they aren't and I'm not, guess who is going to get hurt?

Unless it's a dire emergency, why do you need to talk on the phone while driving anyway? what can not wait until you get home or work?

It's just sad to see many lives lost by people too busy being in their own world chatting then being in the real world paying attention.

 

I have a friend who does the same exact thing. There have also been times when the her phone has rung and it's in her bag on the floor in the backseat and she will wait until where ever are going and then call who ever it was back.

The easy part is passing the law, they would just actually have to ENFORCE it for it to work.


edit: @ Laura, my take on that is, if you are talking with a passenger in your car, sure you might be a bit distracted but at least you have another pair of eyes on the road. I know I'm always paying attention when in a friends vehicle and I think most people are the same way.

 

Handsfree phone is less of a distraction than talking to a passenger for me... i have this REALLY bad habit of trying to look at the person I'm talking to. :-o

 

Its already been banned over here,so has eating.

I'm all for it too,people are dumb they can't drive for toffee.

Hand free is legal over here,I also agree with Laura's point that making everything perfectly safe is impossible that's why I was against the complete handgun ban over here.I think that was actually worse because it took enjoyment away from over a million responsible hand gun owners for the sake of one or two highly publicised incidents,but in this respect I think it takes the minimal enjoyment away while increasing safety quite a bit.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iqCcMDByLA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrQ8X2b7fHo

:-D

 

I guess putting on makeup would be fall under grooming because I've seen this plenty of times, which I also think is a huge no-no.

 

I've never seen anyone reading but I have seen a teenaged girl driving around listening to her ipod, with headphones on!!! what the heck was she thinking?:confused

 

I used to have a friend who hardly ever looked at the road just looked whoever was in the passenger seat and drove with his knees!With no seatbelt on!

I also remember having little arguments with my friends because I always put my seatbelt on.I'm like Monk when it comes to seatbelts,I've put one on every time I get in a car.

I know if I didn't that would be the time I crash.

 

I have to disagree with the topic... I am all FOR Cellphones and driving... They're on Cell phones... I'm driving... They'll never see it coming.

Oh wait, you meant at the same time. Yeah, that's bad they can go ahead and ban that.

 

Points? Theres a GAME???

 

Deathrace!I've never seen the original movie.

I know how many points you get for an elderly person in a wheelchair though,well no actually I don't but its a lot:-D

 

Yeah.. um.. the game. That's what I meant ALL along... *whistles*

 

I know you were joking,its not like you would actually aim for people carrying phones because they're unawares, that's just silly.

 

Not allowed here in this province to use handheld devices while driving.

To call 911 is okay.

I agree with the law as I've seen in the past many drivers talking on their handheld phones and doing a left or right hand turn at the same time. :mad A hazard for any other drivers pedestrians etc. especially when in a busy city such as ours. It's playing with your own and others' lives. When I used to drive I used to pull off the road into a plaza or parking lot when a call needed to be made in a hurry. No-one has my cell phone # other than our daughter and have it turned off. Just use it for emergency.

 

Where I live it's a fine of $500-$1000 to be caught driving while on your phone talking or texting.

Here's something even worse than talking or texting while driving.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-20000176-504083.html

 

37:confused Where has she been for the last few years?

Afghanistan?

 

Nice thread Mr. Tim. I'm 73 and I don't own a damn cell phone. I don't want to be bothered. My wife has a track phone. She buys minutes every month and I add the minutes. She never turns it on and has over a thousand units to use up. I feel good about her having it though; if she ever needs it. What did people do before the cell phone. I see people that have one in their ear constantly. We go out occasionally with friends for a couple of beers and my friends are on the damn phone constantly. It kind a aggravates me. They get up and go some place to talk because its to nosy in the bar:-D:- Has it ever been proved that they cause brain cancer?? Even if they proved that, people would never give up their cell phone. I damn sure don't approve of driving and talking on a cell phone. There is a generation gap here:wave
If your driving a vehicle, all your attention needs to be on driving period.

 

http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w183/ALaFolie/Bizarro/bizarro11b.jpg

 

Where I live here in Ontario, canada it is already illegal to drive using any type of handheld electronic device. it doesnt matter what it is, if you're holding it, and its electric, you get a nice little fine.

it is also now illegal to smoke in your car with a child under the age of 16 in the vehicle as well.


Edit: didnt see Oma's post.. I'm stating outdated facts lol

 

It has been banned in Belgium for some time now but drivers do not take a lot of notice of the ban.

Last year 41.000 drivers were fined an average of $75 and as we are a small country that's a lot of people ignoring the ban.

 

Yep, no one armed driving allowed down under, either. Of course the losers still do it.:mad
On a quasi-note, when someone walks into me in the shopping mall because they're busy twiddling with their damn cell-phone, I do feel like "accidentally" knocking it to the ground and busting it. Same applies to the operator.rolleyes

 

Why don't you? I can blame it on an involuntary twitch of my elbow.. maybe it wont break if I elbow knock it, but it still makes me giggle

Here they passed a "Distracted Driving" law. You can't talk on a cell phone, even on speaker, unless it has a complete hands free unit or have any device with a display screen in view of the driver. If you do, ticket. Even if the driver isn't looking at it.

The problem is that the police here don't enforce the law so neither do the citizens. They only bother when quota time is coming up.

 

Hi! Has anyone seen the commercial with two guys on a ski left. One shows the other one his I-phone. He grabs it from his buddies hand and throws it away. Now that was :cool. IMHO it has gotten out of hand, but I'm not of this generation. I do love my PC though! I was out hunting wild mushrooms with my grand son in law. Every so often he would type on his phone. I asked what he was doing. Can you believe the damn phone had GPS and he was marking the spot so he could come back there next year. Mushrooms come up in the same places every year. I told him I didn't think that was legal.

 

Hmmm, Morels, if I'm not mistaken.:yum
Yeah, cells have G.P.S. on them these days.

 

Yes sir Morels. Oklahoma was to dry this year so there weren't any. It's getting to late , but a good rain might bring them out!! They are yummy

 

You know what Jack? I'm 26, and I agree with you. I hate driving because of the 'experienced' drivers who all think they're good enough to drive while talking. Newsflash, they're NOT.

Me, I have a cell phone. I don't talk on it while driving. I don't listen to the radio while driving. I don't even like having passengers. I have to wonder about the loonies that consider driving a 'relaxing' thing. I think they're out of their minds.

 

That's the crutch.It doesn't matter how good you personally think you are at driving, do you want other drivers out there who have your life in their hands using mobile phones while driving? I don't.

On a related note the European court has just ruled that its discrimination to charge men more for car insurance because there's a higher probability they will be in an accident,so soon it will be law in the UK if it isn't already.

Women on the news shows I've been watching are crying out that it isn't fair their premiums will be going up and arguing that they are better drivers than men

Well.Discrimination works both ways ladies:cool

 

No sir!! I live in Oklahoma. A small little town just northwest of Oklahoma City!!.
I'm from Illinois. Met My wife while stationed at VAFB and stayed here in Oklahoma.

 

Stalker..

 

I saw this and thought of this thread.

http://images.sodahead.com/profiles/0/0/1/8/3/0/0/8/5/Gotta-love-a-pastor-with-a-sense-of-humor-43005697212.jpeg

 

A friend tells of a story. "Him and a buddy were waiting in line for a local movie house. They were talking in a normal voice, when the lady in front of them turned around and glared at them, with the MOMMY eyes. The look that all of us have seen from our own mothers, to behave, stop what your doing."....

A lot of people while talking on those phones, talk as if they are at home. I walk, ride a bike, or ride local bus service, in my local town. Many, many times I have to look out for my safety....while riding my bike, have had people come so close, that my bike handle scrapes down the side of their suv. When we both get to the stop lights, they didn't remember it happening. The ends of my handle bars are open, ie no bar ends, so they put a big scrape mark, down the side of the car.:-D

 

I'm all for a complete ban. I have seen reports about accidents caused/related to the use of cell phones while driving, either talkiong or texting. IIRC, most states already have some sort of law regarding cell phone use/distracted driving on their books, but unfortunately, they are not really enforced. Not sure about anyone else, but my phone has a "Driving Mode" feature. When a call or text comes in, a voice tells you who is calling/texting. I use this feature when I'm in my car and don't answer or reply right away unless it is an emergency. If that's the case, I pull over as soon as I can, THEN return the call/answer the text. I think if people would use a little common sense, they would understand how dangerous distracted driving really is. It only takes a second for an accident to occur. Trust me, as I speak from experience. The accident I was involved in wasn't cell phone related, but I took my eyes off the road for just a second and didn't see the idiot who pulled out in front of me. Luckily, neither of us was seriously injured. Don't mean to sound preachy, folks, but if you are in your car, TURN OFF your cell phone (or use Driving Mode is it's available on your phone; mine is an LG320 from Verizon) and PAY ATTENTION. Also, remember that you are driving a vehicle made from metal/plastic/glass, etc., etc. that probably weighs at LEAST 1,000 pounds or more.

 

All this reminds me of a Stephen Fry podcast. Filming people talking on the phone whilst driving is not permitted due to its illegality and yet, we still see people getting shot in the head. .

 

:-D Guess it depends who's talking on the phone while driving,the bad guys talking on the phone is probably fine.

If Mulder and scully starting talking on the phone while driving the general public would probably think its legal again.:confused I wish I were joking...

 

That is what I did back when I had cell phone service. I hate when people text and talk on cell phones when driving. They drive erratic speeds, swerve, very dangerous.


What do you think Tim, 3rd offense, we get some rope out? :-D


"The study, published in the June 29 issue of Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, found that drivers talking on cell phones, either handheld or hands-free, are more likely to crash because they are distracted by conversation.

Using a driving simulator under four different conditions: with no distractions, using a handheld cell phone, talking on a hands-free cell phone, and while intoxicated to the 0.08 percent blood-alcohol level, 40 participants followed a simulated pace car that braked intermittently.

Researchers found that the drivers on cell phones drove more slowly, braked more slowly and were more likely to crash. In fact, the three participants who collided into the pace car were chatting away. None of the drunken drivers crashed.

"This study does not mean people should start driving drunk," said co-author Frank Drews. "It means that driving while talking on a cell phone is as bad as or maybe worse than driving drunk, which is completely unacceptable and cannot be tolerated by society."

From: http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-6090342-7.html

I remember a video on one of the news shows years ago that did this test. The drunks drove better than the ones talking on a cell phone...

"The folks at Car and Driver Magazine have now documented just dangerous it can be.

Rigging a car with a red light to alert drivers when to brake, the magazine tested how long it takes to hit the brake when sober, when legally drunk at .08, when reading and e-mail, and when sending a text. The results are scary. Driving 70 miles per hour on a deserted air strip Car and Driver editor Eddie Alterman was slower and slower reacting and braking when e-mailing and texting.

The results:
Unimpaired: .54 seconds to brake
Legally drunk: add 4 feet
Reading e-mail: add 36 feet
Sending a text: add 70 fee"

From: http://www.cnbc.com/id/31545004/Texting_And_Driving_Worse_Than_Drinking_and_Driving