Posted on 12/27/2009 3:30:09 PM PST by Saije
Vinnie Sorce knew something was wrong when he saw a police officer pull into the driveway. He immediately sent his three children, two boys from a previous marriage and a little girl with his fiancee, to their rooms so he could talk to the officer outside.
"Time just froze," he said.
Sorce's fiancee, Stacey Stubbs, had headed to Phoenix for a doctor's appointment.
She never made it.
A Ford pickup truck hit Stubbs' rented PT Cruiser head-on on an isolated stretch of road near Lake Pleasant, killing her instantly. The other driver, Ashley Miller, 19, was thrown from the truck and later pronounced dead at a hospital.
Sorce later went to the hospital to identify Stubbs' body.
"You could see her nose was broken, and her fingers were all crushed, like she had gripped the wheel," Sorce said.
A familiar pain flooded back. Sorce had lost his first wife, Lisa, to cancer eight years before.
"The hardest thing I thought I'd ever have to do was tell the boys their mom had died," he said. "All of a sudden I had to do it again."
A few days later he was enraged to hear that Miller had been text messaging on her cell phone. Based on a message Miller sent a minute before the 911 call reporting the accident, police surmised that she became distracted and crossed the center line.
Crashes blamed on cell phone use and text messaging as well as recent studies outlining the dangers of the practice have helped build interest around the country in restrictions.
As of late 2009, six states - California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Washington - and Washington, D.C., required drivers to use a hands-free device, and 19 states and Washington, D.C., prohibited text messaging behind the wheel.
(Excerpt) Read more at ktar.com ...
Woman killed in text messaging accident
The title is misleading, it’s not an accident when the driver was texting.
*sigh*
Don't know
never actually seen one
But the inconvenience of being kicked off the network
Does not even come close to the dangerousness
of poorly attending to the task of
controlling over a ton of steel at expressway speeds
with highly complex maneuvering at unpredictable intervals
I'm a motorcyclist
The most dangerous interaction I've had on the bike
was with a woman talking on a phone
who drifted into my lane
shoving me into the center median at 70 MPH
She never saw me
People talking and texting on phones are a
Clear an Present Danger
to a motorcyclist
I've considered getting a jammer in self defense
Hm. So, according to you, we must sacrifice common sense on the grounds that we have enough "nanny state laws?" Do you likewise believe that DUI laws are "nanny state laws?"
These toys while driving without a hands-free device and especially texting are for idiots; trying to tell the world how important they are running their mouth. I have spent a lot of time traveling in California driving my SUV and can see so many people with the phone jammed up against their ear or texting while driving. What is worse, about every 4th or 5th car I pass or passes me, someone talking on the phone or texting without a hands-free device. Now, if I can see so many people doing this, how is it that the Police, Sheriff or Highway Patrol doesn’t have a clue? This should be treated/handled in the same manner as driving under the influence (DUI)!
Oh, but you see, it’s all about nanny-statism. We mustn’t let common sense intrude when “nanny state laws” would result.... /s
I apologize. You are EXACTLY RIGHT! Men: looking like John Goodman only works for John Goodman. The rest of us must quit this giant gut thing.
No warning, no mercy.
The worst violator of the policy you ask? The owner of the business. I've actually had to remind him of it when I don't answer his calls.
Considering that my livelihood hinges on being able to talk to these people, I should agree with driftdiver that folks with jammers "should be hung" and that "there ought to be a law" is just another invasion of freedom. I halfway agree with the latter -- the decision belongs to the states, not the Feds. But I love too many motorcyclists among my family and friends, and live in the thick of too many very fast freeways and city thoroughfares where speed from stoplight to stoplight easily gets up to 55 and 60 mph, to think jammers wouldn't result in a lot of saved lives over morons too self-absorbed to know and respect their own limitations when they endanger the lives of innocents for the vanity of chatting on a cel phone or texting a message.
Every time one of these threads comes up some guy gets on with an anecdote about women being the only ones texting. I on the other hand have seen far more men driving big rigs texting.
My husband bought me a big SUV because a woman on a cell phone ran a red light, hit me, and totaled my station wagon some years ago. Riding in that SUV, there are very few cars on the road that scare me now, cell phone or no. But those truck drivers texting and talking on phones frighten me to death.
Unless someone gets to these kids and reminds them they are not the only ones on the road, there are going to be some horrific accidents coming and it won’t just be some women in little cars. The cause will be irresponsible men in 18 wheelers, cement and rock trucks, and logging rigs, what have you. The end result will be catastrophic.
So one driver was distracted by text messaging, what was distracting the other driver that she didn’t get out of the way?
I was wondering why he didn’t just get a LOVE SEAT instead of a couch.
Riiiiiiiiiiiight.
Either you have done very little driving of any speed or variety, or you are hands-down the most arrogant and stupid motorist on the road.
I've had a cellphone since 1987
original “Sack Phone”
It was very freeing, as I'm a physician
But I pull off the road and stop,
to talk on the phone.
I hate killing people,
it ruins my day
Having been put at risk for mortal harm
magnifies my concerns about cell phone use in cars
You can always return a call
but a life is nor replaceable
A jammer is a small harm, relatively
But it is illegal...
I would support that but I don’t think I can get it enforced.
However, I very, very, VERY rarely talk while I'm driving. Its simply not worth it to get involved in an accident.
Oh, and I never, ever text and have no intention of doing so. If something is that important its worth a phone call.
naw...give ‘em a chance first chop off their hands.
Its called CYA
Long enough to produce a kid. I guess that I am just old-fashioned but I cannot understand why anyone would engage in reproduction outside marriage. What a terrible disservice to the child!
As an aside, whenever I see something like this "accident" I think of what Brother Dave Gardner once said, "I don't believe in accidents. To me, it's all premeditated carelessness." Amen.
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