Posted on 07/14/2011 6:00:45 AM PDT by South40
It may be illegal, but Californians are still breaking the law. Texting behind the wheel has tripled in Southern California since 2009, according to a survey from AAA.
Although the percentage is relatively low at 4.1 percent, it is three times higher than it was when the California state Assembly enacted a texting ban.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Don’t these idiots get it? Texting behind the wheel is as dangerous as drinking and driving.
‘Don’t these idiots get it? Texting behind the wheel is as dangerous as drinking and driving.”
So is eating cereal, putting makeup on, shaving, playing with the radio, and a million other things.
I don’t like an intrusive government anymore than the next guy here but it is moronic to text and drive. I challenge anyone here to tell me they can do both perfectly. It should be a cultural norm, not a law, that discourages people from texting and driving.
Pass a law. The problem's solved!
Pass a law. The problem's solved!
And texting in Spanish, what with all the added punctuation, makes it all the more dangerous.
It is not a good thing to indulge any distraction while driving. The responsibility is too serious. But there are just as many idiot drivers out there, who, without any distraction whatsoever, are at fault in accidents.
Last week I took a photograph of a man talking on a cell and reading a book while driving on the highway. No hands on the wheel.
As much as my gut resists ANY attempt to slap one more law or regulation on us, I have had so many close calls lately with drivers distracted by cell phones I am coming around to thinking that something really does need to be done about this.
In my recent close calls there were certain things in common:
- all drivers were women 18-45
- all drivers were yakking away on their phone as opposed to texting
- all drivers were driving some really large SUV-type vehicle (Hummers, Escalades, etc.)
- in virtually all cases the vehicle was moving forward even though the driver’s head was turned to one side or the other.
This does not include one woman whose face was buried in an Egg McMuffin as the car was moving down the street at 45 MPH.
FACT:
Since the introduction of tens of millions of mobile phones into our society, the number of highway fatalities continues to DECLINE.
Revoke the licenses of drivers caught doing it. I guarantee rates would plummet.
Fatalities isn’t the only number to look at, though. Fatalities can actually be cheaper than some injuries.
There probably has been a California traffic law on the books for decades declaring distracted driving to be a ticketable act. But this would require traffic patrol officers to take more than a fleeting glimpse at a vehicle being driven in a troublesome manner.
I don’t favor this law because I think it enters into the realm of nanny-stateism. But if they’re going to have it they should at least have a firm punishment for violating it. The laws prohibiting cell phone use are a joke also and are violated by nearly everyone; I believe the current penalty is $25. Given the large numbers of people I see in violation each day I’d say a $25 fine does not deter anyone just as the anti-texting law has not deterred anyone.
I see plenty of people talking on phones and texting (or looking and tapping on a hand-held unit) here in Cali.
Still, nothing compares to the cops. Nearly every cop I see on the road is talking, texting or tapping away at their laptops.
Bullcrap. This is where libertarianism falls apart.
An innocent person who dies as a result of behavior such as this cannot get their life back as a result of a court's ruling.
Laws should take into account actions that preempt the death of a bystander. Saying that it should be legal to fire a gun in public so long as you don't injure another sounds like a great idea too. After all, if your bullet doesn't strike anyone, what crime was committed? And if it kills someone? The the court will try you for manslaughter.
But the person who is dead cannot get relief from the court!
The person who dies CANNOT get relief from the court!
THAT is why the law must take a level of preemption into account. There is a reality of going too far both ways.
No, but it is the only objective measure.
If mobile phones are so dangerous to use while driving, the fact that we have tens of millions in use should impact the fatalities number.
Since the number keeps declining, it shows that the danger is over-inflated.....like so many other "dangers".
Your thinking is the underpinnings of the nanny-state.
That is why we need to ban incandescent lightbulbs.....because they consume too much energy which needs to be produced, resulting in pollution, which causes breathing disorders and death.
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