Safety Board Recommends Total Cell Phone Ban for Drivers

[livebriand]

[citation][nom]A Bad Day[/nom]"Well, I haven't crashed my car yet and I don't see it happening to me. Time to send out some text messages..."-Typical mentality of many humans, especially teenagers[/citation]
Actually, I'm a teen and I think texting is stupid, and I don't have a smartphone or a phone with a keyboard (just a plain dumbphone that I haven't used in half a millennium). Since banning all cell phone use while driving would help safety, I'm all for it.

 

[livebriand]

[citation][nom]warmon6[/nom]instead of the gov trying to tell people what to do, why not make the cell phones and/or cell towers more intelligent to deactivate communication when on the move at high speed? I mean, between most cell phones having gps to track location and if they dont have cell phones, most areas have multiple cell phone towers that are able to triangulate your location Actually, I think there was an article here on tom's a few months ago of something in that nature. Either way, i'll be happy. I been in too many close calls where some idiot driver almost hit me because their paying attention to there conversation instead of the dang road.[/citation]
But it's perfectly fine is a passenger is on the phone or texting while the car is moving, just not if the driver is doing it. It doesn't sound like this tech can distinguish such.

 

[CaedenV]

http/www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2012/tables/12s1106.pdf
This chart tells a different story. it looks to me like there was an increase in fatalities in 2002 when cell phones first became popular, and then again when texting became popular in 2005. Now vehicle deaths are declining rapidly... and dont tell me it is because of anti phone laws. Very few people actually follow them.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

FTR - Using a cell phone while driving on U.S. military bases is forbidden unless it is hands free.

 

[Guest]

Anyone who supports this is a dumb ass. While I agree that you shouldn't text while driving, but you sure as hell should be allowed to talk so long as you are using a hands free device. Using a hands free device makes it like if the person is right next to you.

To those who say you should pull over when talking to someone on the phone with a hands free device, seriously? Thats like saying you should pull over every time you want to talk to your passenger(s), especially ones sitting behind you. Heck, talking to a person next to you could be even more dangerous than talking with a hands free device since humans generally look at the person when they talk, thus making them take their eyes off the road.

 

[wildkitten]

[citation][nom]cpatel1987[/nom]If only I truly believed that people act their age. The law should not target any age group, it should target everyone! Ban cell phone use while driving on everyone.[/citation]
Then cpatel, I assume you are not a hypocritical person, so also assume you support banning passengers in a vehicle as well since talking to a passenger is more distracting than talking on a cell phone with a hands free device?

 

[eddieroolz]

This is just one of the thousand tiny cuts that will kill our freedom. Never waste a catastrophe....
Before we know it, they'll be in Uranus! And I'm not talking about NASA!

Freedom of what, to injure yourself and other innocent people that were just getting to work? I sure as heck don't want to support a freedom like that.

 

[lamorpa]

[citation][nom]wildkitten[/nom]...When someone is in the car with us, we have a tendency to turn our heads, even if for a brief moment, to make eye contact...[/citation]
I have never done this once, ever, in 30 years of driving. Who turns to look at the person talking while they are driving? That's insane.

 

[Northwestern]

[citation][nom]A Bad Day[/nom]"Well, I haven't crashed my car yet and I don't see it happening to me. Time to send out some text messages..."-Typical mentality of many humans, especially teenagers[/citation]
I'm barely old enough to drive and even I think this is wrong.

 

[mdahouse]

[citation][nom]brandonb1985[/nom]I want my money back for the "Hands Free Link" in my Honda then!! The Feds have no business in this kind of thing. I do not text and drive myself, nor will I ever, but I still think making a law against something like this is about as effective as putting a "No Handguns on Campus" sign on the Virginia Tech Campus.... Just saying... People are going to do whatever they want, and no laws will stop them.[/citation]

So by your logic, because I don't go around killing people it shouldn't be made illegal !
Yes people will still break the law but that doesn't make it right.
Phoneing/Texting while driving IS a distraction and a car IS a deadly weapon.
Even using a handsfree kit for a phone can be distracting enough to cause an accident

 

[lamorpa]

[citation][nom]Vladislaus[/nom]No the man behind the wheel is the one to blame.[/citation]
Oh, yeah. Ban people. What have they ever done?

 

[blackmancer]

[citation][nom]jellico[/nom]I'm sorry, but I hate blanket recommendations like this. There are people out there that can navigate using their cell phone while eating a cheeseburger and carrying on a conversation with other people in the car. And, there are people who can barely drive when the conditions are ideal and they have their hands glued to 10 and 2. Cops can already pull people over for driving erratically, so why do we need this?[/citation]

When you watch someone crash into you while they are blabbin away on the phone and you loose the function of your legs and you need someone to help you just take a piss, you'll understand... hopefully...

 

[jellico]

[citation][nom]blackmancer[/nom]When you watch someone crash into you while they are blabbin away on the phone and you loose the function of your legs and you need someone to help you just take a piss, you'll understand... hopefully...[/citation]
Would it have mattered if they were talking to someone else in the car, or putting on make-up, or messing with the radio? The end result would have been the same and all of those actions are legal.

Like I said, "Cops can already pull people over for driving erratically, so why do we need this?" We have too many laws on the books as it is. Many of the laws are completely redundant. Also, creating new laws as a knee-jerk reaction is almost always a BAD thing. Take a look at many of the cities and states that have imposed a ban on texting while driving and you will find something very curious... in many of those places, accidents resulting from texting while driving have gone up! Why on earth would that be the case? Well, before the ban, people would hold their phone up by the steering wheel where they could still see the road. After the ban, people are still doing it, but now they have to keep the phone down low so passing cops don't see what they're doing. Whereas before they were merely distracted, now they must take their eyes off the road. An unintended consequence of a law that was supposed to do the exact opposite!

 

[g00fysmiley]

with self driving cars already activ ein some places and hopefully on the road here soon. mayeb by the time this passes the "driver" will basically be the car and the data usage will be necessary for guidance ... and technically illegal >_

 

[lamorpa]

[citation][nom]g00fysmiley[/nom]with self driving cars already active [in experimentation] in some [out-of-the-way selected] places [with a backup driver present at all times] and hopefully on the road here soon [as in a decade or two from now], maybe by the time this passes the "driver" will basically be the car and the data usage will be necessary for guidance ... and technically illegal >_[/citation]

 

[teslafreakshow]

A day doesn't go buy that I don't see at least 2 or 3 people texting on the freeway, most of them are not even teens. People are so stupid.

 

[wildkitten]

[citation][nom]teslafreakshow[/nom]A day doesn't go buy that I don't see at least 2 or 3 people texting on the freeway, most of them are not even teens. People are so stupid.[/citation]
I don't think a ban on texting is what people are upset about. I think every reasonable person can agree that texting and driving do not mix and should be banned.

The issue comes from the sweeping ban on all cell phone usage. Banning talking even using hands free devices makes no sense.One could say listening to the radio or CD player is just as dangerous as we occasionally look at the unit to see what is playing or what the station is when we change it. Not to mention talking hands free on a cell phone while driving is absolutely no more dangerous than talking to a passenger in a vehicle.

 

[BulkZerker]

THe only reason they are doing this is so they can actually enforce the law without the officer having to appear in court multiple times and provide frivolous evidence.
Once the law is passed its' just the officers job of getting the accused's information, seeing what cell carrier they are on, asking for the time/date of the phone calls made that day and taking a highlighter to the time that most closely matches the time of when the accused is pulled over. If that person is on the phone within 30 seconds of the officer calling in a person to pull over that's probably going to land them a undisputable moving violation.

I don't like that this law is being passed. But this is one thing that we need to have put in place to STOP YOUR BOSS FROM RUNNING YOUR LIFE OUTSIDE OF THE WORKPLACE!

A buddy driving on K-** with me picks up phone to look at a text from his boss telling him to call immediately, which he began to do. I asked him who it was and he told me it was his boss. I snatched the phone up and had a conversation with his boss about how unprofessional it is to do that. His boss knew we were heading away from the workplace, it was rush-hour. And he's unintentionally endangering his worker by making him read a text that says call him.

 

[wildkitten]

[citation][nom]BulkZerker[/nom]THe only reason they are doing this is so they can actually enforce the law without the officer having to appear in court multiple times and provide frivolous evidence. Once the law is passed its' just the officers job of getting the accused's information, seeing what cell carrier they are on, asking for the time/date of the phone calls made that day and taking a highlighter to the time that most closely matches the time of when the accused is pulled over. If that person is on the phone within 30 seconds of the officer calling in a person to pull over that's probably going to land them a undisputable moving violation. I don't like that this law is being passed. But this is one thing that we need to have put in place to STOP YOUR BOSS FROM RUNNING YOUR LIFE OUTSIDE OF THE WORKPLACE! A buddy driving on K-** with me picks up phone to look at a text from his boss telling him to call immediately, which he began to do. I asked him who it was and he told me it was his boss. I snatched the phone up and had a conversation with his boss about how unprofessional it is to do that. His boss knew we were heading away from the workplace, it was rush-hour. And he's unintentionally endangering his worker by making him read a text that says call him.[/citation]
The proposed ban isn't just on texting. Why is it that every supporter of this only mentions that?

 

[WyomingKnott]

[citation][nom]wildkitten[/nom]The proposed ban isn't just on texting. Why is it that every supporter of this only mentions that?[/citation]
Because a ban on texting is easy to get behind, while a ban on talking is not. So, naturally, supporters will phrase it in terms of a ban on texting.

Or was that a rhetorical question?