Community Chat

[CrazyDaisy]

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@mima wrote:

The only time I text or check FB while driving is if I am by myself in the car and I am in line at McDonald's or waiting for a train.

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No different than sitting at a red light.

[Just Bling]

This is strictly my opinion and some have a huge problem with what harm does it do.  If you specifically do this, own up to it.

There will be a day that the light turns green, someone beeps at you and you are not finished with that last word and can't hit send then you think you can lift your foot off the accelerator and finish what you were doing and

then then we'll read about you in the newspaper.

You heard it here first.

[CrazyDaisy]

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@QueenDanceALot wrote:

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@sidsmom wrote:

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@QueenDanceALot wrote:

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@sidsmom wrote:

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@Just Bling wrote:

@sidsmom@CrazyDaisy

I'm that person who was watching you drive. 

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I would suggest watching the road ahead of you.

The law stipulates that.

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You watch the road ahead of you, you see to both sides and behind you because you are equipped with mirrors.

No one keeps their eyes riveted on the road ahead if they are defensive drivers.  They have to have 360 vision.  

Surely we all know this.  If not, you need to go back to Driver Ed.

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But people will say this person was texting without seeing the device.

The assumption was made because someone was looking down. 

If I see someone in my rear view mirror, you can barely make out

the gender of the driver, much less if they were on a cell phone. 

And yes, peripheral vision is paramount, but there’s no way 

peripheral vision would allow someone to determine the driver

beside them is texting...at 60mph...without you actually taking

your eyes off the road.  Funny how people will try to justify

their distracted driving over someone else’s distracted driving. 

Same = Same. 

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I sure saw the phone in the guy's hand when he rearended me at a stop sign (he told me "I thought you had already gone").  I saw it clearly in my rearview mirror as he hit me.  He admitted it afterwards.  He could have pushed me into oncoming traffic.

I see phones on tops of steering wheels in cars to the side of me.

I've seen people waving their phones at one another in same car as they are whizzing past me, drifting into other lanes.

I see very well what is happening with phones and texting in cars.

I don't know why you don't. 

Listening to my radio while driving is no comparison to someone texting and driving.  No comparison at all.  So really, stop already with the "whatabout" isms.

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Phones are also used as a GPS to get directions.  Not everyone who my be looking at a phone is texting

[CrazyDaisy]

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@Just Bling wrote:

This is strictly my opinion and some have a huge problem with what harm does it do.  If you specifically do this, own up to it.

There will be a day that the light turns green, someone beeps at you and you are not finished with that last word and can't hit send then you think you can lift your foot off the accelerator and finish what you were doing and

then then we'll read about you in the newspaper.

You heard it here first.

Once you start moving you are now operating that car, NO ONE has ever said that is acceptable.   

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[hckynut]

I think those old enough to remember driving, almost exclusively on 2 lane roads, understand this better than those that have not.  Try to imagine the carnage if this, what I consider a major distraction, being available in that era.

Back then, in my opinion from driving many tens of thousands miles on them, drivers were more focused on staying in their own lane. Some of those lanes were not 8' wide like many are today. Cross the line and bad things can and did happen.

I don't care how any device is used, by bluetooth/wifi no touch, it isn't the mechanics of moving one's body that causes the problems, it's the mental distractions, no matter how it gets to your ears, or how you move your mouth.

I am very proud of driving for 63 years, many while towing race cars for thousands of miles on 2 lane roadways. During all those years I have had zero accidents/collisions, or crashes, which many like to call accidents, while I was the driver. There is a reason for that, and it was/is not, what many like to tell me, luck. 

I will never blame it on only cell phones, but my belief is this. The number of crashes and collisions has greatly increased, along with the electronic advancements that have been added to, what was once used just as a wireless telephone.

My insurance companies love me!     =^..^=

hckynut(john)

[dooBdoo]

            Distracted driving of any kind has always been shown to be as dangerous as driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol.   Unfortunately, as a society we never were successful in teaching this and even today people will argue against it.   

            So now we've added addictive cell phone use which clearly has made the problem much, much worse and given us the nightmare we're seeing now. 

            We dropped the ball, we missed the opportunity to teach about the way any distractions impede our ability to be a safe driver and now cell phones and all the other gadgets have magnified and multiplied the dangers.   

            This society glorifies "multitasking" but our brains don't really function as well once we begin to divide up into multiple tasks.    A car is a dangerous missile that requires our complete, devoted attention because things can change in a split second, but we have this misguided notion that it's okay to divide our attention and try to multitask...  with grave and tragic results.   We can pull over to use a GPS, or eat, or drink, or any of the other activities we think are so darned important that they eclipse the value of human life.

[dooBdoo]

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@hckynut wrote:

I think those old enough to remember driving, almost exclusively on 2 land roads, understand this better than those they have not.  Try to imagine the carnage if this, what I consider a major distraction, being available in that era.

Back then, in my opinion from driving many tens of thousands miles on them, drivers were more focused on staying in their own lane. Some of those lanes were not 8' wide like many are today. Cross the line and bad things can and did happen.

I don't care how any device is used, by bluetooth/wifi no touch, it isn't the mechanics of moving one's body that causes the problems, it's the mental distractions, no matter how it gets to your ears, or how you move your mouth.

I am very proud of driving for 63 years, many while towing race cars for thousands of miles on 2 lane roadways. During all those years I have had zero accidents/collisions, or crashes, which many like to call accidents, while I was the driver. There is a reason for that, and it was/is not, what many like to tell me, luck. 

I will never blame it on only cell phones, but my belief is this. The number of crashes and collisions has greatly increased, along with the electronic advancements that have been added to, what was once used just as a wireless telephone.

My insurance companies love me!     =^..^=

hckynut(john)

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            Wonderful post, @hckynut!   I want to highlight this part.  

"...I don't care how any device is used, by bluetooth/wifi no touch, it isn't the mechanics of moving one's body that causes the problems, it's the mental distractions, no matter how it gets to your ears, or how you move your mouth..."

            We've known this for a very long time, yet for years and years the car manufacturers have turned a blind eye and even in older cars added more and more distractions, and of course we ourselves also add our mobile devices.