I HATE people driving while talking on a cellphone. Is that strong enough. When I get a cellphone call while driving I hand the phone to my wife. I never talk on the phone while driving. Just the statistics alone that show the increase in accidents, injuries and /or death as a result of talking on cellphone while driving keeps that thing out of my hands.
I can’t even imagine having to tell someones family…“I’m sorry, but I had an important phone call…and thats why I killed your mother”.
You are right to be angry at bad driving
but wrong to immediately turn to the “there ought to be a law” line.
freedom isn’t free
it means you gotta deal with some bullshit, some danger.
but it is worth it.
I just walked in from a short ride. Almost hit *three times *by people driving cars while operating a hand-held cell phone. This morning I nearly got hit running by anotehr person using a cell phone when driving.
I wonder, are their statistics on injury and fatal accidents where cell phones were a factor? Where are our freakin’ law makers?
In Dearborn there is a hefty fine as a secondary offence for talking on a cell phone when driving, but it isn;t an offence that an officer (as I understand it) can pull someone over for.
Honestly, if I were a police officer and I saw someone burn through a yellow left turn light with one hand to their ear with a cell phone and the other on the wheel and miss a runner by less than 6 feet- I would make a traffic stop on that.
Am I being reactionary here. It takes a lot to get me riled, but I’m riled. I’ll be damned if I am gonig to survive plane crashes, parachuting accidents, a stroke, bike crashes (that I caused), mountaineering expeditions, ultra distance running races in the Sahara, swimming with sharks and all that other B.S. only to be hit by some ding-dong in a Hyundai yaking on his cell phone abbout something critical like what he’s having for dinner.
Fine is not high enough. What is it in Cal.?
20.- for first offense, 50.- for second?
Plenty of people don’t hurt at all paying that. Pocket change…
And it is really hard to get caught.
One must be really stupid, as stupid as running a red light with a cop around…
I just hate drivers who actually use the power they have with their car against cyclists, just to gain a few seconds (including using the bike lane as a turn lane even when a cyclist is present).
Drivers are really aggro in SoCal.
Well, since I was involved in a car-involved bike accident less than 24 hours ago, I figured I’d chime in here.
The woman wasn’t looking ahead, was on her phone (no headset - but then don’t think GA has a headset use law).
I don’t know that there’s really anything we can do. She supposedly told police she didn’t have any remorse what she did (this was after I was driven away in an ambulance).
If it wasn’t me, it’d be someone else, some other day. Just bad drivers and sure cell phones make the issue worse.
What’s the fix? What can be done to keep this from happening? I mean, if someone who causes an accident by a careless act, no remorse, what can we do?
thanks,
Chris
Freedom? You have no RIGHT to drive on public roads in the first place. There are a lot of laws governing how you drive and this should be one of them.
Your opinion reeks of anarchy.
You are right to be angry at bad driving
but wrong to immediately turn to the “there ought to be a law” line.
freedom isn’t free
it means you gotta deal with some bullshit, some danger.
but it is worth it.
Ok, I will play the diablo’s advocate! How does being on a cell phone with a busy hand holding the phone differ from driving down the road with your favorite super hot Starbucks coffee cup in your hand?
Or how about looking at the Garmin right on the dashboard when trying to navigate around town?
I think some valid points have been brought up in this discussion which are:
“What’s the fix? What can be done to keep this from happening? I mean, if someone who causes an accident by a careless act, no remorse, what can we do?”
Nothing…
just accept the fact that we are doomed.
Hope yo get a chance to get back at her… legally, of course.
In CT it is the law and they do ticket you for driving while on the phone. Unfortunately it does not stop certain people who also drive SUV’s and mini-vans from drinking their starbucks in one hand and the cell in the other. They also seem to honk when they go by. Really pisses me off as well.
A lot of younger drivers learned driving the following way:
Get in the car, start the engine, start the stereo, start a cell phone conversation, start driving.
Culturally to deep engrained, hard to change…
"I’ll be damned if I am gonig to survive plane crashes, parachuting accidents, a stroke, bike crashes (that I caused), mountaineering expeditions, ultra distance running races in the Sahara, swimming with sharks and all that other B.S. only to be hit by some ding-dong in a Hyundai yaking on his cell phone abbout something critical like what he’s having for dinner. "
Tom, as always with your writing, priceless!
I don’t know whether this sort of thing could be done, but . . . in an ideal world, with any MVA, there would be an automatic check of cell phone records. If either driver was on the phone at the time of the incident, there would be an automatic charge of reckless endangerment.
Probably couldn’t ever happen.
Meanwhile, I’ve also thought for some time that there ought to be some universal sign of derision that could be directed at drivers seen talking on phones. Maybe something like the thumb-and-little-finger “call me” sign, combined with an idiotic facial expression - i.e. “I’m a moron talking on a phone!”
We were on I-75 last night there is a guy wandering all over his lane at about 70 mph, when get around him, he is driving with one hand and TEXTING on phone/blackberry with the other. If i were a cop, would make a career out of writing these tickets.
Unfortunately you will never stop cell phones from being used (no matter the law) until you completely block the signal if the ignition is engaged for all but emergency 911 calls. It could and should be done. It amazes me how many times I have almost been hit while riding and driving.
You have the right to be irate and that is the reason that even when i am in town on a weekday and could ride in the morning i just hit the trainer as weekday commuters on phones are the absolute worst about paying attn to the road, completely on auto pilot…no doubt we need more laws and some enforcement. If the laws are in place/enforced overtime it will change for the better, just look at seatbelt laws, started off with little impact and overtime it seems most people now obey (or maybe i just got old and started wearing mine). The headset issue gets complicated as if you outlaw talking in a car overall, what if someone is caught conversing with another passenger…
People have been talking on cell phones for a dozen years now while driving without anarchy erupting in the streets.
I am not advocating anarchy.
I am advocating we not go screaming to add more laws anytime we are annoyed or minorly endangered.
have some backbone.
police should arrest people for driving recklessly, for ANY reason
they should not arrest people for doing something (talking on a cell phone) that only leads to reckless driving for a subset of the population.
or you can clutter the lawbooks with so much shit its impossible to know what is even legal anymore, and you wont really be any safer anyway. people will keep drinking and driving and talking on their cell phones anyway.
=)
Freedom? You have no RIGHT to drive on public roads in the first place. There are a lot of laws governing how you drive and this should be one of them.
Your opinion reeks of anarchy.
You are right to be angry at bad driving
but wrong to immediately turn to the “there ought to be a law” line.
freedom isn’t free
it means you gotta deal with some bullshit, some danger.
but it is worth it.
Do you mean even with a headset?
As was said earlier, the hand’s free laws don’t make things any safer. The science says either allow talking on the phone, or don’t. The problem is the conversation is distracting, not the holding of a device to your ear. I would say that texting is probably worse than talking, but I don’t have any evidence to back that up.
What is funny in CA is the people who don’t have headsets and use the speaker phone to go “hands free”. But since they can’t hear anything, they hold the phone up in front of them.
since talking is the issue you can expect that next up on the lawbooks will be the outlawing of talking to passengers.
bikes will no doubt soon be outlawed because of the confusion and danger they cause on the road.
ironman races will be outlawed because the mass start swims kill a guy or two every year.
soon you wont be able to drink a beer as a PASSENGER in a car…oh, shit, that already happened
facepalm
police should arrest people for driving recklessly, for ANY reason
Wouldn’t that be nice? Then again, having the police pull anyone they want over
for any reason they want doesn’t seem like a good idea either.
-Jot
they should not arrest people for doing something (talking on a cell phone) that only leads to reckless driving for a subset of the population.
Ah … I see. So YOU don’t have any issues driving when you talk on a cell phone. Is that what you believe?
Do you have a problem with drunken driving? Do you think that should be allowed? Talking on a cell phone creates a level of impairment on par with driving drunk. Oh … but not you.
If you want to know what it’s like to have your freedom impaired, try a broken hip and pelvis, a shattered ankle, a compression fracture of the spine and some major lacerations. Those thing seriously infringed on my freedoms when the teenage driver yakking on her cell phone made a hood ornament out of me.
And I was lucky. I know of quite a few other cyclists in my state alone who have not been so lucky in similar circumstances.
What galls me even more is what you hear when you overhear what people are talking about. It’s nothing. It’s nothing that can’t wait for a more appropriate time. Driving is NOT an appropriate time to be talking or texting. Every right-thinking person AND legislator knows it and the only reason there AREN’T laws against it everywhere is … M O N E Y.
.
since talking is the issue you can expect that next up on the lawbooks will be the outlawing of talking to passengers.
Do you always just talk out of your ass like this? Sheesh.
Do just a little homework on the topic and you’ll quickly unearth that there’s a very significant difference between the distraction of a cell phone conversation and the distraction of other passengers in a car. The passengers in the car have “situational awareness.” They know when you’re in heavy traffic. They know when you’re merging onto the interstate. They know …
The person on the other end of the cell phone has no idea, so they just continue to blah blah blah.
This is a significant factor that makes cell phones … EVEN HANDS FREE DEVICES … much more dangerous than conversing with passengers in the vehicle.
I’m surprised you haven’t rolled out the tired old argument about other distractions like eating, combing hair, putting on makeup, etc. I’ll head that one off at the pass. WE DON’T HAVE AN EPIDEMIC OF BIG MAC EATING DRIVERS. WE HAVE AN EPIDEMIC OF CELL-PHONE DISTRACTED DRIVERS! Sit at any intersection and count the cars with people talking on their phones. It’s insane.
Sorry if I’ve come on too strong. Limp a mile in my shoes.
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