Are you a distracted cage driver?

[cokey]

So who is going to make cops stop doing it?   More then 50% of cop cars I see usually the driver is on the phone..  people will never stop if they don't..  ill only text while stoped @ a light..  I dntpickup calls thght and if I ever do it on speaker phone..    some people are just bad drivers.. well a lot..  my pops use to drive half asleep on his way home from work..  many time he didn't remember how he got home.. was never in an accident..

[duccarlos]

 

You shame me into not doing something.

And then it goes away and I do whatever I want to do.

Back to texting while riding 

[dennisd]

You shame me into not doing something.

And then it goes away and I do whatever I want to do.

Back to texting while riding 

You're not that evil, I just know you're not.

[duccarlos]

Ah, that's debatable.

[Rufus120]

Figured I'd throw thing into the mix.  Not saying you should text/talk and drive.  Just wanted to add to the conversation.

http://jalopnik.com/5644967/texting-and-driving-may-not-lead-to-more-crashes

[dennisd]

Figured I'd throw thing into the mix.  Not saying you should text/talk and drive.  Just wanted to add to the conversation.

http://jalopnik.com/5644967/texting-and-driving-may-not-lead-to-more-crashes

I read the article in the link you provided and I agree, too many people are just plain distracted while driving.  I did state in my original post however, that I am concentrating my poll on cell use (talking &/or texting) only.  Trying to include all distractions would be another poll (and a very complicated one because of so many variables).

I did like what one of the responders to the article did:

[Kopfjäger]

I did like what one of the responders to the article did:

....but now you have a car right on your ass trying to read your helmet.

[ab]

It's interesting when I started riding bikes, my cage driver speed went considerably slow.  I can't explain it.  I suppose since I see the danger aspect from riding ( i was a maniac tail-gater ).  But then I get on the bike and on days, my evil side seems to come out and...........

[guilty of texting on few occassions and yet when I am on the bike when I see a cager texting, i get near them and just shake my head in disappointment...]

[Blue]

Texting Taking a Deadly Toll on Roads

From the article:

Texting alone caused more than 16,000 deaths in car accidents from 2001 to 2007, the researchers estimated. But auto deaths involving cell phones and texting while driving rose 28 percent in just three years, from 4,572 in 2005 to 5,870 in 2008.

and

The more than 5,000 traffic deaths each year from cell phone use is "equivalent to a major airliner going down every week in this country," she said. "If that was happening, they would ground all flights until they figured out what the problem was and they solved it. But because everyone likes their cell phones, we have to debate this."

[dennisd]

....but now you have a car right on your ass trying to read your helmet.

You are probably right.  That's what a pocket full of washers or marbles is for...

[Billyzoom]

You forgot applying makeup (not guilty, except for that lost weekend)

You forgot waving to passing motorcyclists from your car out of habit (guilty because I'm getting old)

I do read texts sometimes while driving and occasionally will text something...even though I make sure there is no one near me, it's really inexcusable and I am going to make it a point to stop.

Road BJs I plead the 5th, unless you're taking votes pro/con.

Joel

[il d00d]

I don't like when people, including transportation secretary Ray LaHood lump all distractions together.  Active and passive distractions are different.  Navigating my iPod menu (looking down, scroll, and hitting play and just listening) is vastly different than texting (reading text, thinking, hitting reply, typing text, editing text, hitting send).  That's why my conscience is not too bothered by my hitting a speed dial on my phone, having a brief conversation via bluetooth, and hanging up, taking my eyes off the road a total of one time to do all this.

And from the article, I don't buy that the result of removing one distraction -like cellphones- is the same shitheads will resort to other means to menace the driving public, as though Tiffany, age 16, will necessarily resort to reading the WSJ if her ability to text her BFF is taken away.  I think his point is that shitty drivers will be shitty, but I don't think he should use this as an argument against legislating phone use in the car.

And I *really* don't really care that there is not conclusive data that cell use while driving results in fatalities or injuries, because it is crystal clear that mobile phone use results in people driving like complete assholes.  If there are not laws governing use then don't think LEOs have incentive to find out (get logs from provider) if cell use was the culprit in an accident.  They probably just need to know who done it, not why.  As a result I don't think whatever data we have is accurate.  It is irrelevant anyways.  Ban texting and non-hands-free (handed?) phone use.

[justinrhenry]

i'm driving right now...    [moto]