DataJunkie

Or we should just ban ignorance. Bye bye seldom kill.

Cycliste

+4 some of the comments in this thread are sick and do not represent real advocates opinions, not to mention normal feelings'. Cell phone use while driving represent a grave danger to cyclists and public safety at large but these cynical comments are in no way helping with more awareness.

snowgukonwheels

A cell phone is a an I.Q. sucker in disguise. Put one next to your ear and watch your brain drop 50 points. Just ask the woman in that SUV ( S**ty Ugly Vehicle).

sbhikes

Sheesh. It's gallows humor. It's not like any of us believes it's actually funny.

We laugh because it sounds like something somebody made up, and because it's so gruesome.

If it was simply some lady had a terrible accident and was killed and a cell phone was involved, it wouldn't be funny at all. It's the severed arm clutching a phone that is funny. It's the stuff of slapstick comedy movies.

DataJunkie

I will remember your comment the next time I am discussing highly technical processes with my manager via a cell phone.
As for SUV equating to what you said, to each his\her own. This vehicle type has its use. Personally, I will stick to our family car, a camry.

khuon

It was possibly the dismemberment that wouldn't allow the grasp to be relinquished. Think about it.

The Seldom Kill

And even though I didn't think about it, I included that bit about biology having a sense of irony.

Although I see we shouldn't ban your ignorance of psychology. As you wish.

khuon

Everything that happens has causality. What I find deplorable about some of the attitudes expressed in this thread is that they are done so through quick condemnation without knowing the full story. Yes, we can say that the woman's use of a cellphone while driving probably caused her to become distracted and lose control of her vehicle. Stepping over the line however would be calling her stupid and degrading her without knowing the full circumstances. It is a possibility that the woman was being stupid and yapping away about the movie she saw the night previous. But it is also a possibility that other things were playing out. We as the "audience" don't know everything that happened so it would be highly presumptious of us to make such scathing remarks against the woman's character and person at this time.

spandexwarrior

Yeah, I'm sure you can even discuss quantum physics on a phone. But all the studies show that the brain cannot be fully attentive to one's surroundings while doing it. That is fact. Just look up some of the old cell phone posts on this forum. I'm not gonna slap anyone's hands for feeling there was poetic justice in this. One forum member was killed by a cell phone driver. Any one of us could be killed by a cell phone driver. To compare this accident to a cyclist getting killed is childish. Cell phone drivers drive crazy or dangerously practically all the time. They are doing something stupid (that is why it is funny). Bicyclists however, are fully attentive to what is going on on the road. The risks a cyclist takes do not endanger other people. Cell phones and cars are a different matter.

DataJunkie

To be honest, how should a ETL specialist have much of an understanding of psychology? Then the question would be, how does one such as yourself have such a depth of knowledge and why do I fail to understand what bearing any of your comments have upon mine?
It is my opinion that the US is suffering a general lack of caring for each other amongst the common man\woman characterized by this thread. Yet, that equates to me wanting to ban humor (that does not exist in this thread IMHO). Finally, me calling you ignorant equates to a lack of knowledge realted to human pshycology on my part. WTH?
Granted that various persons have a differing view of humor. Still I find a distinct lack of humor in this subject. Maybe my liberal leaning attitudes have clouded my idea of humor. Then again maybe not.

DataJunkie

Hold on mister. You took my generalized response to a general statement by another poster way out of context. In no way shape or form do I endorse using a cell phone while driving to discuss intricate matters. I OCCASIONALLY use a cell while rarely driving (I cycle about 98% of the time) for minor life issues. Ex: please pick up bread, I'm going to be late. Stuck in traffic, etc
A generalized statement that cell phones diminish an IQ is a load. Now if it had been stated while driving it diminshes your ability to concentrate, my answer would have been different.

As for risks cyclists take not ever endangering people, that is incorrect IMHO. On multiple occasions I have been witness to roadies coming very close to injuring peds. Rarely they actually suceed. True, it is nothing compared to what motorists on cells have done to cyclists. However, to state that cyclists are fully attentive and do not risk anyone else is incorrect IMHO.

I-Like-To-Bike

Hey, I've got an amusing scenario you and your fellow jesters should get a chuckle over.

A cyclist gets decapitated while cycling in traffic due to getting hit by a car (for whatever reason). Passerbys see that the head is intact and state "Sure is a good thing he was wearing his helmet, his head didn't get a scratch." And they tell their friends by email this amusing story for more chuckles. Ha, Ha, and Ha, eh?

Wulfheir

Mine was better, good effort though. The jab at my nationality was a nice touch.

I-Like-To-Bike

Relax. Smug self righteousness knows no boundries.

Mars

This thread is getting out of control. Some people found the situation ironically funny, others didn't. Whatever. No one is going to change their minds about how they responded to this story because someone on the internet thinks they were ghoulish or lacks a sense of humor.

I-Like-To-Bike

This thread was out of control from post #1.

slagjumper

I guess we all would not think the womans' misfortune as funny if so many cyclists were not hurt, killed or maimed by cell phone wielding drivers. Still I want to see the police photo of the arm with hand still clutching the phone. It would be a great "reminder" to the people who think that they can talk and drive w/o issue, (myself included).

Blue Order

How about this: She's driving along, talking on her phone, maybe telling Muffy about the new shoes she just bought, maybe telling her daughter's pediatrician that she's going to be a few minutes late, when she drifts to the median, overcorrects, and starts to lose control of her truck. Instead of continuing her conversation she attempts to regain control of her vehicle, using both hands, with one hand still clutching her cell phone. Or maybe, instead, it all happens so fast that she just doesn't have time to let go of the phone before her arm is torn off.

Yeah, that's so funny people.

Blue Order

+1

Fred Smedley

The accident was not funny at all, but the jokes certainly were. If we can not laugh at ourselves we are doomed to insanity.

royalflash

It is a bit sick but after being harassed and endangered by enough thoughtless and even reckless (with other people´s lives at least) motorists I would think that most cyclists have wished that the perpetrators would reap some of what they have sown.

"Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war"

thebankman

Anyone laughing at the dismembered woman is unamerican and against freedom.

linux_author

- i thought cellphone use while driving was prolific when we lived inside the Belchway in Arlington, Va....

- but drivers down here in Pinellas on the gulf make those folks look like pikers - i was waiting at a light at a major intersection last week and counted six out of 10 folks coming through a turn lane with a cell planted in their ears; then i looked to the right and left and drivers on both sides of me had a cell in their ears!

- who the *heck* are these people talking to, anyway?

Blue Order

Oh, we're laughing at ourselves, and not at the woman whose arm was torn off. I must have gotten confused.

Mars

AND they are damned liberals as well!