Another day, another blood-runs-in-the-streets piece on driving while talking on a cellular telephone.
I talk on the phone while I drive. I have no plans to stop when it’s illegal, either. (Inserting an “if/when” in there seems a needless fantasy at this point.) I choose times and topics carefully, and if either begins to threaten my primary responsibility as a motorist, then I stop. “Gotta go, bye” (click) is a longstanding and understood practice when I’m talking to Lea, or when she’s talking to me.
That hang-up threshold has always been very clear to me, and I can only guess that many people who crash while talking ignore it.
If you’re too stupid, distractable, enamored of what Your Betters require of you, or whatever to talk and drive, then you don’t do it. Can’t handle a sausage biscuit? Don’t do that either. Find music disruptive? Turn it off.
I can do it. So I will.
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“I have no plans to stop when it’s illegal, either.”
Well, that makes a lot of sense. This mindset belongs up there with “speed limits and driving regulations are suggestions only.”
I believe the big difference between driving and eating a sausage biscuit and driving while on the cell phone comes down to a numbers game. More and more people are doing the latter as opposed to the former. I also don’t equate the risk of momentarily pushing the radio button while driving with the risk of continual yakking on the phone while driving.
The causal relationship between diminished driving skills and talking on the phone while driving has been established. It’s all about risk mitigation. The probability of getting into a vehicular accident involving a cell phone user/driver continues to increase as cell phones continue to permeate our daily existence.
Can you legislate this danger away? Probably not. Heck, we can’t even properly legislate away society’s drunk driving problem. Instead, there should be an emphasis on awareness of the dangers of using a cell phone while driving. Smoking tobacco has been successfully stigmatized; why not treat cell phone drivers to similar stigmatization?
I’m continually amazed at how many people I see driving while blabbering away into a cell phone. I get really irked when that person is behind the wheel of some 2 ton truck or SUV and blabbering away on some hand held device. “Who cares if I plow into the guy ahead of me, I’m surrounded by 4000 pounds of metal.” I nominate these folks as Darwin Award candidates.
I probably won’t change your mind on driving while using the cell phone, but do me a favor and stay at least five car lengths away from me.
I’m sure you’re a much better driver after you’ve had a few drinks too.
It’s the folks who cannot judge for themselves what a hazard they are when they drive and talk on the phone. I’m betting that most of these folks believe they are just as capable, smart, talented, whatnot as you. But the lady who was weaving in two lanes this morning at 8:15-ish on I565 needs to hang up and drive. The guy who floored his two-ton truck, cut me off on the exit to Research Park Blvd, then wandered slowly in two lanes while “merging” needs to hang the #*$&@( up and drive. And the guy who almost hit me head on as he was heading south on County Line Road on the inside lane while I was headed north and moving into the turn lane for Old Hwy 20? He needed to put down his Crackberry and stop texting and/or reading email long enough to freakin’ DRIVE. I mean, he had the thing propped up on his steering wheel and he was close enough to me for me to see that he was NOT looking at the road at all.
These are the idiots for whom the laws are made … these idiots who think “oh, it’s not me they’re talking about.”
Wxchick – What you describe are traffic violations / rude driving. The chances are good that these are the same people that would do idiotic stuff even if they had both hands on the wheel and were looking straight ahead.
As far as the comment on the drunk driving, the difference is that you can’t say, “Gee, looks like the traffic is getting heavy, so I need to sober up for the next few minutes.” Responsible people DO know when to hang up the phone.
Why do compentent people that can responsibly drive and talk have to be penalized with the people that can’t?
Lea: B/c we live in a nation that caters to the lowest common denomenator. That’s usually somewhere between “stoooopid” and “monkeys with sticks.” I’m no fan of the cellphone while driving thing, mostly b/c it seems the teens are most likely to do it and they suck at driving in the first place. Maybe a compromise and require hands-free devices only? Finally, try your question in this form:
“Why do compentent people that can responsibly PAY THEIR MORTGAGE have to be penalized with the people that can’t?”
I have officially become a grumpy, old man.
There is already a law on the books that could cover this… Reckless Driving. If the police force were allowed to do their jobs and mingle amongst the traffic instead of sitting on the side of the road attempting to get their quota of speeders (to feed the state/city budgets) then you’d see far less of the idiot drivers. And don’t say there isn’t quotas. Show me a cop who doesn’t write enough tickets and I’ll show you one who is unemployed.
My uncle was hit head-on by a 20 yr. old driver who was texting while driving. She drifted into an 18-wheeler before her car ricocheted across a wide grassy medium right into the path his car (in which he was travelling at 70 miles an hour). I have to agree with Dan. While we might have the sense to hang up, teens are not known for using their heads. Sadly, there are plenty of adults who lack good sense too. I have voice sync in my car so my hands never have to leave the wheel, but I know that I’m distracted during a call. Forget texting… that’s like reading the paper while you drive.
Cheryl, I’m sorry about your uncle, but how would anti-texting legislation have prevented what happened to him? Parchment barriers are one thing, but what proportion of The Dreaded Teen Drivers will comply at all times?
Several good points here.
My primary objection is a slippery slope one. If this is banned, what’s next? Eating? Music? Scratching your nose? What’s the difference? Hey, let’s ban thinking about hard things in the car too. There oughta be a law. More more more.
There’s also a selection problem here, I think. When you go looking for cell phones to cause accidents, you’re going to find them.
Also as pointed out above, in cases where a driver talking on the phone was a primary cause of a crash, there are always existing laws on the books that cover the offense.
Now the issuance of driver’s licenses is one (very rare) area in which I’d like to see more regulation. I think the current practice of turning a 16-year-old kid loose is a dumb one indeed. I would support substantial driver training, along with graduated privileges for perhaps as long as three or four years, before completely unfettering a new driver.
I’ve always said we ought to let ’em drink anytime they want and not let them drive until they are 21. By then, most of the stupidity has been worked out. 🙂
This post was mostly about something else, but the setup is relevant:
http://wmwmsblog.com/?p=268