squirtdad

+1

About two months ago I nearly got in an accident on a freeway. I was in far left of 3 lanes. Can in center lane suddenly slowed to about 40 and was weaving half way into lanes on right and left. My initial reaction was driver was having a medical emergency..... I passed and checked it out.

Driver was textging both eyes down.

Dave Cutter

Eventually?!?!?!? What planet do you live on? Every human on planet Earth... dies right at the very end of his/her life. For some that is actually before birth..... for a few it is after a hundred or more years. But untimely? Who here on Earth assigns the times?

I won't even talk on the phone while driving myself. Texting while driving is against the law in my state.... so of course NO ONE in my state would ever text and drive.

genec

spivonious

What about public transportation? Passengers in a car? You can't use motion alone to determine that someone shouldn't be distracted.

The real solution is for laws to change. Involved in a collision and found to be using the phone? Instant jail time. It wouldn't change overnight, but I think that would get a lot of people to leave their phone in their pocket.

Dave Cutter

So you'd be OK with rushing that breast-feeding new mother off to jail for her parking lot fender-bender? Maybe we could just incarcerate the entire population.... and only let people out on work-release programs?

The "real solution" has never changed, and is as old as time.... user beware. There are inherent risks involved in getting off the couch and going outside. Life is full of ouchies!

genec

Yes, but you seem to accept that other persons' irresponsibility is just too damn bad. With your implied thinking, it is OK to drink and drive and then kill someone as "ouchies" just happen.

wphamilton

You know, if I go to a crowded mall I'm aware of a slight risk that I might be randomly assaulted. I accept the risk and go anyway. However, there is no logic possible that my acceptance of the risk somehow mitigates the assault.

The same thing applies when someone is in a car. It applies when someone is negligent. Whatever personal risk I may accept while going about my legal business in no way mitigates the negligent or illegal actions which pose that risk. I agree completely with the person who said that the punishment should be commensurate with the harm caused, and should have no exceptions.

qclabrat

sensitive topic, but a passionate one for me, so will weigh in for a second

Texting and driving has contributed to more deaths annually than drunk driving

in NJ fines for texting: 1st offense- $300, 2nd $500, 3rd $800 & potential suspended license

in NJ fines for DWI: 1st offense- $300 & up 1 yr suspended license & up to 30 days in prison, 2nd $500 & up to 2 yrs suspended license & up to 90 days in prison, 3rd $1000 & up to 10 yrs suspended license & up to 180 days in prison

Obviously fines are not a good deterrent to texting, but adding in license suspension and potential jail time will sober many
Texting and driving being culturally acceptable really bothers me and statistics clearly show it is at least as dangerous when compared to DWI

Getting info/data at an instant is as addictive as drugs and alcohol to some and until penalties are more severe, many will take the risk to answer a quick text and browse while also increasing the risk to injure others

To be honest, I've checked my phone before but nowadays I pull over, even in traffic if I really need to check my messages

genec

At one time I was a cell phone Alpha Tester, (when working for a particular company) and was encouraged to talk long, text and drive... I have long since given up those habits.

I never ran into anybody while doing my testing, but I also tended to keep the conversations lite... just using air time to see what cumulative failures might occur. (it was somewhat funny having a new cell phone number about every two weeks... relatives never knew it was me calling...)

Booger1

When people try to use there phones while driving and see a missing finger,THAT will remind them they shouldn't use the phone while driving.....

We've tried fines,that isn't working.....because the cops don't inforce it and when they do,the fines are not enough.....Make the fines $10,000 and/or 30 days in jail and make the cops actually stop people.

Feldman

If fear of legal or other reprisal could be introduced into the consciousness of most drivers, texting would not be a problem. As things are it is illustrative to not look on drivers as human--they are a top of the food chain predator with no natural enemies, hence they fear nothing. The legal system needs to give them something to fear.

Coal Buster

What could be the biggest deterrent in NJ is that there is a mandatory court appearance along with the citation. A lot of drivers see the fine as a part of the cost of their cell service and don't mind mailing a big check to the court every now and then if it lets them keep yakking on the phone while driving. Having to go to court in person, though, is a total pita. Too bad most drivers don't know that the law has been changed until after they call up and try to pay their fines over the phone.

Dave Cutter

I checked my posts.... and you seem deliberately mistaken. Please post my quote about dinking and driving being OK. And... BTW how many names do you post under?!?!?!?

My reasoning: only points out that your extreme fear of injury and death has no place in normal society. You need to see a doctor. And I mean that in the kindest way. Think of this as an intervention. You are just WAY out there. This is something you should discuss with a doctor... or maybe your spiritual advisor.

But yes... I do accept that other humans... are also only humans and they WILL make mistakes. And YES... I accept that one of those humans error in judgment (however intended) may cause my expiration. That... like it or not... accepted or not.... IS how life works.

Dave Cutter

I had a friend that worked in the middle east for a couple years. There was a place in the city (affectionately) called chop-chop park. It is where the public would watch punishment administered one day a week. The most common was chopping off the hands of thieves. They have been doing that for over 1500 years. Everyone has someone in their family.... with a missing hand. Shoplifting remains a problem.

Actually.... I am pretty sure that is called tyranny. I've never read of anyplace at anytime where tyrannical rule.... saved life's.

genec

I never said you said drinking and driving was OK... You need to go back and review.

Start with "ouchies."

Dave Cutter

OK

Yeah.... I think you're just emotionally too concerned about the entire subject. YES... I do believe (know) ouchie's do happen. And YES we do all die. AND of course some people die at the hands of... or due to the actions of other humans. School children know.... and accept... such things. These are basic human truths that can't be changed.

genec

And yet, we do try to change these things... by making laws that make dangerous behaviour illegal... such as drinking and driving, such as texting and driving.

School children accept such things as they usually don't understand them... "oh, mommy is just asleep in the box..."

Get over it Dave.

It's not paranoia, or fear, it's about personal responsibility and doing the right thing... and if you can't tell the difference, it is YOU that has the problem.

Dave Cutter

According to google personal responsibility: is the willingness to both accept the importance of standards that society establishes for individual behavior and to make strenuous personal efforts to live by those standards.

Personal responsibility is NOT about forcing others to comply to behaviors that temper your paranoia.

genec

Uh, those "standards" mentioned by google... we often call them "laws." So deal with the fact that in various states, texting while driving violates said "standards," and may cause the death of others. We also have laws regarding other behaviours for those driving... such as having a license, not drinking, not being impaired....

Dave Cutter

Yes... and if you read it says "the willingness to both accept the importance of standards that society establishes"..... it is the acceptance where you fail.

The society you live in doesn't share your fears... or desire to enslave everyone with tyrannical enforcement of "safety precautions" ether. You need to learn to chill.

genec

CliffordK

Mom has all the fancy gizmos in her car.
So, I was driving with her a few weeks ago (I was driving her car), and she decided to program in the nav system. NOTHING WORKED. We had had this problem before too.

After getting to our lunch spot, I decided to look at it, and it was very straight-forward. Everything worked for me.

It turns out that the Nav system has a lock-out feature that you can't reprogram it while driving. Not even the passenger can change it. She had never noticed that before, because when she drives her own car, she always stops before updating the Nav system.

Anyway, it makes some sense, I suppose. I never liked to take my eyes off the road to use it anyway.

As far as cell phones, prudence would seem wisest. One could use a text to speech interface, but in that case, why not just talk on the phone (hands-free, of course).

I have been on straight, rural freeways in low traffic where checking an e-mail just didn't seem to make much difference.

genec

Sure, and it makes sense in such a location... such as the wide open areas of Texas or Wyoming... but that isn't the only place people check messages... and apparently folks have a hard time with prudence... somehow they assign a higher importance to some incoming message, vice the need to pilot a powered heavy vehicle in among other vehicles and people. The irony of course is that messages and voice mail all wait in a queue until you are in a good place to access them...

KD5NRH

Guess for me it would depend on what they're calling "reprogramming." Waze has a lockout against typing while in motion, but simpler things like requesting a reroute, routing to the nearest gas stations or changing to a different saved destination can be done anytime. Since most of the time that I'm using it, I know the most common route to within 10 miles or so of my destination, (on a 60-130 mile one way trip) and that part of the drive is on interstate or rural US highways, most of my interaction with it (other than checking ETA from time to time) is getting a reroute on the move when I see too many brake lights at the horizon or pulling up the cheapest gas station along my route.

Of course, IMO, if they wanted to make nav systems safer, the best thing they could do with them is to always list the next two turns. I've used several, both smartphone apps and dedicated boxes, and they all occasionally get slow to recognize that I've already taken the exit or turn, and by the time they get around to telling me which way I need to go next, I'm in the wrong lane with no safe way to move over. If it had just told me from the start to "exit and then turn right" or whatever, the problem could have been avoided, but I'm fairly certain that situation is the reason for a lot of the idiotic moves I see pretty often on access roads and multiple-exit mixups.

Booger1

I'm guessing the fellow with one hand isn't shoplifting anymore....