Posted on 08/05/2008 6:43:29 AM PDT by MplsSteve
A 25-year-old driver in Cass County offered a lesson Sunday in what not to do while driving.
When pulled over by a sheriff's deputy, not only was he traveling at speeds near 80 miles per hour, but he also said he'd drifted into the wrong lane because he was text-messaging, the Minnesota Department of Public Safety said Monday. As if that weren't enough, he was arrested on suspicion of drinking and driving.
"This is the kind of traffic event where almost everything that could go wrong, did go wrong," said Nathan Bowie, a spokesman for the Department of Public Safety. "Fortunately, the officer was there to make the stop before anything else happened."
The arrest came just two days after enactment of a state law that makes it illegal for drivers to text-message while operating a vehicle that is moving or in traffic.
The driver was traveling in the wrong lane when he approached the Cass County deputy's squad car on Hwy. 371 near Walker. The driver swerved to avoid hitting the squad car, then took off at speeds of up to 100 miles per hour before pulling over
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
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You were “setting up wide for a curve”, dumb-azz, “setting up wide for a curve”.
Text messaging... Jeez. What a lame excuse.
I see this almost daily. Even though hands free is now mandated here it means nothing.
I'll reply in a minute after I get through this intersection...
In Chicago, they are trying to legislate against texting and walking, nothing yet about texting and driving although talking on the phone without hands-free devices has been outlawed. As with a lot of Chicago laws, violators abound, especially those in City of Chicago vehicles and police cars.
I got a warning ticket from a MN Highway Patrolman the last time I drove up I-35. I was just north of Owatonna. The guy I went to see said, “No one gets a warning ticket in Minnesota.”
Our youngest daughter (13) is obsessed with it because her friends all have cell phones and wants one herself - primarily for texting - in the worst way. I'm tired of hearing about it.
What the hell is the appeal? $70 a month to type abbreviated messages on a crappy little keypad and view them on an itty-bitty little screen? WTF?
Our youngest daughter (13) is obsessed with it because her friends all have cell phones and wants one herself - primarily for texting - in the worst way. I'm tired of hearing about it.
What the hell is the appeal? $70 a month to type abbreviated messages on a crappy little keypad and view them on an itty-bitty little screen? WTF?
Using a cell phone while driving is hard enough; I don’t do it on back roads or anywhere I figure to need both hands to drive. Doing anything resembling typing while driving is insane.
With that said, I offer the following advice for driving/riding fast on a two lane road:
Treat the centerline of the road (or the closest edge of the double yellow line if there is one) as if it is the left-hand edge of your “track”. The right-side edge of pavement, then, is the your right-hand edge of your “track”.
This allows you to practice keeping fast but tidy lines through tight curves WITHOUT risking a head-on collision. Then, if you ever are lucky enough to actually drive/ride on a real track, you simply widen the track in your mind to its full width, and you are prepared to go VERY fast.
This has worked for me, at speeds some here might find quite alarming, for over 25 years (RE: Speed, I’ll say only this - 80 mph is NOT fast).
Of course, if this guy would actually send/receive text messages while driving he is probably a poor candidate to drive/ride anything at any speed.
If one is going to go fast on public roads, one MUST be prepared to have 100% of one’s concentration on the task at hand, while utilizing only +/-75% of one’s skills/abilities - saving the remaining 25% for reacting to the unexpected. Of course, one must also be ready for some exensive speeding tickets if one gets caught.
Cass County is ground zero for some of the best lakes and fishing in the country. Fishing and beer go together like ham and eggs. The guy obviously thought he was still on the lake where there are no laws against drinking, driving, speeding and texting all at the same time. ;-)
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I fail to understand the obsession with “texting” these days. This has got to be the singularly most innefficient means of communication since smoke signals. And to be doing it while driving?!?”
I don’t like it either and will only use it under rare circumstances. It takes forever to type a normal length message out. I’d rather just call someone or send an email.
My wife and I both have cellphones, but they are just prepaids that we usually don't even use all the prepaid annual minutes on. They are never on unless we're making a (rare) call, and we pretty much just have them for emergency use. They have texting ability, but we never it.
Must people gab or text incessantly on the phone while driving? What could possibly be that important? My main form of transportation is a motorcycle, so needless to say my cellphone remains in the tank bag, turned off, where it waits for the rare occaision when I pull over, take off my helmet, and turn it on.
Somehow we and our three kids still survive.
I must have some Quaker or Luddite in me because I hate texting. I have a cell phone but won’t bother to learn how to do it.
If I need to communicate with someone, I will pick up a phone or send an e-mail.
I just don’t understand the fascination with texting - even if one has a more elaborate texting device such as a Blackberry. Maybe I need to be 20-25 years younger to appreciate it.
I’ve actually had three of them, and one real speeding ticket, in the last year.
I don’t like it either and will only use it under rare circumstances. It takes forever to type a normal length message out. I’d rather just call someone or send an email.
My youngest just won't answer the cell phone when I call most of the time. He'll only respond to texts, and does so promptly. His friends are the same way. It's a generational thing, just have to get used to it.
IMO, it's not healthy.
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