Texting Behind The Wheel Should Be Same As DUI

Originally Posted by Ibanezfoo

And we already have laws against harming other people.... so what are more laws restating the same thing going to accomplish? NOTHING

yes. you are right. we do have laws against "harming other people" but let's look at this from a different perspective.

1) i am drunk and driving down the road. i know i am a good driver even when drunk and so far my driving has been impeccable. i exit the off-ramp of a major freeway and unfortunately a biker happens to fall off their bike in front of me while not wearing a helmet. i hit the biker and he/she dies (this just happened last week less than 10 min from where i live)

2) i am texting while driving down the road and i happen to be an impeccable driver while texting. i have sent 1,000+ texts while driving at freeway speeds with no problem so far. same thing happens - i hit a kid who has fallen off their bike and they die.

now. the family of the deceased wants an explanation. they want justice. there are already laws that make drunk driving illegal and if i ever kill someone in a car while drunk, it's called "vehicular manslaughter" and "driving under the influence" - sometimes carrying double-digit prison sentences (in canada)

now if scenario 2 unfolds and the family is looking for justice; even though i was distracted behind the wheel, i might get off scott-free since would be no law declaring texting while driving illegal (the family will be told it was an accident and that their child died because he had the unfortunate timing of falling off his bike in front of a car while not wearing a helmet). in fact, in the case i am sighting, there were no criminal charges laid against the driver.

if my reaction time was delayed even one millisecond because i was texting behind the wheel, then i might as well have been drunk and run over some innocent person who, although clumsy, did not deserve to die because my reaction was delayed.

the law makes the general "texter" responsible for their delayed reaction time - it has nothing to do with ability and how "good" you personally are at non-distracted texting

now if scenario 2 unfolds and the family is looking for justice; even though i was distracted behind the wheel, i might get off scott-free since would be no law declaring texting while driving illegal (the family will be told it was an accident and that their child died because he had the unfortunate timing of falling off his bike in front of a car while not wearing a helmet). in fact, in the case i am sighting, there were no criminal charges laid against the driver.

In New Zealand we have "reckless driving causing death" if the driver was ascertained to have been doing something other than driving while, well, driving. That include(d) texting. We've now got a ban (effective as of about 5 days ago) that prohibits texting while driving.

I agree with the topic. I stopped texting while driving myself. A lot of distance is covered while you're looking down trying to find that damn exclamation point..1...@....#....$...%....&.....oh here it is.....Crash!

The folks expressing a problem with the lack of hard data regarding actual incidents where cell phone use was the culprit have a point simply because until very recently, there was no attempt made by law enforcement to ascertain such use around the time of the accident. This is changing, primarily because the insurance companies are getting into the action by raising premiums or dropping coverage altogether where such use resulted in an accident:
http://www.autoinsurancetips.com/cel...urance-premium

These insurance guys, unlike some folks, appreciate the value of 'cohorts' and statistics such as "if you're an unmarried superman with the reflexes of a panther, the balls of king kong, the eyesight an eagle" and then trash it by not looking at the road because you're texting or by induced cognitive impairment by carrying on a conversation over the phone (look it up, use google, you'll find it, oh, wait, those are studies and studies are bad! are you guys into astrology and creationism too?), then you'll discover, suddenly, that your premiums are much higher because, in that age and cell usage cohort you're a real and serious risk to their bottom line.

End of story, and you don't have to believe me, call your insurance agent. I checked with mine. Good luck, they'll check your phone records too. Cha-ching.

So many misconceptions in this thread.

-The moments of looking at the screen to check your typing is actually unsafe, unless you are doing it in a safe moment.
-Drinking and driving is notably dangerous only when actually fucked up enough to actually impair you to a reasonable degree. Remember, the legal limit was 0.10 not too long ago. Regardless of what the MADD faggots try to exaggerate and lie to you in commercials, buzzed driving isn't actually drunk driving.
-Texting can be done safely if you aren't an idiot.
-Many people are idiots and can't text safely.
-This thread is composed mainly of those people.

Originally Posted by mrpc9886

"and a life that belongs to me."

That would be nice if the happy morons who don't want to wear a seatbelt while riding in a car, or a helmet while on a bike would just DIE instead of lingering. After you're "life" is reduced to a persistent vegetative state and your insurance runs out then it's on my dime. PULL THE PLUG. Same thing with texting- collateral damage. I don't care if you ram a tree at 80mph, but who's gonna pay to have your stupid ass pulled off the tree and carted away? Mommy?

Quote:
Brain Injury Facts

If you think you are at low risk of traumatic brain injury, think again: About one in every 200 Americans (1.4 million a year) suffers a brain injury each year at an economic cost of more than $60 billion.

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Still my life, my car, and I still pay for insurance that "doesn't run out", I don't know where you got that one, but no. I don't see a point if your trying to make it. If I am driving and get hit by someone who is texting, I still have insurance for that too, so no. I'm not advocating for people to text while going down the highway at 80, which is what everyone seems to think, we can take this to a lot of extremes here. I think parents with small children in the car are too distracted by their children, and when they are turned around yelling at them, that's as bad as DUI, we need a law for that. I think women having makeup and vanity mirrors in cars is as bad as DUI, we need a law for that too. When does it stop? This is just a revenue generator, not a safety protocol.

If you hit someone with your car while texting, eating, applying makeup, whatever it is that you do while being distracted, yes, you should be punished for what you did, but saying that someone was being more irresponsible by texting than by X is just arguing for the sake of arguing, we have a law for murder or manslaughter already.

Originally Posted by Kristofff

So many misconceptions in this thread.

-The moments of looking at the screen to check your typing is actually unsafe, unless you are doing it in a safe moment.
-Drinking and driving is notably dangerous only when actually fucked up enough to actually impair you to a reasonable degree. Remember, the legal limit was 0.10 not too long ago. Regardless of what the MADD faggots try to exaggerate and lie to you in commercials, buzzed driving isn't actually drunk driving.
-Texting can be done safely if you aren't an idiot.
-Many people are idiots and can't text safely.
-This thread is composed mainly of those people.

lol, I like this.

Originally Posted by Kristofff

So many misconceptions in this thread.

-The moments of looking at the screen to check your typing is actually unsafe, unless you are doing it in a safe moment.
-Drinking and driving is notably dangerous only when actually fucked up enough to actually impair you to a reasonable degree. Remember, the legal limit was 0.10 not too long ago. Regardless of what the MADD faggots try to exaggerate and lie to you in commercials, buzzed driving isn't actually drunk driving.
-Texting can be done safely if you aren't an idiot.
-Many people are idiots and can't text safely.
-This thread is composed mainly of those people.

If all else fails spew ad hominems. This is comedy gold.

It's almost a religious war, isn't !?

Or siblings: "No! YOU MADE ME!!" "NUH-UH! You Made ME!" "MOOOMMMMM!!"

It would be nice if we could all live by the Golden Rule.

Meanwhile, back in the world, shit happens. That's what the legal system is for...and for that you must have precedents...and laws. This won't get settled by pure legislation, that much is certain, it will get settled by people discovering they can't afford to have an accident with their cellphone in use.

Originally Posted by mrpc9886

It's almost a religious war, isn't !?

Or siblings: "No! YOU MADE ME!!" "NUH-UH! You Made ME!" "MOOOMMMMM!!"

It would be nice if we could all live by the Golden Rule.

Meanwhile, back in the world, shit happens. That's what the legal system is for...and for that you must have precedents...and laws. This won't get settled by pure legislation, that much is certain, it will get settled by people discovering they can't afford to have an accident with their cellphone in use.

I think we need a law against brake and/or clutch pedals. If you are sitting at an intersection and a kid walks through the crosswalk in front of you, you COULD POTENTIALLY let your foot of the brake and run him over. This is clearly a safety hazard that must be prevented by giving your money to the government. Its the only way. Do it for the children!

I think we need a law against brake and/or clutch pedals. If you are sitting at an intersection and a kid walks through the crosswalk in front of you, you COULD POTENTIALLY let your foot of the brake and run him over. This is clearly a safety hazard that must be prevented by giving your money to the government. Its the only way. Do it for the children!

OMG!! You're right!! Quick, we need to alert the NTSB! We'll pass a law that all cars with automatic transmissions must be place in park at traffic lights AND stop signs.

All manual transmission equipped vehicles "shall be placed into neutral with the emergency or parking park engaged. The engine will then be shut off until it is safe to proceed, whereupon the engine shall be started, the clutch pedal depressed, the brake engaged, the emergency or parking brake disengaged and the motorist may proceed across the intersection". Unless all of that took too much time and the light is once again red. Hmmm... I smell a feedback loop.

"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them."

Thomas Jefferson (1743 – 1826)

I rest my case. GTFO of all aspects of my life .gov, kthxbai.

Originally Posted by Reality

IMO banning him for profanity is overreacting a bit.

Minus the profanity, I agree with him. The guy clearly doesn't realize the government can't make laws that apply to every single individual type of person/situation. Laws are basically a blanket thrown over everyone. Sure, 99 times out of 100 it won't apply to you, and frequently it will affect you, but they're just covering their ass for those times where it's applicable

Saying we shouldn't outlaw texting because one person can do it safely, and that it's unfair because not everyone is incapable of texting safely while driving, is borderline retarded, at least shows you don't understand why laws are so broadened

It's sort of like safety belt laws. It's against the law to not be wearing your seatbelt in the state of IL. It's not because the govt. is protecting YOU, it's in situations where a non-secured body inside a vehicle is a serious danger to other passengers inside that vehicle. Now, let's say you're driving alone. This law would probably be meaningless, because you're not going to be flying through your windshield as a projectile, being harmful to others outside your vehicle, due to how windshields are manufactured now (They don't shatter during impact, they bend and crack). It's easier for the law to apply to everyone and every situation, than to write laws with numerous stipulations

I can understand why Kyle said that.
The comment went from a dissenting viewpoint to a personal attack. You let that stuff go to far in a forum and pretty soon the forum is ruined. It doesn't take long before people stop participating because they're worried that disagreeing with a post will start a flame war. It can get really tiring and take away time from what we'd all rather see Kyle doing which is making videos of hardware testing!

Originally Posted by sirmonkey1985

nearly all americans? hmm i dont ever remember filling out a questionaire or poll asking me if i thought it was illegal..

thats about how legitimate these bogus polls are.. they get maybe 1000 people to actually do them and then claim everyone that answered it speaks for all americans..

You know, 87% of all statistics are made up.

Originally Posted by douglasb

You know, 87% of all statistics are made up.

I think it's more like 100%.

I took a survey and that's the number I got...