Just curious to see where people stand on this issue.
Statistics say that driving while on a cell phone or, even worse, texting, is more dangerous than drunk driving. Before you ask, no, I don’t have a link for these statistics, and I’m prepared to hear about it.
Don’t think for a minute that I am condoning drunk driving, but I have to wonder why there are not only no heavy penalties for using a cell phone while driving, but apparently, in most places, it’s not even illegal. Is it because this is a relatively new issue? Maybe the “powers that be” are hammering out the details?
I’m just assuming (yes, no link to my resources) that there are probably many, many more people talking/texting in their cars, all hours of the day, than there are people driving drunk, but I could be wrong.
If I did it right, there should be a link here for a text driving PSA that’s VERY graphic… even for me.
So what do YOU think the laws should be?
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Gato got runned over by Marcus many moons ago. Be ye daft, 2486? 
Let's have a new poll, alright, Joe?
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Maybe something IS in the works…
http://www.kidk.com/news/local/57113422.html
More than ten years ago I worked for Dr. Guyer and Dr. Cheslock as their primary nurse and office manager. In those positions I also headed “healthy connections” and was their “on call” person between the hours of 0800 Monday morning until 1700 Friday evening. So I held the healthy connections cell phone on my body, with the phone on and fully charged almost all the time.
It wasn’t unusual for the phone to go off while I was driving to or from work, or to and from home, etc. I’d open it up announce that this was me, I was currently driving on the road, they needed to give me 10 more minutes to make it to my destination and call me back.
They always called me back without complaint.
The hospital called me once asking for clearance to treat a patient who hadn’t called me first before going to the hospital. So I gave clearance. Cell phone conversations aren’t so necessary that they should be aloud to cause injury and death.
You’re right. Most calls can wait. But even those that cant, if more people would use hands free devices this wouldn’t be the issue it currently is. I know some people THINK its just as bad, but it isnt. Its no different than having a conversation with the person sitting next to you. And we have ALL been doing that since the day we started driving.
Except for Marcus. I think he mentioned he drives in complete silence. : )
I completely agree.
If you MUST make or receive a phone call, pull over.
And if you talk on the phone without a ahnds-free set up, they ought to yank your license first time out for six months.
When did we become so danged important that the rest of the world can not live without us for a few minutes?
I grew up without cell phones or texting devices. Guess what? We survived. We had to stop to make calls or receive them.
I’m all for such a ban.
These initiatives are about minimizing distractions for the driver, so let’s get serious! After all, most red lights are run by people with eyes facing toward the windshield. Besides cell phones, let’s remove some of the other distractions while we’re at it.
Let’s eliminate radios. There is not one driver reading this who has not been guilty of fiddling with these at the expense of a little safety at one time or another.
Let’s eliminate all those billboard advertisements along the roads, and anything else trying to compete for our attention at the expense of our attention to driving.
Let’s eliminate passengers (hopefully a waiver for motorcyclists). Can anyone think of a bigger distraction besides kids and other passengers in the vehicle? As drivers, this would give us the added benefit of removing back-seat drivers. Your spouse can drive themselves. Your kids can walk or ride bikes like I did when shorter – maybe there will be fewer obese kids around.
Eliminate other thoughts inside the driver’s head that are not related to driving. I’m sure some sort of manditory bio-feedback technology can be standard in all vehicles to make this happen. While even more difficult to enforce, we can at least mandate that all drivers be prescribed a stimulant so that their pre-frontal cortex (for focus) has a proper amount of activity.
Well i dont think that THIS is such a big issue… people should learn how do drive efficiently… and learn the rules all together… i HATE driving during the day… people are so dumb… Im and good driver staying within all legal rules but when i make a right turn into the closest lane and you think that since you green and are going left through the intesection that you can go into the futhest lane… um sorry im waiting just to get into a wreak so i can see the look on there face when they get the ticket… and i can probably mantian center in my lane better then you (not a contest) driving my manual trany, smoking, and texting, and driving with my knee and nope my ONE wreak was not my fault… actually it had to do with a driver turning to the outermost lane come to think of it… and was uninsured… LOL should punched him… And just to add this if you ever get hit by a uninsured driver even if they don’t have it on them complain about any issue back ache neck… ect because it makes it a mistiminor and the courts can make them pay w/o a civil suit… that my lil soup spill on this…. i can make a list of all dumb simple rules that are broken because of stupidity rather then TEXTING
I hate to tell you this, but everybody thinks THEY are the good driver.
As far as drivers turning into the far lane, that has always been a thorn in my side. Next time you are at a busy intersection on 17th, watch how many people turn into the far lane. Yesterday I was turning right onto 17th and someone coming into the intersection from the the other side (in a little painted up “race car”) came into the intersection way too fast, and, of course, turned into the far lane. I had hesitated to turn because I know a large percentage of people here turn into the far lane, and if I hadn’t hesitated, he would have run right into me.
I try to do the right thing and turn into the near lane every time, but I admit I’m not perfect. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve turned into the near lane, turned on my blinker to change lanes, and most of the cars behind me zoom into the other lane so that I can’t change into the other lane. I did the right thing, and I’m stuck, so I have to admit that in order to get to my destination, I will turn into the far lane out of necessity, because I know if I don’t, I’ll get cut off. If this happens on 17th during a heavy time, odds are good that you won’t be able to change lanes and will miss your turn.
I’ll miss my turn and avoid an accident every darn time. You BETCHA! If that makes me a little late to my next stop along the road then at least I’ll arrive alive.
Not sure where or at what time in Idaho Falls you two are driving but I’ve found most local drivers to be aware, accommodating and friendly. I’d certainly not blame my inability to keep my eyes and other senses alert and on the road on other drivers. That would just be wrong.
Oh, I’ve missed plenty of my stops to stay safe, not to mention stayed back and let someone else do something stupid
I’ve had so many people tell me that they’ve done something stupid because the had the right of way. I tell them that I’m sure someone will add to their eulogy “they had the right of way”.
I believe it’s everyone’s responsibility to pay attention to their own driving, but it helps keep you in one piece to pay attention to everyone else’s as well to some extent. That’s what they teach in motorcycle training, and it is very applicable to cars as well.
See thats what i mean…. i didn’t say i was the BEST driver just a good driver… better keep that other nonsence for the mud holes but… Texting an issue YES… Just cause it’s another excuse for people to use why there driving like a dumba** there is alot more other issues about drivers that should be takin care of… lately i’ve had road rage…. just because so tired of always being on my defence… mabey it cause usally i drive home at like 3Am and it just me and the road and just a few other cars
Another thing to keep in mind about far lane turners is that in some states from where people are moving or visiting (for example, the ever-dreaded California), it is perfectly legal to make a left turn into ANY open lane, as opposed to Idaho’s “turn into the lane closest to the center divider” rule.
Although I understand that everyone should be well aware of the laws in whatever locale they are living, it might not occur to people that something as commonplace as a left-hand turn would have different rules in a new state. I
for one, have not made it a point to peruse the driver’s manuals for every state in which I have vacationed. Maybe that makes me a bad driver.
While I’m a firm believer that ignorance is not a good excuse for bad behavior, it may be that people who are upsetting you are not willful lawbreakers, just dangerously unaware.
That is definitely a good point. That added to the fact that turning into the far lane is almost a necessity if you are planning on immediately turning off the road again is why I try to just assume that everyone will turn into the far lane. It’s irritating sometimes, but I would rather do that than get hit.
Want to brush-up on the local traffic laws? Have a teenager in driver’s ed. Every bad habit that I’ve learned over my many years driving was pointed out when each of my kids attended driver’s ed.
You know, as a minimum it should be an inattentive driving infraction. I can’t count how many times I have been behind someone that is on their phone, when the light turns green they sit there and they don’t even realize that they are impeding traffic because they are on their cell.
That would be fair. But would it be inattentive driving just because they were talking/texting, or would that be determined as the cause after an accident?
If their going to make a law banning cell phone use while operating a motor vehicle, they should also include eating, disciplining children in the backseat and women putting on their makeup. All of which I see happening on a daily basis.
Besides, it wont be long until someone comes out with a voice activated or speech recognition software for sending and replying to text messages. As long as you’ve got your hands free application running you shouldn’t have a problem because it wont be any different than arguing, or umm I mean talking, with your spouse in the seat next to you.
I’m sure if you cause an accident doing any of those things, you will get an inattentive driving citation.
this is true
Aren’t there already some applications in cars that I will never afford that allow you to adjust items in the car with voice commands?
Maybe I just saw it in a SciFi movie…
A lot of your higher end cars like Mercedes, Cadillac, Audi have that feature.
Recieving the ticket after is good, but wouldn’t it be a deterent and hopefully prevent accidents if the tickets were given prior to an accident? I realize that not everyone completely zones out when they are talking and driving, but if officers were to identify driving patterns that would indicate the lack of attention being paid to driving and then ticket them for that I believe that it would prevent/reduce some accidents.
That brings up another question. How erratic does driving have to be before they will pull you over and give you an inattentive driving ticket?
Oh my – I was driving up John Adams today during the high school lunch time and a kid was riding his bike in the lane opposite me, TEXTING, and completely not paying attention. How he rode his bike and texted the entire time I drove past him without looking up is beyond me. Had he been hit by a car……. should he ride on the sidewalk if he plans to text? What’s worse, him hitting a person or a car with his bike? YIKES!
Comment #21: “…but wouldn’t it be a deterent and hopefully prevent accidents if the tickets were given prior to an accident?”
That sounds like the Tom Cruise movie, ‘Minority Report’. Maybe local law enforcement could hire some precogs and start their own pre-crime division, LOL.
Can you imagine how many people would be in prison if “precogs” arrested people for what they might do or think about doing?? 80% of the population easy.
a better scenario would be from that new Bruce Willis movie where everyone has a digital version of themselves to go about their daily lives so they’ll never feel pain such as accidents resulting in texting while driving a bicycle.
Or we could all be Cylons (the human version) and when we die we will just be reborn into a body from storage and move on.
(if you don’t get that reference, just turn in your nerd card right now and you are sentenced to 12 hours of the Science Fiction channel)
It is important to be concentrating on the road while sitting behind the wheel. I have the free version of http://www.drivesafe.ly/ mobile application on my mobile and it reads out text messages for me.
This hasn’t been the first time, but I saw a cop on his cell phone a couple of weeks ago chattin away and not paying attention to where he was going. Law enforcement should be required to use a handsfree device while in their vehicles.