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Baltimore Sun: MD to Ban Texting While Driving(Merged)


MattFancy

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People that text on the road instead of calling someone have a mental disorder. No offense by any means, a lot of people have mental disorders, but yes, you have a mental disorder. You have so much anxiety that you'll risk your life instead of calling that girl and (oh no) having to TALK to her. Who cares if that 18 wheeler ahead of you slams on his breaks? You HAVE to switch to the symbols menu and make two happy faces or else she'll think you aren't that sensative.

Dude, take a couple shots of whiskey and call the girl...it's safer than texting while sober.

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I agree its necessary, I just don't know how well its going to be enforced. I still see people texting while driving. The only way anyone will get caught is if a cop is next to them. How will a cop behind you now you are texting? And if they pull you over and think you're texting and you're not, how does that work? What if you are texting, but they didn't see it? Will they go through your phone?

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That's not really your concern how they catch someone. Just don't text while driving. It's not even teenagers, adults do it too. I've seen my buddies do it sitting at lights, but I know people do it while driving. Checking a text while driving is equally as bad.

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No one should be ****ing around with their phone while driving.

In fact, it was seen on ABC news that texting whilst driving severely affects your driving, they had a reporter go out there and start texting on the blackberry and the car kept hitting cones in the driving course.

Phones and cars don't get along. If you use your phone, at least pull over or something. You can't concentrate on the road when you're texting people "OMG LOL U" etc

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http://www.caranddriver.com/features/09q2/texting_while_driving_how_dangerous_is_it_-feature

This is the Car and Driver study I referred to earlier.

In this test, 2 drivers are tested on their reaction ability during different scenarios. They are driving along, a red light on the dash comes on, and they brake as soon as it does.

First they took a baseline measurement, for their reaction time when they were paying full attention.

Then they did the same test, one for when they were reading a text, one for when they were writing a text, and one for when they were legally intoxicated.

Here are the results, on average.

texting_results_imagelarge.jpg

Here are the worst of their results.

texting_test_results_worst_imagelarge.jpg

It should be noted that Alterman was a middle age guy, less experienced with texting, and Brown was younger and better at texting.

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Whether you think it should be a law or not, how the hell is it going to be enforced? It sets up a he-said she-said scenario where it's the cop's word against the driver's.

Personally, I don't think it should be a law. There are any number of things that can distract you while driving. Texting is just an easy target.

I know there are plenty of horror stories about crashes that occurred because the driver was texting, but I wonder what percentage of accidents are really caused by it. I would imagine that far more accidents happen because the driver was distracted by a passenger. Should we ban all passengers too?

Traffic fatalities are going down, according to the NHTSA. In 2008, we had the lowest number of fatalities since 1961, even though there are way more cars on the road now.

I just wish the people pushing for texting bans would show some solid statistics, instead of using horror stories to shape public policy.

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a young child was recently killed here after her mom crashe the car while texting. Although the child age 6 was not wearing a seatbelt- which means she prob would be alive even after the accident had she been wearing one.

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Wouldn't really be a he-said-she-said thing. I believe cell phone companies keep records that can show when a person was texting. The cop can obviously prove that they were driving at that time. So if a person challenges a fine for texting while driving, it should be fairly simple to supply evidence to prove or disprove it.

And as for statistics, what Car and Driver's study isn't good enough for you?

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Wouldn't really be a he-said-she-said thing. I believe cell phone companies keep records that can show when a person was texting. The cop can obviously prove that they were driving at that time. So if a person challenges a fine for texting while driving, it should be fairly simple to supply evidence to prove or disprove it.

And as for statistics, what Car and Driver's study isn't good enough for you?

I'm pretty sure that seizing somebody's cell phone records over a traffic matter would be unconstitutional, but I could be wrong. The cop certainly has no right to demand to go through your phone right there on the scene. Could he just write a ticket and hope the cell phone records prove him right? The cop is never going to be certain of what he saw because people can be doing any number of things on their phone that look like texting.

I put more weight in the Car and Driver study than the Youtube videos, but the study showed that the one guy wasn't really affected all that much.

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I hate when people text me when they can call. It's annoying. The conversation would take a third of the time if not less just to call.

I rarely text when I am driving. If I have to I will wait until I get to a light or my destination, or even try to call the other person back.

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maybe more dangerous than drunk driving. at least when you're drunk, you're attempting to focus on the road.

Agree 100%. I drive for a living and I swear, 90% of the BAD drivers I see are on their phone in some way. I'm talking adults here too. Hands-free should be the law of the land without a doubt. And this is coming from someone who talks/texts while driving sometimes. I will gladly make that sacrafice to get this fixed. It can get real scary out there.

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I just wish the people pushing for texting bans would show some solid statistics, instead of using horror stories to shape public policy.
Sometimes we use common sense to pass laws like this too.

Curious though, would you have a problem with me driving down the interstate playing my gameboy?

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:secret:game boys are so 90's...it's a DS now, old lady :nana:
Whatever, you only know that cuz you have kids, making you an old man!

Actually though, I was trying to remember what my friend's daughter was playing freaking 24/7 on a houseboat trip this summer and couldn't think of it. Now I know, DS. I've learned my "something new" for the day...I can now rest peacefully. :silly:

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