:gp: I'm all for people being stupid and removing themselves from the gene pool, but for God's sake leave the rest of us out of it. Devon
its alot like base jumping ... im sure its fun ... its addictive and so forth. but when someone fails at it and smashes a nun walking by .. there is no "do overs".
Yuk, people and scenarios like you described just show that not many can multi task. I drive most of the time with one hand on the wheel. Maybe you and others can't, but I can do that and drink my water or even talk on the cell with the other while I am driving. More than several years of it and no accidents. Not even near misses. I would never text nor keybaord a laptop while driving. That is something you would have to take your eyes off the road to do. I won't even dial out a call while driving, but will hit the button to speak because I know where it is without looking. Hey, if it's ok for cops to do that and keyboard a laptop while driving, then what's the big deal? :laugh:
Yes, and just because 999 times out of 1000 you can get away with pissing on an electric fence it doesn't mean it's a good idea. Devon
driving with one hand on the wheel and doing it while talking on a cell are two TOTALLY different things. i wasnt goin after you, i was just pointing out how LESS of a driver a person becomes when whe they become more a cell talker. it IS as bad as people make it out to be. just talk to all the hundreds of families that lose loved ones to it. talk about a sensless loss. most cell conversations are about nothing (like the propsed seinfeld series).:laugh: if a person is doing a business deal on the phone and their customer has their FULL attention ... that dont leave much attention for us other drivers/pedestrians/trees/buildings/curbs/...you get the picture. if you get hit by a car and one of you pasengers see the driver talking at impact .. try to get the cell company to give you records to see if that was true for evidence in court ... it is not gonna be easy. cellphone companies fight giving up records to show if phones were being used during accidents because they dont want the bad PR. they know how REALLY bad the stats will become. they lobby against making these records easy to get by saying they are protecting cell users rights to privacy etc ...bull. they are protecting their own profits. i have seen too much of it with my own eyes and cant be convinced otherwise ... maybe some people happened to be on the phone and missed the evidence ....LOL someday when all the cell phone addicts die off from brain cancer the roads will be a little safer. for the rest of us :grin:
ironically, thats the only time i do text. back to the death of the young man. .. things like this never seem to open the eyes of those who need it most. you see things happen to people all the time and you just wanna scratch your head ... for instance, my brother died a couple months ago from complications from cancer. he smoked velvet in his pipe all his life and basically lived on black coffee and cookies. all of my other siblings were saying "why, why, why?" yet they continue to overeat horrible greasy high calorie non healthy junk and smoke most of the day. one sister eats a HUGE pile of salt from her hand before each meal and just grins and laughs and says "i cant help it, i just like it" back in 2008 when i got on the heart transplant list i began working harder to eat ALOT healthier every chance i could/can even though there was no link to my eating habits and the heart goin bad in the first place. since this young guy has died i wonder if it will make any difference to his friends long term about driver alertness. most people seem to have such a "well that was him, i KNOW what I am doing" attitude. right.
The kids were all back on the phone and texting immediately after the service!!!!!!!!! :shock: You'd think that they'd think, wouldn't you???
Wa State passed a law on talking on cell phones, eating and anything to distract a driver. Fines start at 124$ for texting or talking. You can be pulled over at officers discretion, you used to have to have a moving violation or reason to stop someone. :gp: I hope it saves someones life.
Jason, This speaks volumes for the kind of people these are. The boy made a mistake. Anyone else on here make the mistake of being distracted while driving? Judging someone about this and talking about the gene pool is inappropriate in a thread where people have already suffered enough. I don't condone texting and driving. Nothing bothers me more than seeing someone try to smoke and text while driving, but I think there is a better place to talk about how we're weeding out the less worthy folks. :spank:
I don't mean to digress either, but since the cause of this tragedy was texting, it seems it should be open for discussion. I remember driving with a friend over by Lake Winnepasaukee (sp?) in NH, she plugged in her coordinates and we were driving and she hangs a right. I'm like, we need to keep going straight. She says "but the GPS says turn right." I'm like, I don't don't care what the GPS said, the GPS is wrong. LOL So, about 5 minutes later when she realized we were going in the wrong direction, we turned around and went my way. Call me old too, but at least I knew where the hell we were supposed to go.
I agree, it is tragic for this young person to have been so careless, that it cost him his own life, and I am more sympathetic for his family and friends' loss, as I would hope they would all pay attention and learn from HIS MISTAKE! Also, whoever was on the receiving end of his text message should be equally responsible for his death, and should be held accountable for Involuntary Manslaughter, technically! I don't condone or encourage illegal or unsafe driving habits; however, as a professional driver of nearly 10years, I "multitask" more than most people on the road, and still give myself enough reaction time to avoid potentially hazardous situations, as I remain AWARE & PRECAUTIOUS of other drivers ahead & behind me (NOT "Next To")! I mostly drive at Night/Dark, in weather conditions that most are too afraid to attempt (as they pull off to the shoulder to wait for the weather to settle/Hard Rain/Flooding Roads/Whiteout Snow/etc.). Daily, while driving, I: - Voicedial/talk on headset/cellphone for customer/work communication - Program GPS, to find delivery addresses & follow it for fastest time - Eat/Drink, to save time to stay on/ahead of schedule, to finish my route & get home earlier/safely - Write/Log information, to update customers addresses/phone #s & correct company mistakes (wrong/missing/incomplete information that is supposed to help me locate addresses & customers!) Now, who is MORE dangerous? ME... OR... - Reckless Drivers: 2 Guys on Sportbikes (1 with a female passenger!), doing 150+mph, at 11pm (DARK!), nearly hitting cars & semis that are unaware, as they just change lanes to pass other vehicles?! - Drunk Drivers, using both Shoulders & both Lanes, driving at 80+mph, nearly taking out speed limit signs & rolling vehicle over in ditch, then oversteering to get back on road (as I'm the only other vehicle to keep a safe distance, to witness this idiot trying to kill himself, as I report it to 911, who is the least bit concerned to send an officer...:af: ) - Truckers, who play "Road Games" with other vehicles, as they try to "teach" other drivers a lesson, by tailgating (semi within inches of passenger cars, trying to intimidate other drivers to move out of their way), or trying to force other drivers to Rearend their Semi (when the Semi gets in the Passing Lane, but refuses to PASS, and goes the same speed as the Semi or vehicle alongside them!) If only laws were ENFORCED, people wouldn't do the stupid $h!t that they do, if they learned that they couldn't get away with it! (But, I'd still Eat/Talk/Write/etc. while driving, because it's necessary to feed my family & pay my bills, for survival, as long as it doesn't affect anyone else, anyway!):shock:
Say what you will about the GPS units, but we just got one and I think it's cool. I can't count the times I've been looking for a place to see a car, total new area to me and I've got to pull over from time to time to look at a map. Nice to be able to plug in an address and drive there. There is enough to keep track of when I head into the city without having to try and figure out where I'm going.
I used to talk a lot on the cel while I was driving.. Until one day about 6-7 years ago, I loaded a block into the trunk of my car, and headed out down Hwy 52 toward Cannon falls, to the shop that does line boring of the mains for me.. It's about a 50 mile one way trip. During the trip, I recalled that I needed to order some parts from TA for this project.. so I dialed them up on my cel, and proceeded to order my parts, and then got Mike on the phone, and we chatted about this and that for probably about 40 minutes. When I got to my destination, I realized I couldn't recall one thing about the trip.. not cars around me, turns I made, landmarks I passed.. and realized that I had just more or less made this trip on autopilot. That kinda woke me up to the fact that you should be driving when your behind the wheel, and nothing else. I always can recall things I see and other cars when I am driving.. if I am actually paying attention. Now I keep any calls short and to the point, no more than a minute or two. While some may feel they are capable of driving and doing other tasks at the same time, the simple fact remains that driving is a full time job, requiring your complete attention at all times. It's not just your life your risking. Good video Rick.. thanks for the link. JW
Regarding texting.. I can type about 60wpm, and love email, but the day I have to actually type into a telephone, will be the day they are ice skating in hell. I give my kid a hard time about it often.. he will be sitting in the car next to me, pounding away on his keypad on the phone, and I will look at him and say "you know, you can actually talk into that thing".. He just rolls his eyes. I am probably one of the few people he interacts with that he actually calls.. or he will text my email from his phone. He knows not to bother to send me a text on my cel. JW
I completely understand and totally agree with that! My point was simply that there are many other categories of "reckless driving" that are/can be much more dangerous than multitasking or texting, but still NOT saying that one is any better than another. ANYTHING that causes a driver to be distracted from taking his/her eyes off the road is definitely unsafe & not worth doing! Texting should be among the Top 3 things NOT to do while driving!
How does everyone feel about police doing these things and typing keys on the car laptop- while driving?
Just as bad. Are you trying to convince yourself that because they get away with it this sort of thing must be ok? Devon
