Texting while driving

jgido759

inspiredsports wrote: »

And when I say hands free I mean it has to understand verbal commands for caps, punctuation, line breaks, Send, End, etc. so you don't have to touch a button.

Why? If you look at the average person's text messages, they don't contain ANY of the correct spelling, punctuation, etc.

Not that I'm for texting (actually, I HATE it).

hearingimpared

The whole point here is that texting and using a cell or a laptop or putting on make up, using a laptop etc is very dangerous. Taxing phone or texting users is not the answer. Making and enforcing laws to prohibit this kind of irresponsible behavior is the only option IMHO that would punish the guilty and at the same time protect the innocent. There are many road signs in PA, NJ, and DE that have a phone number directly to the local or state police to call when aggressive or drunk driving is detected by the average Joe. These number can also be used to report reckless, careless or dangerous driving.

It seems we are all arguing the same point but from different perspectives except for the one or two who are saying to tax everyone for overuse.

Besides, why is it so important to text or use a cell phone or read the paper or use a laptop or put make up on besides it being irresponsible, dangerous, selfish and reckless because one may be late, trying to eek out work that one doesn't want to do in their off hours of work time. I don't get it.

inspiredsports

I'm purely amazed that people have the naivete to suggest taxation.

We have tax rates of from 20% to 60% on items like gasoline, tobacco products and alchoholic beverages and statistics show it does ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to change peoples behavior, other than they pay more for the poducts and give politicians more money to WASTE.

Taxing text usage WILL NOT SAVE ONE ADDITIONAL LIFE and is an asinine suggestion.

Also, there are emergency situations in which you would never want your speed to limit your ability to use your phone for speech or text.

mudwrx

OK, so the law against texting and driving goes in to effect at midnight tonight in Massachusetts (from what I just read). There is another stipulation in this bill; any driver under 18 years old is forbidden to use a cell phone at all for any reason, except to dial 911 for emergencies.

I'm in favor of that part too, damn kids think they're invincible. Hopefully this may make a few of them think twice (of course they will still do it) and it saves one or two lives in the future.

zombie boy 2000

"Damn kids"

Priceless.... Trust me gramps, I won't be invading your porch and/or lawn anytime soon.

mudwrx

zombie boy 2000 wrote: »

"Damn kids"

Priceless.... Trust me gramps, I won't be invading your porch and/or lawn anytime soon.

Haha. I'm only in my 30's but it's fun to say DAMN KIDS...

BlueFox

mudwrx wrote: »

Haha. I'm only in my 30's but it's fun to say DAMN KIDS...

True, but to be accurate, it should be "damn dumbass" of any age.

zombie boy 2000

My bad. You should lay off the Metamucil and stop relying on your abacus for statistics.

schutz2106

Just on the radio this morning 3 states that have banned texting while driving have seen no improvment. They fiqured some stopped but others are still texting but are more distracted by holding the phone down out of sight and they are making up for the people that stopped

mdaudioguy

Ok, how about cars with steering wheels that require two hands on the wheel, or the radio emits a loud, constant blast of that mosquito ring tone that only younger people can hear. There you go - technology to the rescue! You remove a hand to text, and you're subjected to a high-pitched scream, while grandpa in the passenger seat smiles contentedly, knowing that he's being chauffeured around by a responsible driver. Genius! (patent pending)

cokewithvanilla

Texting and driving is just a fact of life at the moment. There are so many distractions while driving that are just as bad as texting, however, texting is just very prevalent so it gets a lot of attention.

In Nashville, they passed a law against texting and driving. Can I still watch as people text and drive down the interstate? Sure... now all people do is hold their phones low enough so they are hard to see... yay now they have to look farther from the road.

tonyb

cokewithvanilla wrote: »

Texting and driving is just a fact of life at the moment. There are so many distractions while driving that are just as bad as texting, however, texting is just very prevalent so it gets a lot of attention.

In Nashville, they passed a law against texting and driving. Can I still watch as people text and drive down the interstate? Sure... now all people do is hold their phones low enough so they are hard to see... yay now they have to look farther from the road.

Just a fact of life eh ?

How about you get in an accident while texting and you lose your license for 2 years and get fined 5 g's. Could be just a fact of life if it happened.
Being a responsible driver is also a fact of life,too bad alot of people choose to ignore the facts.

bobman1235

mdaudioguy wrote: »

Ok, how about cars with steering wheels that require two hands on the wheel, or the radio emits a loud, constant blast of that mosquito ring tone that only younger people can hear. There you go - technology to the rescue! You remove a hand to text, and you're subjected to a high-pitched scream, while grandpa in the passenger seat smiles contentedly, knowing that he's being chauffeured around by a responsible driver. Genius! (patent pending)

Never heard of a stick shift eh?

hearingimpared

bobman1235 wrote: »

Never heard of a stick shift eh?

Zingaroonie Bro!!!:D

quadzilla

cokewithvanilla wrote: »

Texting and driving is just a fact of life at the moment. There are so many distractions while driving that are just as bad as texting, however, texting is just very prevalent so it gets a lot of attention.

In Nashville, they passed a law against texting and driving. Can I still watch as people text and drive down the interstate? Sure... now all people do is hold their phones low enough so they are hard to see... yay now they have to look farther from the road.

So are murder, spouse abuse, war, poverty, and various other of the more heinous aspects of life. Should we just accept those and say "well, that's just how it is" and do nothing?

sucks2beme

Legislate it away? Not going to happen. But I'm sure a smart lawyer will
use the stats showing it's dangers and take all your worldly goods
away in court after a crash involving it's use. You want to text?
Knock yourself out. It's like drinking or drugging,texters aren't going to
give up their fix for anyone, and will fight every step of the way.
I've been in parking lots at the end of the day and seen too many people
pick up their phone/texting device and start using it before even putting
on their seat belt. WTF? You can't drive a car without talking/texting?
It's like watching smokers back 30 or 40 years ago. Same deal.
It's a habit they can't break.

inspiredsports

This behavior (texting while driving) isn't going to go away anytime soon. That's why (I will say it again) we need to ask (not legislate) all large cellular carriers to include well thought out hands-free speech-to-text programs on all of their phones. Without it, traffic accidents/fatalities will continue to increase.

steveinaz

That would be a good technological fix.

steveinaz

vc69 wrote: »

The fact that you don't use one removes any credibility you may have when discussing a suitable solution.

Wouldn't that be akin to telling non-smokers they shouldn't express their opinion about smoking and it's effects on them?

The idiots swerving into my on-coming lane every morning because they can't wait 5 more minutes to get to work---they just gotta send that text NOW--are a threat to me, and (unlike smokers) DO raise my insurance rates.

cokewithvanilla

tonyb wrote: »

Just a fact of life eh ?

How about you get in an accident while texting and you lose your license for 2 years and get fined 5 g's. Could be just a fact of life if it happened.
Being a responsible driver is also a fact of life,too bad alot of people choose to ignore the facts.

I think you'll find that we can impose a lot of ridiculous fines and it still wouldn't stop the problem. Again, I ask, why is texting and getting in an accident any worse than changing the radio station, or being otherwise distracted and causing the same accident?

quadzilla wrote: »

So are murder, spouse abuse, war, poverty, and various other of the more heinous aspects of life. Should we just accept those and say "well, that's just how it is" and do nothing?

Indeed, there are aspects of life that we CANNOT legislate away. Distracted driving is just another one of those things. Laws are being passed, hell, distracted driving laws have been on the books for years.

People are people, they will get distracted. Now, if you want to stop only the distracted drivers that are distracted by texting, give them an easier way to text and drive (like the voice system previously mentioned). People either have to realize it's dangerous, and assume that the danger great enough to outweigh the benefits of doing the action, or they have to be given a better way to do the same thing.

hearingimpared

cokewithvanilla wrote: »

I think you'll find that we can impose a lot of ridiculous fines and it still wouldn't stop the problem. Again, I ask, why is texting and getting in an accident any worse than changing the radio station, or being otherwise distracted and causing the same accident?

It's not and all should be treated as such i.e., fines, or even a small stint in the pokie!



[/QUOTE]

exalted512

http://smallbusiness.aol.com/2010/09/29/are-anti-texting-laws-causing-more-accidents/?icid=main|main|dl9|sec3_lnk1|174259

cokewithvanilla

hearingimpared wrote: »

It's not and all should be treated as such i.e., fines, or even a small stint in the pokie!

[/QUOTE]

and that is probably why we will never see fines like 5k and 2 years without a license for something like texting and driving.

The punishment needs to fit the crime, and I think you will find that no one would propose a law for texting with a high enough penalty to stop people from taking the calculated risk.

hearingimpared

cokewithvanilla wrote: »

and that is probably why we will never see fines like 5k and 2 years without a license for something like texting and driving.

The punishment needs to fit the crime, and I think you will find that no one would propose a law for texting with a high enough penalty to stop people from taking the calculated risk.[/QUOTE]

Well as far as I'm concered there should be a law like DUI i.e., DWD (Driving While Distracted) and make the laws as stringent as a DUI.

cokewithvanilla

hearingimpared wrote: »

Well as far as I'm concered there should be a law like DUI i.e., DWD (Driving While Distracted) and make the laws as stringent as a DUI.

ekk. Can you imagine the implications of that? Imagine getting cuffed and taken down to the police station, having your car impounded, being shackled and taken into court, then losing your license and being publicly humiliated by having to clean up trash on the side of the road while being followed by a cop with a 12ga shotgun... all for being seen changing a radio station by a cop. I dunno if that's how they do it everywhere, but that's how they do it in my small town.

On top of that, that person misses days of work for being in jail, misses more work because he/she cannot drive and ultimately loses his or her job. Then this person cannot afford to pay his/her bills and goes on welfare...

No, I really can't see it being anymore than a ticket and being sent on your way.

hearingimpared

cokewithvanilla wrote: »

ekk. Can you imagine the implications of that? Imagine getting cuffed and taken down to the police station, having your car impounded, being shackled and taken into court, then losing your license and being publicly humiliated by having to clean up trash on the side of the road while being followed by a cop with a 12ga shotgun... all for being seen changing a radio station by a cop. I dunno if that's how they do it everywhere, but that's how they do it in my small town.

On top of that, that person misses days of work for being in jail, misses more work because he/she cannot drive and ultimately loses his or her job. Then this person cannot afford to pay his/her bills and goes on welfare...

No, I really can't see it being anymore than a ticket and being sent on your way.

I forgot to mention one thing, DWD penalties apply if causing an accident!

cokewithvanilla

hearingimpared wrote: »

I forgot to mention one thing, DWD penalties apply if causing an accident!

ah. The problem is proving it. Of course, with texting you generally have a record of the time, as long as you know the time of the accident. However, it's really hard with the big mac.

PhantomOG

exalted512 wrote: »

http://smallbusiness.aol.com/2010/09/29/are-anti-texting-laws-causing-more-accidents/?icid=main|main|dl9|sec3_lnk1|174259

I'm inclined to believe the dramatic increase in smartphone usage and texting in general has more to do with increase in accidents than any un-enforceable legislation people are passing.

jflail2

CWV, your argument honestly sounds a bit like a couple guys I knew back home that "could drive sorta drunk just fine."

Yea.....just because you haven't had an accident yet doesn't mean it's not dangerous.

I'd personally rather err to the side of caution, but that's just me.

vc69

steveinaz wrote: »

Wouldn't that be akin to telling non-smokers they shouldn't express their opinion about smoking and it's effects on them?

The idiots swerving into my on-coming lane every morning because they can't wait 5 more minutes to get to work---they just gotta send that text NOW--are a threat to me, and (unlike smokers) DO raise my insurance rates.

I'm sorry Steve, but if you think that the burden put on health care/insurance by smokers is not affecting your insurance premium, you are sadly mistaken. It most certainly does. And frankly, where this analogy is concerned, taxation and legislation have both failed to stop smoking. Laws HAVE helped in view of the fact that I no longer have to smell any cigarette smoke at my local coffee house/restaurant/public place. I used to smoke and the taxation DID contribute to my quitting.

I am never in favor of taxation, but legislation where public safety is concerned IS the place of government. It's what they should do.

What is imminently more appalling is the fact that grown people cannot manage to make the connection themselves with regard to the danger of this practice. (Smoking/texting/road head/whatever else)