Posted on 11/03/2016 3:28:54 AM PDT by lowbridge
After a trucker killed a mum and three of her kids while using his phone as he drove, her family have worked with police to produce this heartbreaking video - including horrifying footage from inside his cab at the moment of impact.
Tomasz Kroker has been jailed today for 10 years for causing the deaths of Tracy Houghton, her two sons Josh and Ethan, and her stepdaughter Aimee Goldsmith.
(Excerpt) Read more at lbc.co.uk ...
Thank God you were not injured.
The irony of being me, is, that I have *come to a complete stop* so I could call the MSP number and report the yapping driver and license plate.
And our troopers love a good “interception”.
:)
I know of one old, clueless git who will NEVER pull out on bike again and probably looks for them obsessively, now.
/say no more
:)
While I totally agree with the Ipod or Pokeman or texting while driving. We can answer the phone with a thumb. In order for there to be no distractions, you’d have to remove GPS, radios, adjustments to AC/Heat, all those new menus that tell you fuel radius, tire pressure, oil or engine lights, etc too.
What needs to be added are side view cameras along with rear view ones, and warning horns in your vehicle when some one is in your blind zone even if you have 1 of those little circles that is supposed to catch the blind zone, there is still one even in cars and vans, not just big rigs.
We were watching the road, going the speed limit, just came threw Base Security, pick up truck behind us came threw after, speeding in the other lane we needed to be in, was in our blind spot, we barely touched. Know where we needed to call to get base security? Pensacola who dispatched the Millington Navy Base security which took nearly 30 mins. Good thing no one was hurt and no real damage. Not even the radio was on in our van. Lord, knows what the other driver was doing, he was going more than the posted 30 mph, said he kept blowing his horn neither of us heard it until split second before slight touch that smudged his paint and broke our mirror off, he should have yielded to our turn signals as he was speeding. Which is a BIG NO on a Military base. YOU don’t even park the wrong direction. There are signs posted all over the base no text or phone use while driving. And it is enforced when Security catches it.
Idiots in Memphis drive eating a bowl of cereal, painting their long nails and reading the newspaper.
I have seen actual people doing the things in your last sentence.
*However*, the studies proved that radios and books on tape did not affect driving ability, significantly.
I assume it’s because they’re not “disembodied voices”.
I have a crap-load of stuff on my Magnum’s console...miles to empty, avg. mpg, system alerts and so much other stuff, I feel like I’m driving the space shuttle, sometimes.
But none of that has ever distracted me at all.
Possibly because they take a millisecond glance and no more and even then, I can still see the road over the dash, quite easily.
I have seen a guy watching a porn movie on the DVD player where his rear view mirror should be...and “reacting” to it.
As far as blind spots go, a Magnum has them *bad*, due to the “chopped top” design of the car.
Luckily, driving a Harley has made me hyper-aware of checking my mirrors, re-checking, lather, rinse, repeat.
:)
Yet, I have seen ILL State Police on the 294 Tollway, running at 70+ MPH, checking their laptops, talking on their cellphone and even reading the morning Trib.
Grow-up.
Hypocrisy, thy name is “murrican”
Sorry, that rationalization doesn’t work.
I would rather be surrounded by drivers with four or five beers in them than drivers who aren’t even trying to pay attention.
What does a cell phone do that a CB radio does not? I can understand the problem with looking at the phone. But if just talking to someone not present, a disembodied voice or whatever, we should have been having this problem since the dawn of mobile 2-way communication.
There’s at least one in Virginia, too...
In fact, that “virtual” conversation is more distracting than talking with a passenger, their study shows. In their study, Rose and Hunton suggest that “cell phone conversations consume significantly more attention than passenger conversations, resulting in more incidents and crashes during simulated driving.
“Due to the lack of nonverbal cues, conversations on cellular telephones demand more cognitive resources than conversations with passengers,” the study notes. “More working memory is consumed by cell phone conversations relative to passenger conversations, and fewer resources are available for the driving task.”
I can relate, in a way. I'm a fiction writer, and when I'm on the open road with no one around me, I will often let my imagination go so I can work on the themes for the next chapter. Obviously, will not even attempt to do so in traffic for obvious reasons.
But out where I'm the only car, if you were to ask me, I'd probably couldn't tell you about the farms I passed or the cows grazing in the fields (unless one started wandering near the road, in which case I'd snap out of my reverie LOL).
o.O
I have seen cell phone mounts on dressers.
[right next to the cup holder!]
I’m starting to suspect that people are taking “How stupid ARE you?” as a personal challenge.
Amen to that.
IMO, talking hands-free on a phone while driving is no different that talking to your passenger while driving. The issue I see ... and I see it almost every day ... is people texting or searching through their music while driving. That DOES require eye contact with the screen and is very dangerous indeed. Stupid, even.
Heh.
I have it recorded, just by dumb luck.
I got off the bike in a helluva hurry so the camera kept running.
You can’t *see* me, but boy, can you ever hear me.
:D
Sorry but nope.
They tested it.
It’s got something to do with talking to a “disembodied voice”.
The few times I have had hubby ring me while I was driving, I could not stand it for more than a few seconds.
It made my head feel “wrong”.
I literally hit the button, screamed “I’ll call you back” and hung up in his face.
Otherwise, he just rambles endlessly, no matter how strident I become, over being a menace to myself and others.
IMO = In My Opinion (in case you missed that part of my post)
I just thought IMO was the male version of IMA?
/that’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it
;D
My truck doesn’t have BlueTooth connectivity ... I will not talk on my phone while driving that thing. My car does. I have no issue with talking on the phone in it as I can keep my eyes on what’s going on around me by simply pressing a button on my steering wheel to answer the phone. I don’t receive calls often while driving, but it does happen occasionally, and when it does, the conversation takes back seat (no pun intended) as the first priority is safe driving. I definitely don’t text while driving. And if I am listening to music that is on my phone or through Pandora, and interactivity with the device happens while dead stopped at a traffic light.
/that’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it
LOL!!!!!! Well played.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.