amahl_shukup (imported) wrote: Sat Jul 05, 2008 6:56 am Recent studies have found that using a cell phone while driving distracts a driver to the same degree (or even more so in some cases) than driving drunk. Cell phone usage while driving makes one a de facto "impaired driver." I know that some people will say, "Oh that doesn't include me, I'm a good driver and can talk on the phone safely while driving." To those people I would say, "Get over yourself, you're an impaired driver."

Now the rage among young drivers is text messaging while driving. I've seen it going on in my own town. When I see a kid in a car next to me texting and driving, I lay on the horn ....LONG blasts, and it's fun to see the panic and sudden attention he or she pays to the road. I don't imagine for a moment that these kids are "scared straight" and they probably go back to text messaging...but I just like bringing a little reality back into their lives, even if for only a moment or two. Heh heh heh...

I did read recently (don't ask for the link, but I think it was in the News of the Weird weekly column) that a recent fatal car wreck, might have been in Florida but I'm not sure, the officer on the scene found the dead woman's arm a few feet from her crushed car, and her cell phone was still clutched in the hand.

I'm not sure we can un-invent the cell phone or even limit its use, any more than we have been able to un-invent the A-bomb and limit its proliferation. We'll just have to deal with it somehow and adapt.

kristoff wrote: Sat Jul 05, 2008 9:07 am The idiots will cull themselves from the gene-pool. It may not necessarily be a bad thing. I am already removed from the gene pool (although I do have 3 kids), so I guess that makes it OK for me to cruise the internet while driving....

Riverwind (imported) wrote: Sat Jul 05, 2008 12:55 pm You could put a device that shuts down the phone when in a moving car. Make it a law, have a big big fine if you don't comply.

A-1 (imported) wrote: Sat Jul 05, 2008 5:36 pm ...maybe a chastity device installed in car seats that has to be fastened before the car starts would stop sex in cars, too.

The way that I see it such laws are impossible to enforce and are an invasion of privacy much like seatbelt laws.

This seems to be the cause dujour, however. Funny, nobody has mentioned how pilots talk on radios while flying aircraft.

If one has a headset on I don't see how a cell phone is any worse than a CB radio, Breaker, Breaker, good buddy! Or, an FM radio (like the police use) or any other such communication device.

Really, it's not any different than approving of heterosexuality while outlawing homosexuality, at least in principle.

...it is just so much bullshit and another reason to alienate people...

Riverwind (imported) wrote: Sat Jul 05, 2008 6:50 pm You may be right, but you don't hear of flying aircraft doing loop d loops because he is talking to the traffic controller or truckers running over cars because were to busy saying breaker breaker. I think you might have a different point of view after you have been rear ended at 100 ph. It does give you a little different view of the world.

OBTW NY has a law on talking and driving at the same time, other states will follow, and your right laws like this alienate people but like drunk drivers we would prefer they did not drink and drive or talk and drive both have about the same danger level.