Distracted Driving Laws Don’t Deter, Study Finds

Uncle said:
No I disagree. I liked your first statement better. If lawmakers(polititions) were so concerned about your health while driving, then ban booze. More people are killed by drunk drivers on the highway, We know prohibition doesn't work, its outside the governments control. Anyone can make booze in the comfort of their home. Same with certain drugs, I'm referring to the leafy kind. Lawmakers (politicians) get on a make me feel good bandwagon knowing full well its not going to work, but it sure does look good for reelection purposes. BUT since people can't create a cell phone AND if they were that concerned about our lives they could just shut the whole cell phone industry down with a push of a few key strokes and really go around and brag about how many lives they saved. AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN. The value of dead people on a highway is not worth as much money as the cell phone industry.
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EDIT: As an example for all you guys and gals that were around during the Ford Pinto days and their are a lot of other examples about how the industry(Industry is intertwined with politics) values your life. It was proven beyond a shadow of a doubt, through testimony and mail, that Ford thought it was cheaper to payout cash to everyone that sued, then to have a recall of the Ford Pinto, caused by the faulty placement of the gas tanks Ultimately Ford lost and the Pinto went away like the DoDo bird. This is the beautiful system we live in. If you still think this isn't happening, better put your head back in the sand.
 
Term-X said:
I don't think it's just hand held cell phones.. some people out there do not have the mental capacity to multi-task. So just talking while driving alone could be enough to distract them.
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"multitasking" isn't the issue; the issue is human factors. It's been know for nearly 50 years (US Army research that took place in the 50s and 60s) that the mere act of talking take nearly 40% of the available brainpower in a human, and a majority of that from the motor control portions of the brain. That's pretty damned significant, and the real reason the problems exist, besides people being :tard:s.

As for the study: anything from the IIHS is instantly suspect, because they are shills for the insurance industry. And this particular study has to be flawed with a conclusion like that.
 
tacos are a lot worse going down the road. Drive in LA traffic some time and stuff you see people doing while stuck in gridlock gets damn funny.
 
Lord_Anselhelm said:
Imagine if the law I suggested were extended. If an employee of yours is caught using a phone whilst driving, in their own or business time, your business will also be fined. If that were to happen, you bet your behind every business in the US would have a meeting first thing to ensure that ALL employees follow the law or risk their jobs being axed.
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Why stop there? Why not just execute their families too? That ought to be an even better deterrent right? And why stop at electronics? Most of the "distracted driving" I see involves a lot of other things. Putting on makeup, eating, and so forth. All perfectly legal.

Sorry, but a law where the only deterrent is the threat of overkill punishment will not work. Not to mention the courts would throw any such law out the window so fast it would make your head spin.

This problem cannot be legislated away. We live in a society where, for many people, being attached to their cell phone is a job requirement. They can't spend 45 minutes on the road without being in contact with people. They'd rather eat a ticket every few months than miss an important call. The only solution is to give people safer ways to communicate while in their car.

Sadly, studies are showing that hands-free cell phone use is just as dangerous as actually holding the phone. The distraction is still there. So what's the solution? There isn't one.
 
Laws like these were meant to be broken. If someone has to answer a call they will answer it. I and many others can do many things while driving. There are those though that can't multitask and those are the people we got to worry about lol.
 
If anything, I am just more discrete about it now. Colorado recently passed a no texting law, did it stop me? No, I just hide it better now.
 
So most people suck at driving, i can accept that as being true. But what I do not get is how people think that banning cell phone usage in a car is going to change people's habits at all. I live in Ct, and we have the hands free and texting thing here, and all that has done is make it more dangerous for me to text while driving.

Instead of being able to put my phone up on top of my steering wheel so I can still have a constant view of the road, now I have to hide my cell phone and look down at it in my lap every time i need to key in a letter. its certainly less safe than the on-top of the steering wheel method.

I have bluetooth, i have the mic and the speakers and bla bla bla. When it comes down to it, I don't want to have to enable blue tooth every time i get in my car, or leave it running and drain my battery. Its just a pain in the ass. I'd much rather just put my phone on speaker and text at stop lights, and never on a congested highway or during a snow storm or on unfamiliar roads.

It's obviously just way too much to ask for people to use common sense and not being inconsiderate assholes. Other people are the dangers on the road, I'm the safe one trying to get from A - B. Cheeseburger eating and driving needs to remain legal. Texting / Make up applying/ news paper reading = illegal.
 
Uh... how about.. you don't text while driving?

Too many people take driving as a right, not a privilege. They expect that when they turn 16 they should get a car and license and the right to drive a car. It's fucking dangerous and they will never realize that until they have a bad enough accident that they nearly, or do die.

My brother just totalled his Altima because he was falling asleep while driving... not even 1/10th of a mile from our house on a giant road wide enough for 2 cars on each side. He somehow drove up on the sidewalk, hit a lamp post, did a 180* and started going the other direction before he crashed into some guys bushes. The next day he's acting like nothing happened and instead is just driving our mini-van instead. Our neighbor totalled her WRX because she was texting while driving and didn't notice a fucking semi-truck stopped in front of her because of traffic. Next day she had a new WRX, they didn't even wait for insurance to work itself out before she was back to driving again...

It's just scary because most people don't change their habits after an accident. I am paranoid of everyone around me while driving because I just assume they're all idiots now. I should not have passed my driving test, I didn't hit anything and I wasn't dangerous. But I still barely knew what I was doing. I learned more by driving a few thousand miles than I did in "driver's ed" etc. I've since put 60,000 miles on my 04 car and probably 20-30,000 on our Minivan and I got my license ~5 years ago... (about to turn 21). Even my parents are awful drivers at times.

Went on a road-trip with friends, took my car, was about ~1,400 mile drive so we rotated every few hundred miles. But a couple of them were so poor at driving (especially with my car) that I couldn't sleep. I ended up driving more than any of them because I just didn't trust them. One guy only drove for ~45 minutes before I told him to pull over and let me drive...

Fuck how hard is it to drive in a straight line? Maintain speeds? Pay attention to traffic? Check your blindspots ? Estimate speeds of other cars? This is basic ass shit that most people are terrible at and are the reason that accidents occur. People can't manage that and they add talking on the phone, texting, and all these other distractions? It's ridiculous. Accidents are way too common and could be easily prevented if people weren't morons and took driving seriously.
 
I do believe the tests should be much more difficult and you should have to re-test every 3-5 years...

Much fewer drivers on the road, and the ones that are left should be the better ones.

That'd fuck with the auto-industry though because the number of people buying cars would go down by a lot. Public transit would hopefully improve a lot...
 
Sick of these pencil pushing douchebags and there world of what-ifs

Here is a what-if for you, what if you make to many stupid laws, people revolt and you and your family are dragged out of your house and beaten to death in the streets

oh wait, they what-if'ed that scenario with terrorism laws
 
So they're surprised that people are still doing what they want even though the government waved its magic wand and said that it shall be so? Shocking, shocking I tell you. What's next? People smoking pot in spite of the consequences? Penalties alone aren't enough to stop the truly determined.

I have Ford Sync in my Ford Fusion. If you don't know what it is, it's basically a complete hands-free system which is built into the car's stereo. I can use it to make or receive calls, dial numbers, or even read text messages without having to fiddle with the phone itself or a handset. My eyes stay on the road because it's all voice-controlled and my hands stay on the steering wheel because the command buttons are right there on the steering wheel. I think it's an excellent system, the likes of which all car manufacturers need to make available on their vehicles.
 
Wow, never saw that one coming.... People trying to tell other people what to do in a "free" country not working? Who'd have thunk it.... ;)
 
Tex Arcana said:
"multitasking" isn't the issue; the issue is human factors. It's been know for nearly 50 years (US Army research that took place in the 50s and 60s) that the mere act of talking take nearly 40% of the available brainpower in a human, and a majority of that from the motor control portions of the brain. That's pretty damned significant, and the real reason the problems exist, besides people being :tard:s.

As for the study: anything from the IIHS is instantly suspect, because they are shills for the insurance industry. And this particular study has to be flawed with a conclusion like that.
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The IIHS aren't shills for the insurance industry, they are the insurance industry. They are completely up front about whom they represent and what the nature of their interest is. Here's a cluestick: bing a shill implies some misrepresentation. :eek: The only shills in this narrative are the government officials who claim to have public safety in mind when they are only interested in increasing their budgets and mandates.
 
I wish I had a camera on me... I just got back and when I was driving on a main road I saw a cop yacking with a cellphone mashed to his skull while he was driving... Way to set an example eh? Do as I say, not as I do...
 
People texting and talking on cell phones could be cited as proof that Darwin was wrong. I certainly don't see natural selection doing its job when it comes to human stupidity. If not for divine intervention I don't know what keeps these people from getting themselves killed right and left. Laws don't deter people, statistics don't deter people, knowing better doesn't deter people... I think the problem is you cannot outlaw stupidity and enforce it. It's just too widespread, and humans breed far too prolifically for it to fall out of the gene pool. :(
 
Phoenix333 said:
People texting and talking on cell phones could be cited as proof that Darwin was wrong. I certainly don't see natural selection doing its job when it comes to human stupidity. If not for divine intervention I don't know what keeps these people from getting themselves killed right and left. Laws don't deter people, statistics don't deter people, knowing better doesn't deter people... I think the problem is you cannot outlaw stupidity and enforce it. It's just too widespread, and humans breed far too prolifically for it to fall out of the gene pool. :(
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That is because the "smart" people are protecting the stupid ones and not letting them die like they should. Cars need to be less safe. That way when a broad clicking away about her latest shoes or whatever the hell broads text about, plows into somebody she dies and thus ends the breeding cycle for that moron. It sucks for the people getting hit but its a small price to pay for the future of our species.
 
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