Teens Texting And Driving Even Worse Than We Thought

All I want to know is why did these teens have in vehicle event recorders... and where can I get one when my child becomes driving age because I will lay down the law so hard if I ever see them using the phone while driving to the point where they will be riding the bus until they can afford to buy their own car plus their own insurance.

That said, another issue quite a few of them have is over correcting on the steering. Strangely enough the one about 1:25 in that wandered to the complete opposite side of the road probably did the best in correcting her issue by not jerking the wheel back towards the other side, even avoids the road sign in her way by going back towards the left.
 
Would these pieces of shit even get prison time if they were responsible for manslaughter? Or are they treated differently because they're underage?
 
I feel like while not only are they distracted, they're just terrible drivers in general.

I mean, who taught them that they should just saw the steering wheel back and forth like a mad man when in a spin out situation? That's just a recipe for disaster.
 
sfsuphysics said:
All I want to know is why did these teens have in vehicle event recorders... and where can I get one when my child becomes driving age because I will lay down the law so hard if I ever see them using the phone while driving to the point where they will be riding the bus until they can afford to buy their own car plus their own insurance.

.
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This was on the Today show, the cameras are installed by the insurance company in exchange for lowered rates.... rates that I'm guessing aren't so low anymore for these kids.
 
Kranium said:
This was on the Today show, the cameras are installed by the insurance company in exchange for lowered rates.... rates that I'm guessing aren't so low anymore for these kids.
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Damn, do the parents get all access to the data recorders? Because that would be super awesome "Yeah don't worry about insurance rates because you're not going to be driving anymore"
 
99% of people don't actually know what to do in an emergency situation when your car begins to lose control, they panic and thus you get the above "see/saw". Both Canada (where I am) and the US have terrible driver programs that don't teach anything close to this.

Go to Finland.... Now thats Driver testing, want to know why many of the best drivers in the world are from Finland? Cause you are taught how to drive in every condition and its incredibly difficult to pass.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnYGhAXbDsM
 
the girl in the last one looks like she went right back to the phone after narrowly avoiding that sign.
 
Sweet Motorola Pebl for the kid at the 1:00 mark. 2006-08 super tech! (to be fair, my mom still adores her's)
 
What a sad video.

I lost one of my brothers when he was only 18, hit by a car while crossing a street at Texas A&M. I will never know if the person who hit him was distracted or not.

In the same manner that LE uses encounter videos to train officers for real-world scenarios, perhaps these types of videos can be integrated into our Drivers Ed programs to scare teens beyond even thinking about picking up a phone while driving - much less texting.
 
I heard Chevy was starting to offer a "teen driver" feature in their cars that tracks (in real time) where the car is, how many miles were traveled, speeds hit, etc. You can even set the max speed of the vehicle.

The one thing it doesn't do it disable cell phone usage which is probably the most important feature to include.
 
That last girl actually looked back down at her phone immediately after it happened... wow...
 
I'm not mad at kids being kids. I'm mad at our government for not properly training them to drive. I'm mad at our government for handing out driver's licenses like candy to incompetent people, many of whom don't even speak English. I'm mad at our government for lack of enforcement of REAL dangerous driving behavior and proper repercussions for it (a money making scheme, instead of just taking away driver's licenses for periods of time appropriate for the severity of the event and driver history). I'm mad at our government for not requiring mobile devices to have restricted functionality when A-GPS detects its moving at speed (we won't die if we can't text for 10 mins riding a train, people somehow managed in the 90s just fine).

Most teenagers are stupid and irresponsible. What can and should change is our tolerance level for stupidity and ignorance. Driver's licenses should be like pilot's licenses, with a proper advanced level of training and little tolerance for reckless behavior, and knowledge that disregard for safety will lose you your license and you may never get it back.
 
Ducman69 said:
I'm not mad at kids being kids. I'm mad at our government for not properly training them to drive. I'm mad at our government for handing out driver's licenses like candy to incompetent people, many of whom don't even speak English. I'm mad at our government for lack of enforcement of REAL dangerous driving behavior and proper repercussions for it (a money making scheme, instead of just taking away driver's licenses for periods of time appropriate for the severity of the event and driver history). I'm mad at our government for not requiring mobile devices to have restricted functionality when A-GPS detects its moving at speed (we won't die if we can't text for 10 mins riding a train, people somehow managed in the 90s just fine).
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When I took drivers ed it was through a 3rd party with a license to teach drivers ed. Did a great job for me. I can parallel park like a ninja. I didn't know the govenment was teaching drivers ed.
 
Damn... so it wasn't the NE snow plow trucks f**cking up all those exit, speed limit signs or denting guard rails after all! :eek:
 
Daeyx said:
99% of people don't actually know what to do in an emergency situation when your car begins to lose control, they panic and thus you get the above "see/saw". Both Canada (where I am) and the US have terrible driver programs that don't teach anything close to this.

Go to Finland.... Now thats Driver testing, want to know why many of the best drivers in the world are from Finland? Cause you are taught how to drive in every condition and its incredibly difficult to pass.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnYGhAXbDsM
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Yep for most of these people it was probably their first time ever feeling a car out of control like that, so the way they reacted isn't surprising at all. I'm sure being distracted by their cell phone didn't help either though, since they weren't exactly focusing on the job at hand.

Really they might as well just get drunk instead. At least that is fun while it lasts. :p
 
Ducman69 said:
I'm not mad at kids being kids. I'm mad at our government for not properly training them to drive. I'm mad at our government for handing out driver's licenses like candy to incompetent people, many of whom don't even speak English. I'm mad at our government for lack of enforcement of REAL dangerous driving behavior and proper repercussions for it (a money making scheme, instead of just taking away driver's licenses for periods of time appropriate for the severity of the event and driver history). I'm mad at our government for not requiring mobile devices to have restricted functionality when A-GPS detects its moving at speed (we won't die if we can't text for 10 mins riding a train, people somehow managed in the 90s just fine).

Most teenagers are stupid and irresponsible. What can and should change is our tolerance level for stupidity and ignorance. Driver's licenses should be like pilot's licenses, with a proper advanced level of training and little tolerance for reckless behavior, and knowledge that disregard for safety will lose you your license and you may never get it back.
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I agree with you, but it's definitely not just teenagers. Every day on my way to work there's an accident. And I doubt all of them are teenagers. Drivers licenses should need to be constantly renewed imho. In fact, adults are more likely to text and drive than teenagers just by the percent (and not just numbers).
 
You are driving a 2 ton death machine, and I'm not only one who thinks this, but I will say it, I hope most of these people get hurt real bad in life, I hope they die the most horrible way possible, I hate Idiots and hope natural selection takes care of them one of these days. "learn from their mistakes" is for the weak and those that cant understand simple life advice and lessons, as long as they dont take anyone with them, Im fine with dumb kids getting killed, and laugh at those sad commercials " this is my sisters text, right before she crashed"... screw her.

as you can see, I really hate texting-aholes. :D
 
Scythe said:
The one thing it doesn't do it disable cell phone usage which is probably the most important feature to include.
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Allowing cell phone usage for passengers but not the driver, and allowing cell phone usage by the driver when the car is not in motion is certainly doable; I think it was patented in the past year.

But what about genuine emergency situations, such as when the driver is in the car by themselves and being pursued by a road rager? What about when the motion detector that allows or disallows cell phone usage by the driver malfunctions while the driver is experiencing a genuine emergency? Yes, distracted driving happens a lot more than those scenarios, but can car manufacturers protect themselves from lawsuits when those scenarios do happen? The path of least vulnerability to lawsuit is to not offer the option at all.
 
Infantwar said:
Sweet Motorola Pebl for the kid at the 1:00 mark. 2006-08 super tech! (to be fair, my mom still adores her's)
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Wasn't planning on replying... didn't even watch the video.. But now I'm going to. The Pebl was the best! Speaking of which, you shouldn't even be distracted while driving with that phone. You open it one handed - glance at the screen for a split second - and put it back down by your side. T-9word was a thing, and you could write a paragraph while shifting gears because of all the ridges separating the keys. These kids are just bad drivers.
 
All teenagers are bad drivers. The texting just makes it a THOUSAND TIMES WORSE!!!
 
My parents greatly restricted my driving privileges when I was a teenager. At the time, I really hated it and thought they were overbearing.
Now that I have kids, I'm thinking about doing the same thing to them. This video is scary shit. Any of these kids could easily have killed someone. It happens way too often.
Several years ago (before cell phones), I remember being on a major interstate and see a guy reading a newspaper while steering with his knees. He actually didn't do that bad but I am sure his reaction time would have sucked. I recall getting a few lanes away form him.
 
evilsofa said:
But what about genuine emergency situations, such as when the driver is in the car by themselves and being pursued by a road rager? What about when the motion detector that allows or disallows cell phone usage by the driver malfunctions while the driver is experiencing a genuine emergency? Yes, distracted driving happens a lot more than those scenarios, but can car manufacturers protect themselves from lawsuits when those scenarios do happen? The path of least vulnerability to lawsuit is to not offer the option at all.
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They need to text 911? I don't think so. You realize you can even dial 911 on a locked phone that you don't know the PIN to. There is absolutely no reason to think that they couldn't disable certain functionality, while allowing a 911 call to go through unhindered.
 
Ducman69 said:
They need to text 911? I don't think so. You realize you can even dial 911 on a locked phone that you don't know the PIN to. There is absolutely no reason to think that they couldn't disable certain functionality, while allowing a 911 call to go through unhindered.
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How do you expect to disable cell phone usage without jamming it? None of the people who text and drive will voluntarily plug their phone into a device that prevents any part of its use.
 
travbrad said:
Yep for most of these people it was probably their first time ever feeling a car out of control like that, so the way they reacted isn't surprising at all. I'm sure being distracted by their cell phone didn't help either though, since they weren't exactly focusing on the job at hand.

Really they might as well just get drunk instead. At least that is fun while it lasts. :p
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Traction Control taking control away from the hands of the driver IMHO is also a major problem, once the car detects that the car is out of control, even if you knew what to do when going sideways (Power on oversteer). It takes control away from you and may just lock your brakes! My Car (For the record MK6 Golf R) has its Traction control off always in the winter. I know I can control the car that much better in a tricky situation as a throttle manipulation will save my ass over Braking any day.
 
travbrad said:
Yep for most of these people it was probably their first time ever feeling a car out of control like that, so the way they reacted isn't surprising at all. I'm sure being distracted by their cell phone didn't help either though, since they weren't exactly focusing on the job at hand.

Really they might as well just get drunk instead. At least that is fun while it lasts. :p
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Traction Control taking control away from the hands of the driver IMHO is also a major problem, once the car detects that the car is out of control, even if you knew what to do when going sideways (Power on oversteer, Opposite Lock). It takes control away from you and may just lock your brakes! My Car (For the record MK6 Golf R) has its Traction control off always in the winter. I know I can control the car that much better in a tricky situation as a throttle manipulation will save my ass over Braking any day.
 
first thing I thought too besides all of them being utterly retarded -- why all of them over correct when they realize their mistake.

Do they really think jerking the wheel 180 degrees is going to fix the problem?

Sit them down and make them play some god damn Forza or something
 
I like how interaction with other individuals in the vehicle made the highest percentage. Goes to show that if we want to hound people about cell phone use, we should be making a national campaign for only single occupancy vehicles :p
 
I worked as a medic for quite a few years and still involved and I can tell you that txt'ing and driving deaths far out number the deaths from drunk and driving now and I don;t care what the stats say.

my phone knows when I am driving because it goes into that mode, I set it up that way. If my phone is capable of knowing I am driving then Federal Law should shut phone down to voice activated only or only over the radio.

Soon we will all have google self driven cars so no worries.
 
Kelby said:
When I took drivers ed it was through a 3rd party with a license to teach drivers ed. Did a great job for me. I can parallel park like a ninja. I didn't know the govenment was teaching drivers ed.
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Don't be silly - It's always the gubment's fault!!
 
notice how they zone out when they text. They completely forget they are controlling a massive projectile.
 
so I challenge you all, every time you see anyone driving alongside you and texting, honk...while making a phone call hand gesture
 
AK0tA said:
I worked as a medic for quite a few years and still involved and I can tell you that txt'ing and driving deaths far out number the deaths from drunk and driving now and I don;t care what the stats say.

my phone knows when I am driving because it goes into that mode, I set it up that way. If my phone is capable of knowing I am driving then Federal Law should shut phone down to voice activated only or only over the radio.

Soon we will all have google self driven cars so no worries.
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WP8 ftw.
 
evilsofa said:
How do you expect to disable cell phone usage without jamming it? None of the people who text and drive will voluntarily plug their phone into a device that prevents any part of its use.
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Either I'm really confused or you are.

You mandate that the carriers create their devices so that only certain functionality is available while it detects its in motion. That means you can leave 911 service available, just as you can leave GPS functionality available and yet make it so you can't actually type in a street address until the vehicle comes to a stop. This isn't rocket science to accomplish.

Same thing with my headunit on my car. It lets me control the radio, and I can even watch movies when I'm parked. But as soon as I start moving the movie turns off and that feature isn't accessible.

Yes, people could hack their phones, but you can then simply make it the same offense as intentionally disabling any other safety device on your vehicle. If you screw with your airbags without prior NHTSA approval and your passenger dies in an accident (whether or not you caused the actual accident), you are now responsible for that death. Same thing, you disable your phone's otion lockout features and are involved in an accident and the police officer notices that on your phone, you're now screwed.

This is very easy to do, and what I'd require if I were king. I'd have an "approval process" for apps to work while in motion, otherwise they are by default locked out so you can't play angry birds or watch friends season 2 episode 7 on the way to work.

So:
1) Texting is disabled in motion
2) GPS remains functional and can accept voice commands for addresses, but no keyboard input for addresses until the phone is at rest.
3) Phone remains functional, but will only work in hands-free mode accepting voice input for dialing but not working with the earpiece or mouthpiece directly and stuck in bluetooth or speakerphone mode, and it won't let you go through your contacts screen or punch in a phone number while driving.
4) Internet browser, email, etc is locked out.
 
And BTW, the worst thing I have so far ever witnessed was sitting in heavy traffic on HW69, and while granted we were only moving stop and go at about 5mph, I noticed a lady kept drifting right and left in her lane and stopping abruptly, then when I finally got closer up alongside her I saw she was literally watching something on the phone.

That's the real problem too is how do you police that? How can a police officer from 50 ft away tell if she's legitimately looking at a GPS giving her directions, or if she's distracted watching a TV show or facetiming with her boyfriend and barely paying attention to the driving task? The answer is you can't, and we know that from years and years of experience now that police simply aren't capable of cracking down on this problem, so that enforcement option just isn't viable.

You have to tackle it a different way, and feature lockout is a very simple software solution that can also be pushed by carriers to phones on their network.
 
AK0tA said:
my phone knows when I am driving because it goes into that mode, I set it up that way. If my phone is capable of knowing I am driving then Federal Law should shut phone down to voice activated only or only over the radio.
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I can agree 100% with this.. with the caveat of allowing 911 calls to be placed without the voice/radio/bluetooth requirement.

Personally.. I hate talking on the phone while driving... when I have to. My wife always seems to want to call me on my way home... and then gets mad when I make her repeat things because I'm not paying attention to her but all the other giant rolling projectiles around me.

The one downside to completely restricting phone usage though is all those darn security apps for iphone and android though. For example, my company uses Airwatch on all IOS and Android devices, which requires a pin, and stops the phone from making voice activated calls unless it is unlocked :mad: Whoever thought up that great idea needs to be kicked in the nuts!!!
 
What we really have is rampant systemic mental illness.

I will answer a voice call if there is nothing going on around me on the road. I never read texts and wouldn't even think of typing one while driving.

If you need to dial a phone number, you wait until the next stoplight where you know you have time to get it dialed before you start moving again. If the light changes and you aren't done dialing... you don't do it right now. Drop the phone on the seat and try again later.

What is the MENTAL ILLNESS that compels ANYONE to think that they MUST respond to something on a phone while driving? When did we cross the line in society when life and death decisions while driving were weighed against texting and phone calls?

Why is it that we have whole generations of human beings that can't live inside their own skin for half an hour at a stretch? They don't even understand the very concept of "JUST IGNORE THEM FOR NOW!"

I feel like I have a special power that no one else around me has. The power to just freaking ignore messages. It's like it's magic or something.

These kinds of things shouldn't be happening except in great stress situations such as someone is dying and you feel compelled to communicate while rushing to a hospital. (then you have what I would call adequate stress to easily cause bad decision making).

Otherwise, these teens are literally saying through their actions that they would rather be DEAD or KILL SOMEONE ELSE rather than delay reading or responding to the last text message.

That's a mental illness.
 
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