Texting Behind The Wheel Should Be Same As DUI

Originally Posted by DonInKansas

So you think people should be allowed to drive piss drunk if they want to?

As long as you don't hurt anyone, or anyone's property, have at it. But the second you slip up, punishment by the victim should be swift and painful. You can't regulate responsibility, it must be experienced.

Originally Posted by cybrsage

Did you also know the government would not need to have so many rules if people, such as yourself, would do the smart thing?

The government would NEVER make rules for control and profit, right? Nah....

Originally Posted by Ibanezfoo

As long as you don't hurt anyone, or anyone's property, have at it. But the second you slip up, punishment by the victim should be swift and painful. You can't regulate responsibility, it must be experienced.

what the fuck?

Originally Posted by topslop1

Enjoy being raped and pillaged by gov. rules and regulations until you can't smoke a cigarette and drive at the same time because you are distracted by "ashing" or the "nicotine buzz".

It's a basis not for texting while driving but a basis for not having the gov tell you how to poop and when to poop. You wouldn't understand becuase you'd rather live oppressed by asinine laws for 120 years than to live with the ability to have choice for 80. Quality of life vs. quantity of life. Anyone and everyone is obsessed with longevity. - Live free or die.

Live to die my friend, live to die. . To add the flames, I text and use my scooter all the time. Also just like going 90 in a Ferrari is safer than going 90 on oldsmobile from the mid 80s with broken shocks, the same can probably be said for texting and driving if your 30 or 60, or whatever makes someone better at texting than not. It does not necessarily take the same amount of focus to text and drive for everyone.
That being said I don't text and drive my car. That is mainly due to I love driving and way more than I do texting (which is not really at all) not because of a law. The opposite is true of me and speeding. I don't speed in my scooter because I don't feel in control on it when I do but in my car speeding to a certain extent I still feel in control.

All info is imo btw.

^^ this is on my phone so skip it if bad grammar bothers you, I know its bad

The ever increasing sense of entitlement is extremely disconcerting.

im going to have to side with the "there are already laws against reckless driving" crowd.
Same with gun laws. there are laws against shooting people. why do we need 10000 different laws about it. Pretty sure if someone is going to break one major law, they dont care how many minor laws go with it. THINKING about shooting someone is not illegal. It in no way impacts their rights or life. Im 90% sure (i dont know allof you) that there are a LOT of [h]ard gun owners that have never shot another person. But there are a LOT of gun crimes out there. A LOT. are guns bad? should all guns be outlawed? the same device/contraption in the hands of different people can be used very very differently.

Arguably. There is nothing "wrong" against texting while driving. or talking on the phone, or singing along to loud music. or eating. No one gets hurt.
People get hurt when someone runs into someone else. Crashing a car into someone else is already illegal. it might happen from focusing too much on a phone, or on a conversation, or a big mac. It might even be enough to say that if you just got dumped by your girlfriend, you found out your wife is cheating on you, or you have ANY other tragic event, you might be driving distracted. Potentially even more distracted than while talking on a phone. Perhaps we should have a psychologist built into our cars and we have to talk to them to ensure emotional stability before we drive.
Person A is a horrid driver. Person B is a great driver. Person B drivers better while texting than Person A does with 100% focus. Person A on the phone is even worse. The issue isnt the phone, its person A in general.

tl;dr - if texting distracts you too much, you are reckless driving which is already illegal. if you are competent enough to do it without crashing/threatening anyone else, feel free.

Originally Posted by Azhar

what the fuck?

http://www.literacy.uconn.edu/

Originally Posted by Ibanezfoo

http://www.literacy.uconn.edu/

Oh i understood you. I'm just dumbfounded at how anyone could in their right mind support drinking and driving. Seriously, what the fuck?

Originally Posted by bisby

im going to have to side with the "there are already laws against reckless driving" crowd.
Same with gun laws. there are laws against shooting people. why do we need 10000 different laws about it. Pretty sure if someone is going to break one major law, they dont care how many minor laws go with it. THINKING about shooting someone is not illegal. It in no way impacts their rights or life. Im 90% sure (i dont know allof you) that there are a LOT of [h]ard gun owners that have never shot another person. But there are a LOT of gun crimes out there. A LOT. are guns bad? should all guns be outlawed? the same device/contraption in the hands of different people can be used very very differently.

Arguably. There is nothing "wrong" against texting while driving. or talking on the phone, or singing along to loud music. or eating. No one gets hurt.
People get hurt when someone runs into someone else. Crashing a car into someone else is already illegal. it might happen from focusing too much on a phone, or on a conversation, or a big mac. It might even be enough to say that if you just got dumped by your girlfriend, you found out your wife is cheating on you, or you have ANY other tragic event, you might be driving distracted. Potentially even more distracted than while talking on a phone. Perhaps we should have a psychologist built into our cars and we have to talk to them to ensure emotional stability before we drive.
Person A is a horrid driver. Person B is a great driver. Person B drivers better while texting than Person A does with 100% focus. Person A on the phone is even worse. The issue isnt the phone, its person A in general.

tl;dr - if texting distracts you too much, you are reckless driving which is already illegal. if you are competent enough to do it without crashing/threatening anyone else, feel free.

Well at least YOU get it. Amen brother. Some of these communofascists seem too eager to give up control of their lives.

The fact of the matter is, make a law against it, I'll still keep doing it, I'll just find ways to not get caught, because I've already being doing it safely for 4-6 years by just using common sense. I'm not going to let any government or authority tell me how to go about my life. They outlaw a lot of stuff, but people keep doing it. Like an above poster said, just like asinine gun laws don't prevent gun crimes, because CRIMINALS who want to rape/murder/pillage are GOING TO BREAK THE LAW anyway because they are CRIMINALS. You are criminalizing the act of essentially having a phone in a car at that point. And don't come back and argue that "blah blah blah, just texting while driving, blah blah blah". If unlike me, you have had your head jammed securely up your own ass for the last 15 years, then I guess you don't realize that cops, like people, are fallible, I'm 100% against having a DUI equivalent because a cop had a bad day. WE DON'T NEED MORE LAWS, WE NEED MORE INTELLIGENCE AND RESPONSIBILITY.

I'm pretty sure if the people that founded this country could see where we are now, they'd be irate. These are the same people that started splitting wigs over their favorite breakfast drink being unfairly taxed, people seem to forget that. The name of the game here is MINIMAL GOVERNMENT INTERFERENCE in my daily life, and we are going the wrong direction at break-neck pace.

i'd have to say drinking and driving isnt quite covered under the same umbrella as texting/driving or responsible gun ownership.
These are situations where coherent (supposedly) logical people are making decisions and weighing potential consequences if something goes wrong.
Once you are drunk there is no more logical decisions being made so there needs to be some sort of fallback regulation to decide for you.

Living in the age of Twitter and the like I'm sure the response will be great, but:

What is so important that you have to send a piece of communication immediately? What did you do before texting was available?


For those with the comments containing "If you feel you can text and drive, go for it.": My sister insists she's a great driver, yet she's written off two cars. Who judges driving ability? The idea isn't for taking away texting from supposedly "capable" drivers, it's for taking away texting from people who can't even drive in the first place. Unless you can accurately determine driving ability, a law would have to blanket all drivers. Don't get mad at the lawmakers, get mad at the idiots who made the problem in the first place.

Originally Posted by Azhar

Oh i understood you. I'm just dumbfounded at how anyone could in their right mind support drinking and driving. Seriously, what the fuck?

We all know what happens when someone drinks and drives. When someone does it, they know the risks. But, this mentality of punishing people before they've actually done something harmful is downright frightening and infuriating. People are getting fined/punished for what COULD happen, not for what actually happened. This is not justice. There are so many things that COULD kill you, you simply can't ban it all. Are we going to ban bricks because someone COULD pick one up and smash in your skull? This type of law is a slippery slope.

You know what, its against the law, and I still have family members killed by a drunk driver. No law flew out and saved them. The government was not a victim in this crime, we were. It is our place to punish the drunk driver, not the governments.

Originally Posted by Ibanezfoo

We all know what happens when someone drinks and drives. When someone does it, they know the risks. But, this mentality of punishing people before they've actually done something harmful is downright frightening and infuriating. People are getting fined/punished for what COULD happen, not for what actually happened. This is not justice. There are so many things that COULD kill you, you simply can't ban it all. Are we going to ban bricks because someone COULD pick one up and smash in your skull? This type of law is a slippery slope.

You know what, its against the law, and I still have family members killed by a drunk driver. No law flew out and saved them. The government was not a victim in this crime, we were. It is our place to punish the drunk driver, not the governments.

I should shoot you. There's no guarantee that you'll actually die, so it's okay for me to shoot you. No.

If texting while driving is enough to warrant the same punishment as a DUI then I think eating/drinking [non-alcoholic] should get the same. I was T-boned by a driver earlier this year cause he was too preoccupied with his coffee and didn't "see me".

true, we live in a world which punishes the responsible.
If your sister has trashed 2 cars, hopefully her insurance premiums have gone through the roof. Thats called a punishment. If she is too dumb to figure out that she shouldnt be driving distracted, it'll continue to go up. if she injures/kills someone and shes driving distracted. thats called reckless driving/vehicular manslaughter. Theres jail time for that. So lets see. With the current system, there is jail time/major financial costs for crashing while on a cell phone.... Some people make it sound like you get a high five and a plaque from the president for crashing a car while texting. Theres already punishments in place. perhaps they should be harsher?
If you crash while on the phone youve now broken 2 laws (reckless driving and cellphones). If you DONT crash while on the phone youve still broken a law. Breaking a law for doing nothing harmful. Its like a "pre-crime" thought police kind of thing. I try to not be all hippy "stick it to the man" type but Id rather not be arrested for someone elses stupidity.

Originally Posted by Azhar

I should shoot you. There's no guarantee that you'll actually die, so it's okay for me to shoot you. No.

Not to be a ball-buster but you kind of just made his point for him. I could butter knife you, there's no guarantee you'll die, so it's okay. EXACTLY. Punish the individual for the act of butter knifing or shooting, not for shooting a target or spreading some butter.

Originally Posted by Azhar

I should shoot you. There's no guarantee that you'll actually die, so it's okay for me to shoot you. No.

That would be causing physical harm to another, by which they have every right to shoot back. See there? No government rules necessary.

Originally Posted by CaliGirl

If texting while driving is enough to warrant the same punishment as a DUI then I think eating/drinking [non-alcoholic] should get the same. I was T-boned by a driver earlier this year cause he was too preoccupied with his coffee and didn't "see me".

No rules necessary. If he caused you physical harm than you should kick his ass or whatever and have him replace your car. If he doesn't want to pay, THEN you take him to court. No government rules necessary about who is allowed to do what.