posted September 24, 2009 08:29 AM         

Cell phone use while driving is a huge peeve of mine. Texting while driving is just, insane.

Later this month Washington will hold a national summit on distracted driving.
One State, Utah has already taken the cell phone by the horns and done their own studies and has the toughest legislation. This stems from a 2006 accident where a teenager [teens studies show rank highest on texting] killed two men — both scientists and fathers. Shaw, 19, served 30 days in jail and was ordered to perform 100 hours of community service. He was the last person in Utah to receive such a light sentence.

If you are just caught texting while driving, it can be up to three months in jail and a $750 fine.
And if you kill someone, it's up to 15 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Seventeen other states have laws on texting and driving, some with penalties as light as a $20 fine. University of Utah study tracks eye movements while people text and try to drive. People really do take their eyes off the road — often for the same amount of time it takes to drive the length of a football field. Imagine doing that blind. And the cognitive distraction is part of what makes it so dangerous.
Quote from the study:
"In terms of accident risk, you're more likely to be hit by someone who's text messaging than someone who's drunk," Strayer says. "And that's a pretty alarming statistic."

In fact, his research shows that texting results in impairment levels double that of drunken driving.

What is the most shocking [to me] is that people are so addicted to cell phones, it is so reflex that they cannot ignore it. It now must be stigmatized, laws perhaps going to the federal level, because people will not stop.

People who text and drive are doing something that we claim to value in our fast-paced world - "multitasking." They're doing something with time that we currently have little respect for, they're earning props from their peers and they're honing a skill that we look for in adults - getting things done in the "gaps."

There are allot of multitasking idiots we see every day. People do crazy stuff driving their cars... makeup application, reading newspapers, eating, changing clothes, oral sex. I´ve even heard of a woman who was breastfeeding her baby while driving her way thru London. People around here love to play with the GPS.

posted September 24, 2009 02:38 PM         

on another note...

posted September 24, 2009 05:08 PM         

safer than texting i suppose!

i learned the hard way a few years ago, rear ended someone while taking a work call in heavy morning traffic.....and guess what...work didin't cover the damages to my car....lesson learned...let the dam thing ring. no call is more important than safety.

posted September 24, 2009 05:51 PM         

If they wanna stop it, though, don't make it illegal, our jails & prisons are already overflowing, and the economy can't handle all the fines, lost work days, etc. Besides, like with many stop signs & crosswalks around where I live, the motto is, "No copee, no stopee." That is, laws are often ineffective.

posted September 25, 2009 08:40 AM         

Dervish- Instead, do a media blitz on it. One of those "sky is falling/reefer madness" pieces of crap

posted September 26, 2009 07:18 PM         

http://www.facebook.com/inbox/readmessage.php?t=1034745724743#/video/vi deo.php?v=126808205918&ref=share

Perhaps it should be mandatory viewing in drivers' ed classes for all teens.....

Dervish ~

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Our societies need leaders, not wardens . . . That is, laws are often ineffective.

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It now must be stigmatized, laws perhaps going to the federal level, because people will not stop.

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posted September 27, 2009 01:33 AM         

Between that and reefer madness crap (scare people to death with propaganda, both true and exaggerated, it's very easy to work up a hysteria this way that affects a massive amount of people), there probably wouldn't be that many who defied the laws.

Most people can only think to prohibit, and when it doesn't work, make the penalties even worse. I mean come on, we already have more people in prison than any other country in the world, including the Communist ones, and it's certainly not making our society safer (I'd say it does the opposite in making society more dangerous in the long run). Enough is enough.

And actually, I shrug off distracted drivers now as I do those driving on drugs, alcohol, uncontrolled epilepsy, unbalanced psyche meds, and just plain stupidity. I mean come on, how do they know that specifically how many people are hit by whom and why, especially when so many hit and run drivers aren't caught?

Btw, the closest I came to being hit was when I was using a crosswalk legally and some idiot was staring down an EMPTY one way street and turned right on me. Had I not jumped (breaking my grocery bags), he'd have run me over. He wasn't on the phone. When he yelled "sorry" out the window as he kept driving he didn't sound intoxicated either. I just figure the guy was a ******* . And the highways are filled with them, I could go on, I accept their presence as I accept the presence of mosquitoes (hate them, but don't think there's much you can effectively do against them).

posted September 27, 2009 11:59 AM         

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I was mainly thinking of cars putting in phones similar to air bags, radios, and the like. I can't imagine people objecting to it (and they'd be easy enough to remove if they did, and plenty used cars exist, too, if it's that big a deal to them).

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Between that and reefer madness crap (scare people to death with propaganda, both true and exaggerated, it's very easy to work up a hysteria this way that affects a massive amount of people), there probably wouldn't be that many who defied the laws.

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I think spreading around that video I put up is a form of your suggestion. Let them see the results of inattention to driving (ie, DEATH). But the trouble is that many young people (and older people too) think they're invulnerable, that it always happens to the next guy, that they're omniscient and omnipotent and that *they* can drive while texting, but other people (who aren't as talented as them) probably shouldn't.....

posted August 13, 2010 08:33 AM         

Texting while driving is more dangerous than drunk driving.
Please read that sentence again.

Yes there have been improvements in the laws, and awareness is certainly there.
So why don't the sheeple stop doing it???

answer? They never will....that is unless you employ stiff penalties and fines.

I am sick, sick, sick of selfish cell phone users on the road. So bumping an old thread with some fresh writing.
Venting here.

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(Aug. 12) -- After crashing his car into a double-decker bus in the new comedy "The Other Guys," Samuel L. Jackson's character offers a sarcastic apology to startled passengers.

"Sorry, I was texting."

The line is sure to elicit laughter from audiences because everyone knows what a nuisance drivers who text can be. But the only thing laughable about texting and driving is our laws against it.

Texting is rapidly becoming the biggest hazard on our roadways. The National Safety Council, a nonprofit that promotes safe driving, estimates that each year as many as 1 million crashes -- or 18 percent of all U.S. accidents -- may be caused by texting. Many of those are fatal. Given that cell phones have been common for only about a decade, it could get much worse.

And mounting evidence shows texting while driving is even more dangerous than driving drunk. Consider:
Texting increases the risk of a collision by more than 20 times, compared with those who aren't texting while driving, according to a 2009 study by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute. By comparison, driving under the influence of alcohol increases the risk of a fatal crash by seven times, compared with driving sober.
Motorists who text have their reaction times deteriorate by 35 percent, a 2008 study by the U.K.-based Transport Research Laboratory found. Inebriated drivers only lose 12 percent reaction time.
More Americans text and drive than drink and drive. In fact, 27 percent of drivers say they've texted while driving, compared with only 15 percent who said they've ever been DUI, according to reports from the Pew Research Center and the federal government.
Texting is a 24-7 problem as opposed to drunken driving, which usually occurs in the evening.
And as Hammonton, N.J., police Lt. Nick Salvatore notes, "A drunk driver is usually very concentrated on driving because they don't want to get caught. A texter, on the other hand, is less focused on driving."

Yet, while many states have begun adopting penalties for drivers caught texting, they pale in contrast to the harsh penalties imposed on drunken drivers. Typically, texters only pay a fine similar to a minor speeding offense.

In several states, the law applies to only teenagers, even though studies show adult drivers are just as likely to text. And 12 states still don't have laws against texting. Only Utah punishes texters like drunks, with offenders facing up to 15 years in prison.

True, laws invariably lag behind technology. Although automobiles became popular in the early 1900s, it wasn't until the '70s that government officials started to make an earnest effort to curb the spread of DUI across the U.S. As a result, fewer drivers now engage in the risky behavior and lives have been saved, studies show.

The public knows texting is as hazardous as drunken driving. A 2009 poll by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety showed that 87 percent of people consider texting while driving a "very serious" safety threat, almost equivalent to the 90 percent of those polled who consider drunken driving a threat. Yet, many of those same drivers surveyed also admit to doing it.

Relying on people to show good judgment isn't working. And implementing a ban is pointless if the penalties are so light as to be ineffective.

As with drunken driving, some drivers will continue to text and drive regardless of the legal consequences. But many offenders would stop if they knew texting could cost them their license or jail time, which are common penalties for drunken drivers.

Lawmakers should sober up and end the double standard.

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