IMO, everyone who caught using a phone while driving, “hands free” or not, should be jerked out of their car and stomped within an inch of their life.
Studies have proved beyond a shadow of a doubt, that your brain makes no distinction between hands or hands-free.
You are more “impaired” than if you were blistered drunk.
MD outlawed cell phones [except for the laughable “hands free”] and said it would be “zero tolerance”.
My ass.
People are still rocketing down the roads, with their stupid faces staring at them.
A couple nights ago, I got behind a car, creeping along and swerving everywhere, that I swore the driver was either drunk as hell or having a major medical issue.
When I got beside her, she was freaking TEXTING as she drove, and did not look up once in nearly a half mile.
Every time I go out on the bike, I have to deal with a dumb ass whose every thought is SO stinking important, that they simply cannot wait a minute or two, until they find a safe place to stop and grace the universe with their latest brilliant FB comment.
I have had people stop and see if I was “okay”, because I really needed to call home and had pulled over with my flashers on.
I’m sure I’ll get crap for the ‘hands free’ comment but I *do not care*.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/hands-free-texting-is-no-safer-to-use-while-driving/
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/06/130612092949.htm
SHUT UP AND DRIVE!
Flame on.
Totally agree!
I’ve done many stupid things in my life, but I am terrified of using a phone while driving; here in NJ there is simply too many things to hit while driving.
I see little enforcement of laws for this; people are constantly driving 45 in the fast lane on highways using their phones. It may be too late in most cases, but cops are looking at phones when accidents are happening with no clear cause. There is talk of stiffening penalties to mirror DUI convictions (a motor vehicle violation, not a crime here in NJ); driving impaired is driving impaired...
How dangerous is it to talk to a passenger in your vehicle while you’re driving said vehicle?
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.
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.
No wait a minute: "hands free" should be virtually the same as carrying on a conversation with a passenger in your car (without looking away from the road, of course). And people do that safely all the time.
So I don't get the difference between the two.
I saw a guy have an accident because he was looking down feeding a cd into the stereo as he went through an intersection and didn’t see the car that got in his lane to turn off.
A couple weeks ago I almost t-boned an idiot in a Stinkin Town Car who pulled right out in front of me. Only my superior driving skills and the nimbleness of my car allowed me to avoid him (while simultaneously yelling obscenities). If I’d been driving my lumbering SUV I’d have killed him.