Texting Bans Cause More Crashes?

Stats havent change cuz ppl havent stopped doing it,ive gotten into a few screaming matches with ppl while on my Vmax cuz they almost plowed into me trying to tell "Becky how much Timmy likes her"
So i got off on em hoping it might scare the fuck outta them
"hang up the fuckin phone you dumb bitch b4 u kill my wife and kids"
prolly doesnt do a damn thing,but it sure makes me feel better

Unknownsock said:

Another justification for legal guns? Always found that funny tbh.

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Don't get into the whole gun argument here, we Americans happen to like our freedoms, we don't roll over and turtle up when someone in the government wants to take our freedoms like y'all do across the pond.

as far as txting while driving, nope, not a good idea, nor is anything else.
Yeah, its wrong but I don't think its possible to enforce.

dr.kevin said:

Texting is the dumbest shit ever. Use the goddamn phone and TALK.


That said, i don't mind if you text.
but if you crash into me, and I find a phone in your hand, I will beat you with my tire wrench.

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This is how I feel. If my cell rings while I'm driving I don't answer it. I don't text or eat or drink anything while driving either. There are too many idiots on the road that don't pay attention while driving. I need to so I'm more certain to make it to and from where I'm going every day.

AdamNesvick said:

we Americans happen to like our freedoms

as far as txting while driving, nope, not a good idea, nor is anything else.
Yeah, its wrong but I don't think its possible to enforce.

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Americans use the word Freedom way too much

Well like anything that gets banned it won't stop it but it will make people think twice.
And it would reduce it to some extent.

Like tonnes of people here still use the phone whilst driving, but its been toned down alot.

Reimu said:

I think what will cheer me up even more would be that anyone caught texting while driving will be subjected to the court of public opinion, in some form of TV wall of shame, so we can recall their moment of idiocy for posterity...

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We have that here in Canada, just not for texting. Link

darkpark said:

texting should be fined twice as much as a typical speeding ticket and if you cause an accident the insurance company shouldn't cover you. you better have enough money to cover the cost of your car's damage and the damage of the car that you hit.
seriously! stop texting in the car. get an ear-piece or a in-car speakerphone and talk hands-free.

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All my cars are setup so that I can talk on the phone hands free. I made sure there's an AUX jack to the radio. Though why do people text and not speak? Surely it's more effort?

People text because it's more private then speech. Remember those people who would talk on their phone in public, like movie theaters and what not? That's why they text now. That way we don't embarrass people in order to communicate.

We used a social stigma to force people to stop talking in public, to eventually texting while driving. Talk about going from the frying pan, and straight into the fire.

Oh hey look, posters who put texting in the same category as eating, talking to passengers and changing radio stations again.

Keep on justifyin' folks!

Azhar said:

Oh hey look, posters who put texting in the same category as eating, talking to passengers and changing radio stations again.

Keep on justifyin' folks!

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People with good eyesight can watch the road while texting. U mad about being blind.

Azhar said:

Oh hey look, posters who put texting in the same category as eating, talking to passengers and changing radio stations again.

Keep on justifyin' folks!

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Actually it is. Statistically just by carrying on a conversation even if you keep your eyes on the road affects you more then a .08 BAC. Doesn't matter if its a phone to your ear, passenger, or handsfree, to many people are too visually inclined and talking basically makes them imagine the person they are talking to which lowers their reaction times as they are basically on auto pilot. People mentally are not really multitasking and the ability to do multiple things at once come from the ability cut their thought processes on any particular job into smaller segments.

So really anything that isn't two hands on a steering wheel is a distraction. Once you break outside of that the affect any particular job has on ones ability to drive can be drastically different from one person to the next.

Topweasel said:

Actually it is. Statistically just by carrying on a conversation even if you keep your eyes on the road affects you more then a .08 BAC. Doesn't matter if its a phone to your ear, passenger, or handsfree, to many people are too visually inclined and talking basically makes them imagine the person they are talking to which lowers their reaction times as they are basically on auto pilot. People mentally are not really multitasking and the ability to do multiple things at once come from the ability cut their thought processes on any particular job into smaller segments.

So really anything that isn't two hands on a steering wheel is a distraction. Once you break outside of that the affect any particular job has on ones ability to drive can be drastically different from one person to the next.

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I won't disagree with you that any form of distraction is a bad thing, but I'm talking about people saying texting is even remotely the same thing as talking to a passenger. At the very least, your eyes are on the road when a passenger talks to you and you talk back to them. It's not like you can listen to traffic while watching your phone when texting. It's not even close to the same thing. What's the BAC comparison with texting?

Runningflame570 said:

At risk of sounding like a heartless jerk: good. Let the people who can't pay any attention get themselves killed, I just hope they don't take out anyone worth keeping around in the process.

If you're sitting in the drivers seat of a 3,000 (more often now 6,000) lb vehicle and you can't wait five-thirty minutes to text someone I have extremely little sympathy if you get horribly maimed or killed.

That sort of idiocy should be stopped before it can spread.

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/agree

Especially on the part about hoping they don't take anyone else out while doing so. Unfortunately that is the rub. They ARE taking out other people and the laws are intended to reduce traffic accidents all together (working or not, that is the intent). They can't focus on reducing multi car accidents while allowing single car accidents with a fancy wording of the law about what is and isn't allowed.

I don't agree with the overall ban of all hand held devices, but I can also agree that it is difficult to enforce a "Talking on the phone is ok, but texting is bad while behind the wheel" type law.

It sucks, it's an inconvenience, but I'll put up with it if it means a bunch of 16 year old idiots are being handed large traffic tickets on a daily basis. Revenue stream ftw!

Azhar said:

I won't disagree with you that any form of distraction is a bad thing, but I'm talking about people saying texting is even remotely the same thing as talking to a passenger. At the very least, your eyes are on the road when a passenger talks to you and you talk back to them. It's not like you can listen to traffic while watching your phone when texting. It's not even close to the same thing. What's the BAC comparison with texting?

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I am not sure if anyone has really done a comparison. My point is the ability of one driver over another can be massively different. But your also talking to someone that would rather see the act of poor driving be penalized regardless of the "cause". To many restrictive laws when really all they need to do is enforce the parent laws like distracted driving, reckless driving, and careless driving. The eventual road for all of these rules are to make things that should be perfectly legal, illegal because of people do to the few (or even the many) that can't do it correctly.

How many deaths or accidents have to happen with a given "cause" before it becomes illegal?

The only way to stop texting while driving is to legally force cellphone makers to include mandatory GPS tracking that disables cellphone transmissions when traveling above a certain speed (lets say 20mph)

You could evne use this technology to allow use of cellphones at speed along known train tracks.

This would stink for passengers, but meh, they can learn to be patient.

Zarathustra[H];1036242280 said:

The only way to stop texting while driving is to legally force cellphone makers to include mandatory GPS tracking that disables cellphone transmissions when traveling above a certain speed (lets say 20mph)

You could evne use this technology to allow use of cellphones at speed along known train tracks.

This would stink for passengers, but meh, they can learn to be patient.

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Yes, throw more laws and technology at the problem. Ignore individual responsibility since individuals are already doing so themselves. What about passengers in said cars?

The fact of the matter is there are already laws in place that can be used to punish people for texting while driving. "Reckless Driving" can be ticketed. Swerving around while texting certainly falls under this existing rule.

Bgrngod said:

Yes, throw more laws and technology at the problem. Ignore individual responsibility since individuals are already doing so themselves. What about passengers in said cars?

The fact of the matter is there are already laws in place that can be used to punish people for texting while driving. "Reckless Driving" can be ticketed. Swerving around while texting certainly falls under this existing rule.

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I don't know about your town, but most places I know will only ticket you when using your cellphone only if it's a secondary violation, same with seat belt. They need a reason (speeding, etc) to pull you over before they can get you for the other things.

They need to change that and more people will start taking it seriously. Secondary violation is like saying "neener neener, come get me" to watching cops who can't do a damn thing.

Bgrngod said:

Yes, throw more laws and technology at the problem. Ignore individual responsibility since individuals are already doing so themselves. What about passengers in said cars?

The fact of the matter is there are already laws in place that can be used to punish people for texting while driving. "Reckless Driving" can be ticketed. Swerving around while texting certainly falls under this existing rule.

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But if these laws don't appear to be working, should society step it up a notch to save lives?

Your answer to this question will depend on how much you value individual liberties regardless of how harmful they can be.

Reimu said:

@Savoy: Common sense (which isn't very common apparently) tells us that convenience should be balanced by caution. That being said, manslaughter, abandonment of fiduciary duties, failure to follow rules, endangering others. Yea we get it I guess it's just better if we all go back to a society with no legal codes and just leave it to people since human, last I checked, are very fair with each other. Or better yet, just let people work out any issue that may arise. Sounds silly amirite? I thought so too.

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Nice exaggeration of what I was trying to say. What you missed, in your attempt to be witty and cool is, that I was not implying that we somehow should live in a lawless society or don't need rules. Of course we know that wouldn't work either. That being the case doesn't mean we should have 100000 other laws passed which are knee jerk reactions to issues that arise as we progress through the years. You end up living in a state where there's more retarded rules/laws than make sense. You simply can't govern people that way. Laws like that are simply ridiclous since there's no way to enforce them. the answer to getting people to do the right thing isn't to force them or slap them into submission. The answer is education. Let the people make their own decisions a little bit without the government holding their hand, trust me we can do it. This country was founded to get away from all this bullshit government intrusion and alot of people want and think it's a good idea for the government to make it so they tell us when/where to eat and shit as well. Or better yet how to eat and what to eat ffs. If you like living in a society where the government tells you what to do from craddle to grave every step of the way then might I suggest communist china or Venezuela (Chavez is great isn't he? LOL) might be a great place to move for ya. /end rant.