Text-Messaging Behind the Wheel 517
theodp writes "TIME interviews 21-year-old Taylor Leming, creator of the 600-member Facebook group I Text Message People While Driving and I Haven't Crashed Yet! While Alaska and Louisiana just became the latest states to pass laws banning text-messaging behind the wheel, Virginia resident Leming is still happily texting away while driving despite some near-accidents. 'Sometimes it just seems easier to text 'Be there in 5' instead of calling,' explains Taylor."
Darwin (Score:5, Insightful)
Why is it important to text that you'll be there in 5 minutes anyway? You can also wait 5 minutes.
And I hope when he crashes and kills himself he doesn't take others with him. Driving and calling (even hands free), texting, or doing anything else (tuning the radio, setting up your nav system) for that matter is just dangerous.
Re:Darwin (Score:5, Funny)
Idiot: Be there in 5 mins.
CRASH!! BANG!!
Makes sense to me.
Re:Darwin (Score:5, Funny)
God: That didn't seem like 5 minutes to me.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Idiot: I didn't die immediately!
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Darwin (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Darwin (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Darwin (Score:4, Funny)
Driving and calling (even hands free), texting, or doing anything else (tuning the radio, setting up your nav system) for that matter is just dangerous.
My taxi driver the other day was obsessed with his nav system while driving me home -- He was playing solitaire on it. If I had been able to communicate with him, I would have cursed him out.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Why couldn't you SMS him? Did you at least try to ask him for a phone number? After all, he's right there.
Re:Darwin (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3)
OK, seriously, I need a source for this shit.
That's just slightly too hard to believe.
Re:Darwin (Score:4, Funny)
I don't want to discourage you from being a skeptic. By all means, be a skeptic. ;^) But did you even read what he said? He said, "Canadians". ;^p
How about Killed By a Textor?... with source (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Darwin (Score:5, Insightful)
And yet, barely anyone gives a second thought to tuning their radio while driving or talking to a passenger while driving - both things that are shown to create just as much of a distraction.
I don't think there's anyone out there who never ever deals with distractions while driving. Having a sandwich, drinking something, changing tracks on a CD, driving while not having enough sleep... everyone does it on one level or another. All of it is dangerous, but the only thing that seems to get people keyed up is cell phone use. Can anyone explain to me why?
Re:Darwin (Score:5, Insightful)
People who use their phones while driving don't grasp how dangerous it is.
I'll tune my radio on the road, but only when I'm in a clear patch when nothing is happening at the moment. I also take as little time as possible to do so; all of my favorite stations are programmed into buttons, so it just takes a moment, and doesn't take much attention.
The same is true with my passengers. When the driving gets tough, I will stop talking to them, often in mid-sentence.
But people who use cell phones on the road don't seem to understand these ideas. They will frequently place the cell phone first, driving second. They won't interrupt their conversation for a difficult section of driving, they won't try to minimize their conversation, and to compound it all they frequently have only one hand free for actual driving, which means less steering control and poor or nonexistent use of turn signals.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
People who tune their radios while driving don't grasp how dangerous it is.
Seriously, your post comes off as a bit condescending. "Other people who do something seemingly safe are too stupid to realize that it's dangerous. But when I do something seemingly safe, it's because I'm smart enough to know that it actually is safe!"
That's fantastic that you only do it when you're on a barren straightaway and only press one button. Phone talkers who only phone while on straightaways and only press one button to d
Re:Darwin (Score:5, Insightful)
You know what else is dangerous? Driving.
I'm not saying that I'm safe while other people are not. I'm saying that there are things you can do to limit your distraction and reduce the danger of the activity. The problem is that people who talk on cell phones while driving by and large do not do these things. Some of them do, and are thereby reasonably safe, and I have no problem with them.
Re:Darwin (Score:5, Insightful)
Phone talkers who only phone while on straightaways and only press one button to do it (speed dial) can make exactly the same argument. Guess what? It's still dangerous. Changing the radio station while driving is dangerous. Period.
Talking on the phone engages your attention for a continuous period of time. A half-second to push a button != several minutes of distraction. Not saying the momentary distraction is not dangerous, but it does not even come close to approaching the level of danger that talking on the phone while driving presents.
Text messaging is even worse though, since it requires the concentration to produce the text mentally (much more thought intensive than speaking naturally) and some form of error correction (or worse, watching your phone constantly as you enter text). Sadly, these people don't always have one-party crashes. If they only killed themselves in car crashes, I'd be fine with it.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
But people who use cell phones on the road don't seem to understand these ideas. They will frequently place the cell phone first, driving second.
Sorry, but that is nonsense.
Using your mobile (cell)phone whilst driving is illegal over here, because our Orwellian government passed a law against it. I don't think it's sensible. Before that, I did talk on a phone whilst driving and you know what? I was able to put the mobile phone SECOND and driving FIRST. What makes you think that the class of drivers who
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
What makes you think that the class of drivers who are unable to prioritize tasks properly are limited exclusively to those using a mobile phone whilst driving?
Absolutely nothing at all! There are plenty of worthless drivers out there, both with and without cell phones.
However, most people using cell phones on the road will be this worthless sort. Why? Well, first, because most drivers are this worthless sort, period. Secondly, because people like you and I will generally make short calls out of necessity, whereas this worthless sort of driver will make constant long calls. Thus the odds are extremely high that any given driver on a cell phone is a worthless moron
Re:Darwin (Score:5, Insightful)
>And yet, barely anyone gives a second thought to tuning their radio while driving or talking to a passenger while driving - both things that are shown to create just as much of a distraction.
I don't think there's anyone out there who never ever deals with distractions while driving. Having a sandwich, drinking something, changing tracks on a CD, driving while not having enough sleep... everyone does it on one level or another. All of it is dangerous, but the only thing that seems to get people keyed up is cell phone use. Can anyone explain to me why?
Mostly because it's the bigger idiots that try to text message while driving. There seems to be a tiered system of stupidity while driving. On one level there's the eating a sandwich or sucking on a soda pop or leaning over to tune the radio. On a higher level of idiocy, there's the people reading a newspaper, doing makeup, driving without your seatbelt, and texting or calling on a cell phone.
Unlike talking to a passenger, who should have a nominal idea of what's going on in traffic, the person on the other end of a call has no sense of when they should shut up or avoid bringing up issues requiring heavy thought. I have no problem with someone making an essential short call when it's safe to say, "Hey Dave, the meeting is canceled today. See you", and then hanging up. It's just that most people who I actually see talking on their cellphones in traffic aren't that bright, and continue to natter on forever while they're swerving and stomping on their brakes.
The title of the Facebook group says it all about the people who text message while driving. "Haven't died, yet!" Congratulations... you win the dumb luck award? Soon to turn into another Award?
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Cell phones impair driving, and that's why cops should be able to pull anyone on the phone and behind the wheel. They take your attention away from the road, reduce your reaction times, and usually tie up one hand. You may think you are some kind of amazing driver who can do both at once, but like everyone else who says the same thing, you're not. That's my point.
Re:Darwin (Score:5, Insightful)
Because to use your cell-phone for texting, you must look AWAY FROM THE ROAD and at a small screen to read texts.
When you're talking to a passenger, yeah, you're distracted, but talking and listening does not require that you take your eyes off the road. Nor does adjusting the radio, once you're used to using it.
Cognitive load (Score:5, Informative)
Higher cognitive load.
Carrying on a conversation is more mentally taxing than turning a radio dial, and isn't as interruptable, since you're only in control of half of it. See, for example, this research [cmu.edu]:
"the Carnegie Mellon study, for the first time, used brain imaging to document that listening alone reduces by 37 percent the amount of brain activity associated with driving. This can cause drivers to weave out of their lane, based on the performance of subjects using a driving simulator."
Re:Cognitive load (Score:5, Insightful)
The problem occurs when driving suddenly requires a lot more concentration/attention than we have to give it. If we can't shift mental gears fast enough to act to avoid a situation, we crash.
Texting and driving should be illegal (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Darwin (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Text is a noun [askoxford.com], not a verb.
Welcome into the English language. Any noun gets turned into a verb, adjective, whatever else that's not a noun, verb or adjective, and it's been like this for a while.
Calvin (Score:5, Funny)
Text used to be a noun, now it's used both interchangeably as a verb and a noun. So many words in modern English are starting to be used like this.
Verbing weirds language.
Idiot (Score:5, Insightful)
despite some near-accidents
Enough said.
Also, just because someone hasn't had an accident in the past, it doesn't mean they won't have an accident in the future.
Re:Idiot (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Idiot (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Idiot (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
A lot states have laws like this. In DE, my wife got rear-ended (lightly) by some teenager when coming to a stop at a red light in good weather (she was not the first car to stop and didn't brake hard or anything), and his explanation was basically "sorry, I didn't see you".
The trooper gave him a ticket for "inattentive driving". It didn't matter whether he was texting, eating, or whatever else (he claimed he wasn't doing anything), because he obviously wasn't paying attention to what he was doing. I'm s
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
But surely if she considers it irresponsible, she shouldn't do it, EVEN if it is not specifically illegal?
Bit of a case of "do as I say, not as I do". And don't call me Shirley.
Re:Idiot (Score:4, Insightful)
"I would support [a law], however, because I consider myself to be a pretty good law follower and would feel pretty horrible if something happened because of me breaking a law."
Yeah, because something bad happening because you do something you know if fucking stupid would be ok.
What, she'd only feel bad if she killed someone while doing something 'against the law'?
Idiot.
Re: (Score:2)
Also, just because someone hasn't had an accident in the past, it doesn't mean they won't have an accident in the future.
Or, as the financial types like to say... Past performance is not a guarantee of future results.
Re: (Score:2)
Seems like the police should keep an eye on people who suddenly leave the group.
Kids these days (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
I don't view texting as fun. I view it as a way of communicating when I don't need or want to have a conversation. Some things don't need a phone call.
Person 1: "You coming tonight?"
Person 2: "No."
Person 1: "Going to be fun, eh?"
Person 2: "Yeah..."
*awkward pause*
Person 1: "Um, okay, bye."
Person 2: "Yeah, bye."
Re:Kids these days (Score:4, Informative)
In my experience, this is how people carry out such short conversations.
Party 'B': Hello, B speaking.
Party 'A': Hello, it's me.
Party 'B': Hello, A.
Party 'A': Whereabouts are you?
Party 'B': I'm just walking past the music shop opposite the church. Where are you?
Party 'A':I'm walking past the hotel. I'll meet you at the swimming pool.
Party 'B': OK, see you later. Goodbye.
Re: (Score:2)
I agree. I just don't have time for text messages. It can take an hour of back and forth to have a two minute conversation. I can barely put up with IM, but it is required in our office so that people can interrupt your train of thought if you accidentally get on a productive streak.
I have no "text plan" on my phone, so incoming texts that I didn't ask to receive cost me 15 cents. Outgoing don't cost me anything because I don't do them. I don't have time. Life is too s
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Since I wasn't logged in at the time, here's my post again:
As you honestly don't seem to understand the use of text messages, I'll explain why I find them useful: for communicating small amounts of information that don't require conversation, and out of respect for the other person's time.
Let's face it, most people don't want to be interrupted whenever they're doing something. You might be out shopping for groceries, visiting a friend's house, or eating a restaurant, and you probably have your phone with you in case there's an emergency and/or you need to call somebody, but you don't want somebody to call you and suddenly want to have a conversation. Heck, at least in those situations you can talk if you want to; you can't exactly answer your phone and have a conversation at all if, say, you're watching a presentation at work, or if you're already on the phone with somebody else.
Ever heard of voicemail? If I'm somewhere where I can't answer the phone and I get a call, I simply let it go to voicemail. If it's that damn important, leave a short message. If the voicemail notifier goes off, I excuse myself and check it. Otherwise, I figure I can call them back later.
If I ever get a text message asking me a simple question while I'm in the grocery store, I would probably be 1) pissed because it just cost me $0.15 and 2) pick up
Get a phone and bluetooth headset (Score:5, Interesting)
What a moron!
With a bluetooth headset, I say the person's name, my cellphone dials the number, I say what I have to say, and never have to fumble around with the phone.
Any bets on how long before this guy gets his darwin?
Re:Get a phone and bluetooth headset (Score:5, Informative)
If you'd RTFA, you'd know that "this guy" is actually a girl.
Re: (Score:2)
I read the article afterwords; it doesn't change anything wrt the stupidity involved. She admits not only to nearly causing accidents, but the picture clearly shows that she's not looking at the road.
Re: (Score:2)
Also, with the right earpiece, you no longer have to use the phone to dial, to answer, or to hang up. You no longer have to hold or even look at the phone at any point, so you can keep your hands on the wheel, and your eyes on the road.
Compare that to texting ...
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I'd like to see a study done on whether talking to somebody in the passenger seat is just as dangerous as talking on the phone (handsfree or not)
Re: (Score:2)
The article was about text messaging while driving a car, as opposed to just calling the person. I'm glad you agree that texting is a no-brainer :-)
As for the distraction of talking on the phone, most people can't even drive properly when they have NO "distractions."
For them, a cellphone, or anything else, is going to diminish their already-lousy driving.
How about a ban on cell-phone use for anyone who has less than, say, 5 years driving experience, *any* demerit points, or was responsible for accide
Moron (Score:5, Insightful)
I also hope her insurance company reads time.com.
Re:Moron (Score:5, Insightful)
You learn or you die, you cannot combine the two. Anyway, I hope she crashes and just seriously damages the car, with the insurance company not paying out. There is no reason to wish her harm just because she (at 21 years old) makes some stupid mistakes.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
As has often be said (Score:5, Funny)
the really effective way to make people drive more careful is to replace the airbag in all cars with a big pointy spike aimed at the driver's head.
Why a law? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Ever been stuck in traffic for 30 minutes on a freeway, going 2 MPH?
You can read a book, eat a burger and write out a 2 page email with absolutely no concern for the cars around you.... there's no where to go and nobody can go fast enough to even dent your car much less cause an accident.
Just because person X hasn't had an accident... (Score:2)
...it doesn't mean that you're not more likely to have one while operating any device that takes your eyes off the road.
Mobile phones are still so new that proper statistics don't really exist. (Ever here in Finland, where most in my generation had a mobile in high school, pre Y2K.) But I still don't think it can ever be safer to drive while doing anything else at the same time.
Sometimes it makes the most sense to simply find a place to pull over for a moment, if you really need to do something which will t
Great Idea... (Score:5, Insightful)
I am starting another group:
"I am drunk While Driving and I Haven't Crashed Yet!"
It sucks that we have to make laws to compensate for commonsense.
It's not easier, it's harder! (Score:2)
Even if you're texting proficient, you still have to look at the screen to check your output multiple times, distracting you from the road.
While I'm normally a person that is against the "nanny state", idiots who get distracted while driving are not only a danger to themselves, they are a danger to every other person around them.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
you still have to look at the screen to check your output multiple times, distracting you from the road.
Like flipping through the radio stations? Here here! Let's call all radio station flippers names and ban radio station flipping!
Honestly, the cell phone, or the texting, isn't the problem. There are times when it is perfectly safe to text (long empty roads on the way to the coast, for example). As someone above said, the rule should be that you "drive with due care and attention." Banning a particular technology because your view can't apply it in a safe way doesn't seem to be the right answer.
Re: (Score:2)
See, I wouldn't have any problem with texting while driving if people would maintain proper distance. Let's say a text message takes 10 seconds to enter (conservative I know), then you need to have your normal 2 seconds plus the additional 10 seconds of space between you and the next driver. At highway speeds, that's about 1500 feet.
Let's not forget about separation from peop
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Without danger to others, yes. Without danger to themselves, no. I don't care what people do to themselves as long as they don't hurt other people.
Make Organ Donor Mandatory for These Idiots! (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Make Organ Donor Mandatory for These Idiots! (Score:5, Funny)
I would like to make organ donation compulsory for these people. At least they can be of some use after they crash.
I like the idea of compulsory organ donation, but why wait until after they crash, when the organs might get damaged?
Re: (Score:2)
Stop killing people (Score:5, Insightful)
I've lost two people in pointless car crashes.
Please use your goddamn head and pay attention to the goddamn road.
This is what happens (Score:4, Insightful)
Darwin Award here we come (Score:4, Interesting)
We can all remember this thread when the asshat wins a Darwin Award. I've been near clipped many times by people fumbling with their phones. Usually they are gabbing, but more and more it's young kids texting. Youth tends to think it's invincible anyways.
They even reference 'near accidents'. All it takes is for one other person around you to also have a lapse of attention to turn that 'near accident' into a real accident.
If you need to say 'be there in 5' then pull over, or just make them wait 5 minutes. Duh.
Here's A Challenge For The Statisticians... (Score:5, Funny)
Given that at some point the rate of new members signing up will equal the rate that existing members die, calculate the maximum number of members of 'I Text Message People While Driving and I Haven't Crashed Yet!'
Don't make me hurt you... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Get robbed (Score:3, Funny)
Don't get mad when I smash out your car window with a tire iron and take your phone at a green light, if you were paying attention it wouldn't have happened.
Stop Texting and Drive... (Score:2, Funny)
I ride a Motorcycle, and I can truly say that I am sick and tired of almost being hit by idiots that are text messaging or chatting on their cell phones... ... well, I am building an EMP cannon, it should have an effective range of about 20 feet, and sho
I have seen people read books, news papers, work papers, shave, eat cereal out of a bowl, put on makeup, etc...and texting or talking on the cell both rank up there with "extremely stupid" behaviors while behind the wheel...
The next person who nearly hits me
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
http://www.dhbolton.com/articles/diy-emp-generator.html [dhbolton.com]
the site suggests making the entire device DIY, but i think finding a nice titanium alloy tube that is extremely thin, and extremely strong, to propel a shotgun/handgun round pushing a magnet through EMP coils would be easier, and would launch a much stronger, larger EMP shockwave... the ignition chamber can be thick iron, just the tube needs to be extremely thin and long enough, to create the EMP wave. the coils are going to be a real expensive part, b
Thats funny (Score:2)
Virginia resident Leming is still happily texting away while driving despite some near-accidents. 'Sometimes it just seems easier to text 'Be there in 5' instead of calling,' explains Taylor."
Thats funny, I was just thinking how sometimes it just seems easier to ignore the traffic lights and stop signs. I mean, I get to where I am going so much faster! And haven't had an accident yet, which is of course 100% proof that I never will. /sarcasm
What a selfish _dangerous_ jerk
All I can hope for is she only wraps herself around a tree or lamp post, and not another car or pedestrian.
if God wanted you to text while driving (Score:2)
there would be a screen instead of a speedometer, and the steering wheel would have a keyboard.
Hey Taylor, out of the gene pool! (Score:5, Insightful)
I nearly got killed a few years ago by a "distracted" driver who was happily chatting on his cell phone while running a traffic light. It took me over a year to recover and be able to work again and I'll feel the secondary effects of this accident for the rest of my life (definitely NOT a nice thing, trust me).
In most European countries, using a cell phone while driving is considered impaired driving and you basically face the same consequences as if you were drunk in case of an accident, meaning your insurance will happily run away from you and you'll be declared responsible for the accident even if it's not initially your fault.
I'm looking forward to the day it'll be the same here in Ontario as a lot of people don't seem to be able to distract themselves from their crackberries while driving. Maybe a $1000 ticket and a license suspension will teach them a lesson before they get to injure or kill someone.
I for one hope this moron eliminates himself from the human gene pool without injuring or killing someone first.
Before you all cry "Idiot!"... (Score:2)
How hard is it to pull over? (Score:2)
But... (Score:2)
How hard is it to read the fucking article (Score:3, Insightful)
A number of comments here have asked questions like "how hard is it to pull over" or "why not just call them". Here's another one...
Why not RTFA and discover that its a joke group and its creator is not trying to condone texting while driving.
ook (Score:3, Insightful)
Striking Back at Traffic Threats (Score:5, Interesting)
I drive a motorcycle in NYC, which is already really dangerous even when people are running only one machine, their car. It's even worse now that people are in their SUVs, sealed from the rest of the world and throwing their weight around in traffic - especially when they're not really NYC residents, but drive those trucks mostly in the suburbs where there's room for them to drive like fools. It's even worse than that with them talking to their phones pressed to their heads, distracted by what's in their hands rather than concentrating with their hands on the wheel. The worst are the SUV drivers with phones in their hands, and of course the very worst are the ones with both hands on a phone, looking at it while they text someone. It's totally insane, though they don't care since they feel like their giant truck will protect them in a collision.
A month ago, one of these assholes cut me off downtown, almost driving me into a parked car (except I'm a very good driver, so I barely recovered to save my life). They raced to the next red light, which was only a block away anyway. I drove up next to their window and waved at them. I wanted to tell them to watch out, as most of them just aren't aware of motorcycles at all, which don't register in their vision like cars do. They were busy texting someone, as they'd clearly been while they cut me off, and they ignored me. So I knocked on their window. They ignored me. I knocked harder, angrily now. They glanced up at me, obviously having seen me the entire time, and waved one hand, mockingly making an "oh, I'm scared" face (even though I wasn't threatening them or anything). They laughed silently inside their big truck, and bent back down to resume texting.
So I bashed off their side rearview mirror. I ripped it from the truck, and smashed at their truck over and over again while they watched in shock.
Then I drove away and got lost among NYC's millions of other cars. Fixing that mirror's got to cost hundreds of dollars and days off the road. If only I could have smashed their window and grabbed their phone, I'd call to check in on how it's going. Maybe next time. If they haven't learned to just shut up and drive already.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm glad you survived that asshole and, while I can't advise anything unlawful, if I were in charge of your insurance company I would gladly indemnify you for any claims that
They should totally amalgamate groups! (Score:3, Funny)
There's another group on Facebook called 'I've had unprotected sex with 258 crack whores I've picked up at homeless shelters and I haven't caught any life threatening STD's yet'. I think that group and the text messaging while driving group should join forces. They could rename the groups 'we're a gaggle of stupid morons who're really pushing it'
I want a morsecode key as a serious HID (Score:3, Interesting)
Seriously.
For years I have had a shortwave transceiver in my car and since I don't like voice communication, I had a morse code key between the seats. I am quite proficient at the code, doing something like 40 WPM easily while driving on the Autobahn and I found that concentration was more difficult when I had an actual person to talk to in the car.
I wish there was a mobile phone with twoe keys, one for dots, one for dashes to let me input text messages. Anything less than a full size keyboard is a PITA for text input; morse code would be a fine alternative, but i realize it's not for everyone. I look forward to a new generation of mobile phones that is open enough to make something like this possible.
Please no hint at Darwin: I am an experienced driver and listening to music is just as distracting as watching parts of the landscape and in fact when doing morse code at 120 mpH I never need to take my eyes from the road. I would agree, however, that any input interface that requires a look at the input device is an invitation to cleanse the gene pool.
Yet another redundant law (Score:4, Insightful)
Is already illegal to drive impaired. Why do we need another law to say the same thing is illegal?
Re: (Score:2)
The law in the UK covers 'reckless' driving 'without due care and attention'. However, the problem there is to clarify what 'due care and attention' is. Some think that they can still provide due care and attention with a handheld phone call - or eating a cream cake while they're driving.
Then again, maybe natural selection is a good thing.
Re: (Score:2)
On the first occasion, the idiot that drove into the back of me (I was stopped) was drunk, on the second, the woman was on the mobile.
To me (and I'm not a 'hanging around' sort of driver), phone use is as bad as drink driving.
I'd rather that they not naturally select themselves and their germ line out of existence on my rear bumper, thankyou :o)
Re: (Score:2)
With idiots like this, there's no 'maybe' about it.
My issue is more with the people they take with them. Sure, if some idiot wants to send a text message and ends up getting intimate with a brick wall, or some other inanimate object, fine. It's when they whack into the car coming the other way, and take out the occupants of that vehicle as well that I get annoyed.
There's nothing Darwinian about collateral damage.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Why such a specific law? (Score:5, Insightful)
Too vague ... one person's "due care and attention" is anothers recklessness.
Besides, banning texting for the driver while on a highway is a no-brainer ... because obviously people with no brains think they can do it "despite a few near-accidents."
I finally bought a bluetooth earpiece when the laws changed, even though my cell already has speaker-phone capability, so it already was "hands-free"; after a couple of weeks, I now wish I had bought it sooner. (Hint - buy a good-quality one with noise and echo cancellation - you don't want to sound like you're talking in a garbage can).
Hands-free is no safer (Score:3, Insightful)
"a 2006 study concluded that talking on a cell phone while driving is as dangerous as driving drunk, even if the phone is a hands-free model." [caasco.com]
The problem isn't the phone occupying your hands; the problem is the phone occupying your brain.
Apparently.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
The problem with non-specific laws is that its open to interpretation. Also we can get rid of all specific laws and have one law: "do no evil".
Your definition of evil may be different from mine.
Also, most states have laws against careless operation of vehicles already.
Re: (Score:2)
People are not clever enough to work out on their own what new technologies are incompatible with driving. You either have to make a law or put forth a lot of money on "awareness" campaigns. Laws are cheaper.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
In that case, how long would it be since I get a text reading
And in that case, WTF is wrong with just making a phone call?
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
The problem is that it makes no difference if some people are good at texting while driving. Hell, it doesn't matter if 98% of people could do it flawlessly. In today's day and age, all you need is one jackoff to be retarded, and laws are created that affect everyone.
These days, things are always put in place to appease the extreme minority, even if it pisses off the rest of the majority.
Why do you think the warning "do not stop chainsaw with hands" exists?