[InOmaha]

I bought my daughters manual transmission cars. I never brought up distracted driving to them, but they complain about others non-stop. And they've learned a valuable life skill.

A simple fix is to outlaw automatic transmissions.

 

[Steverino]

There's a simple solution: New cars should be built with localized cell blocking tech.

 

[FalconsBravesHawks]

with all the tech built into newer phones, you would think there could be an app/add-on that disables almost all features of a phone except for Bluetooth if it's in motion. However, if you are a passenger then you would want to bypass that. It is annoying, and some people are vastly better than others.

 

[LuniticFringeInc]

I call them swervers. No doubt I'm not the only one here thats had close calls with one of these morons. You come over a blind hill or around a turn on some rural two lane road, and there is some idiot 4 or 5 ft over the centerline in your lane, looking down or typing on their phone, they look up at the last second and jerk their car or truck back into their lane missing you by inches while you're forced to mow grass or mailboxes, hopefully not a pedestrian or cyclist.

Many states have traffic laws on the books now making texting/web browsing, etc while driving a primary offense, so it can be used as reason to pull someone over and cite them even if no other reason exists. Haven't seen or heard much yet on what difference it has made, if any.

Whats been your experience on this?

If they arent gonna enforce it then what good does it do to make it illegal? Im a drivers ed instructor and there is a reason why Jim Adler (aka: the Texas Hammer) is the first number on my cell phone...cause if your texting and driving and hit me, im about to get PAID!

Its funny too cause thats half the 32 hour drivers ed course and when I get the kids behind the wheel youd swear they have never been told how dangerous it is!

 

[recklessdriver]

Dont need more laws all that is just s revenue theft system

 

[LuniticFringeInc]

Drivers who are distracted while using a cell phone or other technological device are dangers to themselves, those who ride with them, and everyone else on the road. I've seen too many violators and accidents caused by this to tolerate it. Might as well be driving drunk given the lack of reaction time. Get 'em off the ****in' roads.

I agree I would rather be surrounded by drunk drivers....at least they are trying to miss me, I just cant promise they will. But the soccer mommy on the cell phone with her kids in a baby seat in the back and a baby on board placard on the back window of her escalade or G-Wagon doesnt even know I EXIST!

 

[Hammer 1]

What we really need are more gun laws in effect to combat the vehicle injuries and deaths our country is suffering
I cannot remember the numbers, but not to long ago I looked up vehicle injury VS gun injury incidents of 2018. It’s amazing the depth the law will go to over a gun, a piece of metal that propels a projectile at a certain velocity X mass that equals a given energy measured in ft-lb per sq inch, but wont do squat about someone aiming a car at me while they are texting!!!! Drive thru liquor stores and selling alcohol at gas stations is one of my peeves Far more vehicle negligence than gun violence in this country.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[KoolAde2]

I travel all over the East Coast for work. SC up to Maine and Western Pa, and same for NY any further than that I fly.

Several Places now I have seen 70 MPH speed signs and a couple of hundred yards up there is a Sign that Says anything over 80 is considered Reckless Driving meaning that is the charge not Speeding. Thus I set my Speed Control to 74. The extra 6 mph isn't going to really get me there that much quicker.

If they Started Putting Up Signs that Said Texting and Driving are considered Reckless Driving and enforced it. Those idiots would wake the Hell Up and not text hopefully.

Since I am on the road so much I have been guilty of it. I have had a couple of very close calls and it scared the Hell out of me. Almost plowing into a Tractor-trailer at 75 when they were doing at most 45. I now have my Phone say I will return your message when I am not driving. OR Something like that. Then I put the phone where I can't reach it as it is tempting when you been driving for a couple of hours. With the newer vehicles, you can voice return with taking your eyes off the road or steering whee.

All it takes is a few seconds and your life can change in an instant. You could kill or be killed in those few seconds typing. That is a message they should put on the Signs that tell you about traffic.

 

[KoolAde2]

What we really need are more gun laws in effect to combat the vehicle injuries and deaths our country is suffering
I cannot remember the numbers, but not too long ago I looked up vehicle injury VS gun injury incidents of 2018. It’s amazing the depth the law will go to over a gun, a piece of metal that propels a projectile at a certain velocity X mass that equals given energy measured in ft-lb per sq inch, but won't do squat about someone aiming a car at me while they are texting!!!! Drive-thru liquor stores and selling alcohol at gas stations is one of my peeves Far more vehicle negligence than gun violence in this country.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I never understood that. Having Beer sold at gas stations when it is against the law to drink and drive. I make a snide remark almost every time I go in one to buy water.
Nothing like selling a couple of cans of beer to the driver of the vehicle.

 

[IamZeke]

People see the use of the roads as a holy right. What they can't understand is that the freedom of movement and travel they are due is not extended to their mode of conveyance. Yes, it is property and the object and contents have their own constitutional protection. But that is for purposes of seizing and inspection. The right of travel and the right of property somehow get conflated by idiots to think they are some kind of borderline sovereign while traveling in a car.

Time to drop the hammer on them.

Caught using a cell phone that isn't docked for hands-free use? Caught texting? Caught watching anything but a map/gps app?

$500 fine first offense; $500 fine and 30 days license suspension second offense; $2000 fine and immediate vehicle impound and an annual license suspension for subsequent offenses. On the latter the vehicle is subject to civil asset forfeiture if they own the vehicle and are a recidivist. Automatic upgrade of offense level if there are minors in the car or a minor driving.


Just brutalize them. Start treating it like DWI kind of bad in the law. If you can't dock the phone for hands free use in your car then society should scare the crap out of you if you even consider using it.

Make the fines so bad that municipal leaders tell their LEO's to go make tons of revenue.

Let's see LEO's just waving entire lines of cars over, setting up underpass traps, using a telephoto lens camera instead of a speed radar gun to capture images. Just go nuts and scare the drivers straight. Let's see them begging magistrates on their knees for a work permit licenses like drunks have to do.

You want to talk or text on the phone then you pull your ass over or go buy a phone dock.

 

[PurpleKitty]

I used to use one driver (pay for rides cash in his pocket) for rides but he was very aggressive, wouldn't let people over, accelerate to make sure they couldn't get over, then would laugh triumphantly when they took their foot off the gas and backed off.

Accelerated toward red lights on several occasions. Didn't seem to understand it was a red light. MASSIVE attitude when I said something one time, very casually "I think that was red". Overall, just drove really angry and scary. It has gotten a lot worse lately.

I have a thread about him on the darkside.

Anyway, he was complaining when the no text while driving rule passed in our area "What if they are using phone gps? What if they get a call and they need to see if it's important? What if they are just checking the time?" I told him, whatever it is IT CAN WAIT. It is more important to be safe.

He does turn his phone off when he drives, which I appreciated, but the other behaviors really frightened me. Just a really scary driver.

So I pay more for a real cab driver. Now, in my experience the work-the-streets cab drivers can do just about anything while driving, including phone use, but very few of the ones I call do that. They will answer it if if rings but they don't play on it.

The paratransit system has a very strict policy, no phone use, not even LOOKING at a phone when it rings, when they have a customer in the vehicle. Penalties I believe are a 30 day suspension for the first offense and fired on the second. If I were to call in a complaint on a driver using their phone with me present they would lose their job. It is very strict but guess what - they listen, and they don't do it, because texting with Joe is not worth losing $4K a month job. And, as I said before, most of them are not intellectuals so they would have a very hard time finding something else with the same hours that paid as well. Strict enforcement does work, but you have to have LEOS willing to do that work.

 

[Kimmy2012]

My experience?

The laws haven't helped.

The kids now days don't respect LEO or much else for that matter.

I don't see cops enforcing it either so it's just basically a law that's worthless

I personally think texting while driving is more dangerous than drinking and driving.

I propose $1000 fine first offense; $5000 fine and 90 days license suspension second offense; $10000 fine, one year license suspension, and 60 to 90 days jail time for subsequent offenses.

Heavy fines and tough punishments should catch their attention.

Believe it or not, I see mostly older people trying to text and whatnot with their phones

Both of my older sisters (60+ years old) are proofs. Their eyes were glued to the damn iPhone and they constantly texted, texted, texted while flying down I-10 at 70 mph. Two times riding with them, twice I almost died of a heart attack.

.

 

[GrizzlyetteAdams]

I personally think texting while driving is more dangerous than drinking and driving.


.

You are so right!

Texting while driving is 6x more likely to cause an accident than driving drunk.

https://www.edgarsnyder.com/car-accident/cause-of-accident/cell-phone/cell-phone-statistics.html

 

[iyaayas]

Don't get me started. I'm heading into Chicago tonight, hopefully in and out before the rush.

Cell phone while driving capitol of America. Usually it's 9 out of 10 cars that pass me ( trucker ) that has a phone in hand.

 

[iyaayas]

This guy rear ended me at 90 mph because he was texting. Lucky I was going 65 or he might have died on impact.

His damage.

My damage.

 

[iyaayas]

I find it hypocritical to the point of madness that as a commercial truck driver I'll lose my license forever if I get caught using a phone while driving.

People in cars.....slap on the wrist at best.

 

[IamZeke]

Both of my older sisters (60+ years old) are proofs.

It's not surprising that youth were the earliest adopters of this tech.

But as I watch my mother in her 80's I realized that her smart phone just gave her a reprieve for her shrinking world.

She can't go running around like she used to. Her friends are the same. Every day being more confined and limited physically but now with a way to be in contact at all times with family and aging friends. She can't use half the features but boy does she love that voice assistant. She even goes to the bathroom with it. It's a grand lifeline. When the time comes I suspect it will be in her hand on her deathbed.

So I'm pretty sure this phenomenon of elderly phone use in cars is just now getting started in earnest.

 

[Chuckleberry]

I find it hypocritical to the point of madness that as a commercial truck driver I'll lose my license forever if I get caught using a phone while driving.

People in cars.....slap on the wrist at best.

What's even worse IMO is the cops are the worst for distracted driving. Typing on a computer, talking on their cell phone and/or radio. Lots of cops have gotten into crashes here, everyone that witnessed it said it was distracted driving. Sometimes they have video SHOWING the cop was distracted driving, but NOTHING happens.

 

[IamZeke]

What's even worse IMO is the cops are the worst for distracted driving. Typing on a computer, talking on their cell phone and/or radio. Lots of cops have gotten into crashes here, everyone that witnessed it said it was distracted driving. Sometimes they have video SHOWING the cop was distracted driving, but NOTHING happens.

A really big issue for cops is the aftermarket nature of their fleet. Everything that is added to make a vehicle a cop vehicle isn't organically there to begin with.

It's a damn shame that Ford chose to just kill the Panther platform Crown Victoria so they could dispense with a plant.

They should have converted the factory to designing and making nothing but cop cars on the basic and robust Panther frame.

By dedicating one line like that they could have kept evolving cop cards to reduce distractions and streamline functions.

If they can make voice assistants to phones they could easily do that for cop car computer search functions.

One only has to look in a modern cop car that isn't a SUV to see that most are tight packed fusterclucks. Put a lot more embedded into the car itself and trim that computer down by using cloud storage and sat uplink. Hell, embed the computer into the dash and have that voice assistant handle many of the prompt duties.

Why one of the Big Three hasn't created a dedicated model for something that sells 100,000 units to fleets every year is baffling. Worse about Ford was they were already tooled up to do it.

 

[Lagnar]

What's even worse IMO is the cops are the worst for distracted driving. Typing on a computer, talking on their cell phone and/or radio. Lots of cops have gotten into crashes here, everyone that witnessed it said it was distracted driving. Sometimes they have video SHOWING the cop was distracted driving, but NOTHING happens.

I followed a sheriff deputy up the canyon one day. He was swerving all over the road just like the texters. I figured he was on his computer.