Posted on 07/01/2019 1:33:37 AM PDT by Kaslin
You could always get a modern vehicle with hands-free calling and government tracking devices.
My car was totaled by a woman who was texting on her phone at the time. I’m sorry, but when you are in a couple thousand pounds of steel, barreling down the road,you should be paying attention to what you are doing.
Three days ago I watched a twenty something woman drive into the back of another stopped car in rush hour traffic. She was engrossed in her phone. Never hit the brakes. If that had been me on the Bagger, I would have been seriously hurt and the bike messed up, if not totaled.
It would have been funny if it wasn’t so dangerous. All sorts of people playing with their phones think they’re experts at multitasking. From my paranoid, third person view, I see no lane discipline, no speed discipline and no control over their vehicles. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve had to take immediate evasive action to avoid becoming another statistic.
Screw all of you who think answering their phone is more important than driving their cages. Your confidence in your ability make you a menace.
Look whiner
Just be an adult and deal
Get a Bluetooth. Use speaker phone
Or just make sure there’s no cop around
Unfortunately it’s teenagers that always die in car crashes caused by cell phones But if this prevents a couple deaths it’s worth it
My brother’s first job after graduating from college 1976 was in “outdoor advertising.” That job disappeared in the late ‘80’s due to highly restrictive billboard laws.
Hell, if it prevents just ONE death, wouldn’t it be worth it?
I talk on my phone via my radio. Don’t have to touch it to answer calls.
“Screw ‘em all - I have airbags”
Don’t forget those government-mandated seatbelts and safety glass.
You’ll be fine. Just don’t hit me because I’ll probably be mixing a cocktail from the bar mounted in my console. It’ll get messy.
Yes, another do-gooder, non enforceable law, much like the no fireworks law in our state.
Good point, but notice the bottom tells you to “text” a number for more tips ON WHY TEXTING AND DRIVING IS DANGEROUS, only bureaucrats can come up with something that stupid!
I have mixed feelings on this:
Texting while driving is obviously a bad idea.
And like most any driver, I see far too many people driving erratically while on their cell phones. Now, whether they’d be driving any less erratically if not on their cell phones — hmmmm....
We have just had 2 fatal accidents in this (semi-rural) area in the last week, involving semi’s plowing into the back of slowed or stopped traffic. I’m guessing there’s a pretty good chance one or both involved a cell phone.
On the other hand, this smacks of gov’t tyranny — control of our virtually every action.
How many more accidents will be caused by people abruptly pulling over (etc.) to answer calls? How much more time will be lost in our lives? (The “time” pressure on all our lives just keeps getting worse, and a lot of that is gov’t driven.)
And, TALKING on a cell phone, listening to the car stereo, etc., can do much to much improve one’s overall alertness on long drives.
What’s next: Shall we make it illegal to talk to one’s passenger(s) (which also often helps me to stay alert)?
There was a recent case when a textng teen ran into a Christian school bus killing 14 youngsters.
Good points.
Also, when a drive becomes “familiar”, the normal human tendency is to “zone out”, as you put it. I have a roughly 1-1/2 hr. drive I have been making “back and forth” for 30 years, 1-3 times a week. It’s a nice drive, but much of it involves the SAME stretch of rural Interstate. Occasionally I take another route, but, those take substantially longer and are less safe (say the statistics). (The time lost is at least sometimes in a sense a part of life lost too.)
Of course one has to be on heightened alert / pay extra close attention to driving when near other vehicles, in heavy traffic, etc., but how long can that level be continuously be maintained under, as you tab them, “boring” conditions? Humans, especially non-young humans, lacking other “inputs”, are just not made that way...
I suppose some people are “frightened” drivers — ie., uncomfortable with it all the time, but I’d submit they are more dangerous than a confident driver with a hands free cell phone or the radio on to help avoid boredom.
Without “distractions” (radio playing, cell phone conversation, conversation with passenger) I’d probably be dead 20 times over by now. Not to mention whoever I hit.
Anyone who works in the street or rides a motorcycle knows that hand held cell phone use by drivers is the most dangerous thing yet invented. Far worse than alcohol.
Amen! Dunning-Kruger can kill.
We recently had that law levied on us in Georgia. People now just do crazy stuff like hold the phone down below the dashboard which is more dangerous than just talking on it. Ifthe legislators had really been serious they would have included eating, drinking, putting on makeup etc but they didnt.
The thing I object to is the imposition of radical egalitarianism. Simply stated, lawmakers are too stupid to find suitable laws that properly address specific issues. So they write the law to set the bar at the lowest common denominator.
There are tons of people who can safely use their phone while operating an automobile, but since there are also many who cannot lawmakers have decided that no one may (except cops for some odd reason).
This invites the opposite reaction: if I am barred from an activity I enjoy (or require), then I’m going to rationalize the need to prohibit similar activities that others pursue. “Why is it OK for Suzy to spend all or her time fooling with her stereo and I can’t answer the phone?
Should have a device that kills cell phone op as soon as car is turned on. Solved. These idiots can’t drive when their paying full attention.Ive been driving to work for over 30 years 120 miles a day, I saw a women eating with a fork from a dinner plate while driving with her knees, a guy reading the newspaper, a guy shaving, a girl putting on he makeup, people in the right lane doing way less than the speed limit and not moving, people who will move into the left lane to pass a truck but will not, trucks in the left lane, you name it I saw it. It is down right dangerous out there. The phone and texting is just one more thing added to the list
Ever watch the Kardashian Show?
The Girls are always holding up their iPhones talking away while they’re driving their Range Rovers.
Bluetooth, we don’t need no stinking Bluetooth.
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.