Posted on 03/25/2015 1:20:21 PM PDT by C19fan
Distractions - especially talking with passengers and using cellphones - play a far greater role in car crashes involving teen drivers than has been previously understood, according to compelling new evidence cited by safety researchers. The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety analyzed nearly 1,700 videos that capture the actions of teen drivers in the moments before a crash. It found that distractions were a factor in nearly 60per cent of moderate to severe crashes. That's four times the rate in many previous official estimates that were based on police reports. The study is unusual because researchers rarely have access to crash videos that clearly show what drivers were doing in the seconds before impact as well as what was happening on the road.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Heck...they can’t even WALK safely with those things! :-)
"I can multitask."
"I can talk on my phone and drive safely, no problem."
"How dare our communist government try and give ME a ticket for this!"
I'm betting not very long.....
I choose to do it.
What say you?
Werner Herzog made a documentary about texting and driving. It’s titled,, From One Second To The Next. Well worth watching.
Exactly. All around Vanderbilt’s campus in Nashville, the students walk with head facing down towards phone and the ground-not level or even slightly up. They almost walk into cars.
It can be done safely.
I believe most of us accept that driving on a public road is a privilege. After all, it does take some training, experience and awareness to operate a piece of machinery that can cause significant damage and death. The potential hazard is sufficient to warrant licensing and beyond that, our full attention since most every “accident” is really the result of inattention.
So, if you are driving and playing Axis and Allies with the kids, you are not meeting your obligation to be attentive to your driving. Your claim that you can is not proof that you are attentive. Ultimately, a court might decide the extent of your culpability, but common sense says you don’t hand a drunk the car keys and wait for an accident to happen before they face the consequences of their drunkenness.
I got an even better one for ya!
A racoon had died right on the sidewalk and a flock of 20+ vultures were having a feast. Then along comes a kid walking to school and backpack on his back, head bent down over his smart phone. I screamed at him from across the street to prevent him from walking right into a “nature movie”.
Did I say I was driving?
I can only go by the context of your remark. Why say anything unless it is related to the topic at hand, driving while on a cell phone.
As a motorbike rider I have witnessed some horrible driving due to distracted drivers.
I know to expect it and plan for it, always, because I desire to stay alive.
That being said I prefer freedom, which means fewer laws of this sort.
By the time the world is safe enough for the average woman it will not be fit for any man to live in.
IMHO
Why say anything.....
Why point out..the obvious?
Why believe?
I merely pointed out that I can multi-task..and the poster was not clear.
Frankly...I've safely driven with my knee...and texted a time or two..while driving. I would much rather..speak to people though.
I hate texting..pretty much. My vehicle allows me to speak on the phone...with two hands..and a knee on the drivers wheel. Ha!!
I think...I can actually text while driving too...without taking my hands or knee..off the drivers wheel.
My girls..tell me that is doable. Ha!!I will figure that out...while I'm multi-tasking something else.
All around Vandy the VA and 21st is scary
for me driving with the people distracted
looking at their phones crossing the street.
Not even talking about that horrible wreck
I passed this morning on I40.
Being a motorcyclist myself, I KNOW we are often targeted by drivers and I do my best to keep my “space”. I am against helmet and seatbelt laws, but I have to draw a line when my desire to do something (talk on a cell phone) distracts me from my responsibility to you (not kill or injure you with my car).
So if I want to operate a piece of machinery that could plow into you at 120 mph with x gigajoules of energy, perhaps I have a responsibility about my condition when operating that machinery.
I don’t disagree with you about the insane pursuit of safety but I also consider myself a true conservative, a centrist, rightfully concerned about the balance of liberty and responsibility, or statism versus anarchy.
I had a co-worker that totaled his car while driving alone. He hit the middle divider. No other traffic near him. He would not explain how he did this so I suspect he was looking in the mirror and brushing his hair back. He did that all day long at work so why not the car.
Ping
“...Let’s see how long it takes for one or more freepers to chime in with “I can multitask.”...”
Doing anything that takes your eyes off the road for several seconds at a time that blinds you to situational awareness (ie texting) may as well be referred to as “attempted suicide”, presuming you live to tell about it.
However, I don’t know that I would condemn accident-free, safe drivers who have been (ahem) “multi-tasking” all their lives as they drive by doing things like: taking a sip of coffee
casually talking to passengers
talking on a radio (HAM, FRS, CB, hands-free-Cell, whatever)
changing the radio station
and still manage to keep their eyes on the road & maintain situational awareness?
What sort of “multi-tasking” are we talking about here?
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