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Automotive News & Views Should cell phone drivers be singled out?
3688 messages, Last post on Oct 27, 2009 at 11:39 AM
You are in the Automotive News & Views Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & claires
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"Boise police say a driver sending a text message from his cell phone crashed into a parked police car that had its emergency lights flashing on Interstate 84 on Saturday night." Texting driver crashes into Boise police car (Idaho Statesman)
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Replying to: steve_ (Apr 13, 2009 8:28 am) The horrific NUMEROUS accidents and incidents that have occurred with the tag "cell phone use/texting may have been a contributing factor" never make national news. On a local level - it's a gory bloodbath, cars are common so we perceive the sorrowful situation of dead teenagers on a state road is "isolated". Within five miles of my address there have been at least three accidents with varying levels of fatalities that NEVER make the news past the local level. A girl slammed into a small bridge abutment at the end of my road and was killed - that made the local paper as a matter of course but didn't even make the local tv news..... cell phone use was a factor. The others hold varying degrees of dismemberment and mayhem but who cares? Why should somebody that lives in Sacramento pay any mind to dead teenagers in Upstate NY? Other than an obligatory comment "That's so sad about them", life goes on.... Right to the point of impact. When this three-ring-circus of driver distraction finally starts surpassing the drunk driving numbers will it finally get attention? Probably not. One of my favorite all time movies, "Defending Your Life" has the hapless character portrayed by Albert Brooks proudly driving his brand new BMW and fiddling with its radio knobs, distracted - he slams right into the back of a bus and is propelled into the afterlife. A delightful light comedy.... perhaps not so funny anymore. |
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"A survey just released by mobile application vendor Vlingo says 26 percent of mobile phone users questioned admit to DWT, or driving while texting. The highest number of offenders are in Tennessee, with 42 percent of people saying they text behind the wheel, while Arizona drivers came in lowest at 18.8 percent." Survey: 26 percent admit to texting while driving (CNET) |
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"Ashey told Newschannel 7 on the scene the reason for his accident—was his cell phone. Ashey said he was plugging it into his charger, when he drove his hummer off the road." Hummer plunges down embankment, driver okay (KTVB)
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Replying to: steve_ (May 22, 2009 8:56 pm) According to KTVB article, Ashey also said that cell phones in cars should be banned. Guess it takes a crash to get religion. Thankfully, Ashey simply ran off the road and is ok. But, what if instead of going off road he would have head-on an Aveo, or Mini. Maybe he is reflecting on that now. That would have been manslaughter.. |
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Check out Carlisimo's comment - talented younger sister he has.  Thoughts from the Curb: Where Can I Text While Driving? (Edmunds Daily) 
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In August, 2009 issue of Car and Driver, David E Davis Jr said the following: "Cell phone use should be limited to passengers in motor vehicles. A driver who needs to make or accept a call should simply stop at the first opportunity and chat for as long as he or she wishes. Cell phone use accounts for some of the most flagrant bad driving on our roads today." Would be nice if prominent people in our nation would make similar statements in public. Perhaps baseball, football and basketball players. Also, entertainers. The public sheep believe these types of people. Just think if Michael Jackson had come out some years ago and made public statements on the dangers of drivers using cell phones. |
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"The highway safety researchers estimated that cellphone use by drivers caused around 955 fatalities and 240,000 accidents over all in 2002." U.S. withheld data on risks of distracted driving (NY Times via MSNBC)
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Replying to: steve_ (Jul 21, 2009 1:50 pm) Seems like time is way overdue to get legislation and technology together to design vehicles and/or cell devices to be inoperable while vehicle is moving. In a "real" emergency, such as witnessing a traffic accident, one can always find a safe spot to pull over, stop and call 911. Except for younger drivers today, those of us a little older Somehow managed our affairs and business without having cell phones to use in our moving vehicles. Just how did we ever get through those difficult times. No cell phones. The hardships we endured. Had to look for pay phone whether for mundane calls or real emergencies. NY Times article mentioned an OKLA politician talking continuously while driving from office to home. This and similar "stupid" and "dangerous" practice needs to stop. A moving vehicle is not the place to conduct business, do idle chatter, etc. An alternative to laws or technolgy cutting off cell phones in moving vehicles is too bill cost per minute at say $2-$5. 911 calls would be exempted. Cell towers that handle cell calls already "know" if cell device is moving. The towers need to know this in order to be able to "pass" the call to the next geographic tower that is in the direction of the cell phone movement. What is needed is legislation requiring high per minute rate when cell phone is moving and cell providers to get hardware/software developed and implemented to enable high rate. This would be good revenue for providers and stimulus to equipment/software manufacturers and would be incentive for drivers to NOT use cell phone while driving. |
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| http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/07/19/technology/20090719-driving-game.h- tml | |
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