Texting while driving in this case, guy was lucky he was alone in the truck.
Posted on 09/29/2010 12:26:02 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Study finds slightly more accidents in the post texting while driving world
California’s ban on texting while driving is supposed to make the roads safer, but it might be having the opposite effect.
The non-profit Highway Loss Data Institute compared insurance claims in California, Louisiana, Minnesota and Washington state before and after their respective bans went into effect.
In California and two other states, the rate of collisions actually went up slightly.
The Golden State saw a 12 percent bump in accidents among drivers 25 years old and younger.
So, what gives?
Researchers think drivers are TNDWHFP: Texting ‘N’ Driving While Hiding From Police.
Instead of texting at eye level like we used to before the bans went into effect, drivers now text from their laps, out of the sight of passing cop cars.
"This could exacerbate the risk of texting by taking drivers' eyes further from the road and for a longer time," said Adrian Lund, president of the Highway Loss Data Institute and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
The Institute says it doesn’t condone texting while driving, realizing that it is very dangerous.
"There's a crash risk associated with doing this. It's just that bans aren't reducing this crash risk," Lund said. "The point of texting bans is to reduce crashes, and by this essential measure the laws are ineffective." U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood calls this study "completely misleading." He points out that distracted driving deaths have stopped increasing ever since bans on texting while driving went into effect.
my grandfather had a rooster who would jump atop the barn each morning and crow. then the sun would come up. amazing how that rooster made the sun come up. when the rooster didn’t jump to the top of the barn, the sun wouldn’t come up - it would be raining.
just because something changes coincidentally with something else, doesn’t mean causality. that’s the stuff junk science is made of.
TFVROGLMAO................
(Thrown From Vehicle. Rolling on Ground. Laughing my.........
no they’re saying the solution is worse than the problem.
What big-government nanny-stater, “it’s for the children” types don’t understand is that human beings will submit to only so much authority before they rebel. The rebellion may take the form of an all-out violent rebellion, or it may take the form of simply ignoring the rules. With the younger crowd, there is even a bit of a thrill in thumbing your nose at the authority figures. In other words, busy-body laws like no texting/cell phone use while driving don’t work because they only provoke the “you can’t tell me what to do” response in most people, who then begin to have less respect for all laws, not just the nanny state laws. Meanwhile, the law accomplishes nothing except expanding the oppressive authority of the State.
I would think the insurance companies will soon be working on some sort of cell deactivater/blocker for you vehicle. You can't make people stop, they're too addicted.
Then we will have the inevitable Officer Barney Fife moment - where a cop will see a car pulled over the side of the road, with the engine running and the driver either reading or responding to a text.
And becasue the car is running, the driver will be issued a ticket. Despite the fact that the car is on the side of the road, despite the fact that the car is stopped and the transmission is in Park - a ticket for $425 will be issued.
It happened to me; fortunately the officer in his exhuberance botched the ticket and I got a call later from his superior to disregard the ticket.
Many of these morons who text while driving don’t realize that if they think they can deny this fact to the police should they get into an accident, the cops can easily obtain a warrant, go to the phone co., who will provide records disclosing the exact time a text was sent.
I deliberately do this.
You’ll be the first to get the “crotch cam”
Texting while driving in this case, guy was lucky he was alone in the truck.
They should just make it legal for the other drivers to take out a texter when the see one.
I really don’t think requiring drivers to, y’know, actually keep their eyes on the road while driving rises to the level of government oppression.
Not a problem. Haven’t we learned that every single problem can be solved easily with just a little more legistlation? ;-)
Looks like an engineering error on that guardrail.
No, it means new phones will incorporate voice recognition.
He’ll get his Darwin Award next time.
Funny, I was thinking an operator error by the driver.
Looks like the guardrail kept the truck from leaving the highway.
Specification need to be clear. Vague requirements lead to vague results.
unexpected...???
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