Drive Now, Talk Later

I agree completely. When I took driver's ed in high school, I can remember my insructor saying: "When you get behind the steering wheel of a vehicle, the ONLY thing that should have your undivided attention is the road and the others drivers on it." I used to eat while driving but I came to realize that I was engaging in similar behavior that cellphone users do. Recognizing my own hypocrisy, I now only drive when behind the wheel.

I both eat and drink (pop, not booze) while driving. I drive long distances, and my wife prepares the sandwiches or whatever, and puts them in a convenient place so I need not even look down to grab the food with one hand.

I only do it out in the open areas, where no cars are within maybe 30 seconds of me, and there are no nearby traffic risks.

Again, mindless, inflexible rules equally applying to all conditions are nonsense.

Anyone who eats; talks on the phone; fiddles with the radio; or any other distraction while driving in a close group of cars or trucks is engaging in dangerous practices. When the highway is wide open, you are pretty much alone, and you can see a mile ahead and a mile back, minor tasks are not dangerous at all.

Pilots on the radio are talking to the air traffic control to get instructions on where to fly. And oncoming planes are not just feet caway from their planes.

Clowns on cell phones are just yabbering (or worse, trying to do business, with all kinds of facts and figures).

Driver training won't help... ever been to Europe? Despite high fees and extensive training, Germans and Italians have got to be the WORST drivers on the planet!

Not having been to Germany; we cant say for sure but we know they have an autobahn were cars can go pretty fast. Yet to hear about massive car wrecks however due to yakking on the phone. Fog yes.

Anyone know if you can talk on the phone and drive in Europe?

I just came from europe this past Christmas. You are not allowed to talk and do pretty much anything else but driving. My counsin got a ticket of250 euros for talking on the phone. Also they got high speed cameras and high res ones to see if you do and stay on the fway. They also check for the vigneta, which is a day pass to use on the fway. Another thing that I loved is people moving out of your way as fast as they can to let you pass and you always have to drive on the right, unless you pass or drive faster to pass everyone else.

While I cannot speak from first hand experience, the many comments I have read about driving in Europe, especially on German autobahns, are consistently favorable. The biggest difference between here and there is that Europeans expect you to pay attention to surrounding traffic. The American attitude of "I'm in front; too bad for anybody behind me who wants to drive faster." isn't tolerated over there. Before changing lanes, take a good long look behind to make sure you won't cut off someone moving 50 mph faster. I do know that, despite generally higher speeds, the fatality rate is western Europe is no higher than it is over here.

Have you ever been behind someone who thinks talking on their cell phone causes accidents, so when their phone rings they slam on the brakes and swerve to the side of the rode to answer it "safely"?
Please! Talking while driving, cooking, or any other activity is not multi-tasking because your brain is constantly working. When you talk you are simply vocalizing your thoughts. Now when someone stops to think...that is when problems arise.

EXACTLY. I learned to fly before I learned to drive, and I was horrified, frightened, and aghast when I found out how little you have to learn before they hand you a DL.

On the other hand, pilots are a self-selecting crew, and drivers mostly aren't. It's not much different from K12 ed. I used to teach community college, and I will never forget spending 20 minutes on "What is a noun?" I mean you'd think this is simple, right? Person, place, thing? Half the class couldn't get it. Point to a chair. "Noun, yes or no?" Silence. "Is it a person?" Silence. "Is it a place?" "No." "Is it a thing?" "No." All native English speakers, mind. They'd all graduated high school.

The DMV people understand that there are limits to what you can expect from people who don't care.

Cell drivers never seem to know whose turn it is to move at a stop sign.

Just give them a call when it's their turn.

The good folks over at Morning Edition did a story on this just a few days ago: http://www...d=13781479

New York statistics from 2005 attribute less than 1 percent of traffic accidents to cell-phone use. But nearly one-quarter were noted as "driver inattention or distraction." Some studies have it as high as 80 percent. 

Yakking away, passing you in the right line with kids in the back seat -- makes me wonder. Yet, here in MA some of the drivers are horrible enough without cell phones. I personally never do, too distracting, even with the headset.

Has anyone been a passenger with the driver on the cell phone in a heated disscusion and your trying to tell them to pay attention , that they just almost sideswiped the old lady on the corner,and they look at you like ( no i didn't, your crazy) and DO YOU MIND i'm on the phone here...
I no longer drive with a ( Gabber)....
or in public transportation , had a driver of a bus on the phone asking her 5yrold what she did today....
there needs to be some ( not much ) refinement.

I'd grab the phone and throw it out the window.

i guess it depends on how the conversation is going as to if they have an accident of not...
Honey...you slept with who?-- will cause bodily harm
oh Honey, yes ..oh...yes...--- will also cause bodily harm....

My wife totalled my 2000 Honda Accord last year in April when she made a left turn into the path of a Chevrolet Suburban that was going 45mph. She swears that she looked before she turned, started to turn and then WHAM-O. She was quite fortunate and suffered only minor injuries (a testament to the safety of airbags and Hondas).

I took the time to drive to the crash scene and noticed that she had a sightline of over half a mile so it would have been IMPOSSIBLE not to see the Suburban.

Yes, she was on the phone when she turned into the path of the Suburban. The police say that if she had turned a half second sooner she would be dead due to the dynamics of the crash. She was so intent on her phone conversation (and she was even using a hands free ear piece) that she could have DIED. If using a hands free phone can make you NOT see a Suburban headed your way at 45 mph imagine what dialing a phone must do!!!

Unfortunatly I have had many occasions when someone has drifted into my lane or sat at a green light while talking on a cell phone. So far I have not been involved in any accident related to them, but I am sure many have.

I for one would hang up on someone if I knew they were calling me while driving (except for the rare occasion where they are getting directions to someplace they don't know and then they should dial while parked.).

It should be illegal and it should be prime facie evidence of guilt in an accident.

Don't ya know that that's the only time people have to talk on the phone? *sarcasm* Some people, I swear, don't even make calls unless they are driving. It's crazy!! I can't even begin to count how many morons I see on cell phones who are so distracted that they don't see anyone around them.

Going 50 in the fast lane and not getting over.
Making a left turn into oncoming traffic.
Not going when the light turns green.
Merging without looking first.
Lane changes without looking first.

Most of the time I see this stuff it's people on cell phones. Pull over when you have to talk on the phone and quit putting everyone elses life in danger because your to good to pay attention to what you're doing.

About a year ago I was headed to work when the usual happened. I was in the fast lane about to head down a curve when I noticed that cars in the lane ahead of me had stopped for a dumptruck retrieving trash from the median. I managed to stop behind a Jeep with tinted windows with no problem and checked my rear view. Here comes a Ford F-250 like a BatOutOfHell, phone at his ear and no sign of stopping. Long story short, he hit me so hard that I bounced around like a pinball between him and the jeep, so long that both ends were crushed. The guy in front of me jumped out with his phone attached to his ear just like the guy behind me. They were both on their phones. In the police report, the guy in front said I hit him before the guy hit me. I was at a complete stop. The guy who hit me was a tow-truck driver, who knew the cop sent to straighten out the incident. This was a no-win situation. I'm just thankful that the Nissan Exterra was tough enough. If I had been in my wife's Civic Hybrid, I'd probably just be a spot in the road. Most people are reasonable but these 2 are on the top of my list of numbnutz.

The real problem is trying to do two things at once, with one of them being driving a car.

The only two reportable accidents I was ever in were caused by the other driver not paying attention because she was on the phone.

The first accident was in 1998. I was signaling a right turn from a highway into a driveway. The driveway was about 50 feet beyond an intersection with a side road on the left of the highway. Often, cars went around the cars waiting to turn left onto the side road on the shoulder. But the shoulder ends at the driveway, passing under the driveway in a culvert.

As I started to turn right into the driveway, the other car passed me on the right on the shoulder. Her rear quarter panel hit my front bumper from behind. My van was built like a tank, and suffered no damage. But it destroyed the plastic panel on the other car. I'm still trying to figure how the other car jumped the culvert. The trim strip from the other car was wrapped around the mailbox post of the house I was visiting.

The accident was caused by the fact that the other driver was on the phone, and didn't observe that I was signaling a right turn, instead of a left.

The second accident was in 2003, and put an end to that same van. I was driving straight ahead in the left lane of a three-lane one-way street. The light ahead of me turned green as I approached, and the driver of the other car, which had stopped for the light, turned left from the center lane, right in front of me. There was no way I could stop in time. After we hit, she drove away at high speed ,going the wrong way on the one-way street, and further damaging my vehicle. But she then came back.

This driver was also on the phone. She said that she had been in the left lane, but the position of my undrivable stopped vehicle showed otherwise.

In both cases, the drivers continued talking on the phones until the officers made them put their phones away. And in the case of the second accident, the phone kept ringing during the discussion.