Drive Now, Talk Later

The 450 feet is supposed to be 50 feet. I accidentally hit two keys, and didn't notice until I had posted.

WHY CAN'T WE FIX MISTEAKS????

(Hey! Now we can! And I did!)

"Often, cars sent around the cars"

The word "sent" is supposed to be "went".

(fixed now that it is enabled)

We have seen a number of roads like this one and very suprised not to find alot of accidents the way people drive on them and they dont have to be on the phone either.

What ever happened to slowing down and waiting for someone to turn left instead of using the shoulder?

We were on Teton Pass going into Jackson Hole last year (very windy and hilly mtn pass from ID to WY) when a truck pulling a trailer was on the shoulder to allow people to pass him but there wasnt alot of room to pass (2 lane road in most places) and traffic was on the other side and people passed us just to get around him on a double yellow too. Gee too bad they didnt go over the embankment and down into the ravine!!! teton county sheriff doesnt care either so thank god for the WY Hwy patrol. Just imagine if these folks were on the phone and trying to negiotate these turns too.

I agree.

They paved the shoulder because cars going around in the dirt caused severe erosion.

But if the driver hadn't been on a cell phone, she would have seen that I was signaling a right, not a left.

Cell phoney drivers are something that I experience every day of my life. I sincerely believe that every person who drives while talking on a cell phone believes that he or she is the exception to the rule and can drive and talk just fine.

Those people don't see any problems driving while on the phone.

And why don't they see problems?

Because they're too distracted and unfocused to see the problems they and others like them are causing!!!

If I drive for a half hour in my neighborhood I will see on a typical day - people on cell phones driving and they are-

Stopping at a green light
Going through a red light
Not going when a light changes from red to green
Driving extra slowly and weaving with a trail of cars behind him/her
Swerving and not realizing they are causing someone else to maneuver to avoid an accident
In the fast lane and driving slowly
In the slow lane and driving quickly

to name a few...

P.S. AND why do cell phoneys have to talk on the phone when they are trying to park their SUV's?

Is there a moment in their lives that they might possibly want to stop and think about what they are actually doing in the area they are occupying?

Cell phoneys have a completely opposite philosophy from those who live a normal life.

Remember 'Be Here Now'? or Live for the moment?

Nowadays it is 'Please stand by. I'll get back to here & now when I get off my cell phone'

This summer (2007), 5 young girls were killed near Rochester NY. The driver's cell phone was in use at the time of the crash--for text messaging. The driver had just passed a truck.

These were recent high school graduates.

Very unfortunate, but how is that related to cell phone laws? NY state has had a law against handheld cell phones while driving since about 2000. I'm sure every state has laws against distracted driving that would cover texting while driving. Should there be specific laws to cover every possible distraction? Should I be prohibited from using my sound system (which has more controls than the space shuttle) while driving?

I didn't see any posts defending cell phone use in motor vehicles. I have to ask, why are cell phone blockers not legal in the US? I'd love to have one in my car to push the button any time I see idiocy in progress while driving.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20681742/

illegal to "txtndrv"

I drive a truck, '26-48' trailers, in local and down town (Portland, OR) traffic. Its VERY easy to tell when someone is on the phone before even seeing the phone. Very bad drivers. I'm thinking it would be a good idea to get kangaroo bumpers for our trucks. We should legally be able to push cell phone users off the road if they are driving dangerously. I use a Bluetooth head set so I'm not totaly against talking on the phone, just do it properly. I have been cut off MANY times by people on phone (and not). There heads never even turn your way before turning the car. I have gotten use to it, but people shouldn't have to over compensate for the idiots on the road.

But you better 'click it or ticket', so when the cell phone using driver runs into you, you're safe to get hit another day.

I think anyone seen talking on a cell phone while driving should be issued a ticket ... minimum $5,000.

Only exceptions... policy, firemen, paramedics.

People are STUPID with cell phones!!

Just yesterday I was stopped behind a car at a traffic light. The driver was on his cell phone. On the back of the car in big letters there was STUDENT DRIVER.

Modern cell phones have GPS receivers which are capable of measuring speed. The talking-while-driving problem could be solved by programming the phones to cut off when speed exceeds some threshold such as 10 mph. The only exception would be calls to 911.

I,am retire from mechanic job and drive a bus now. a can not wait until they pass a law that even blue tooth phones can not be used they still have their pea brain on talking. what about the people who is on the phone and looking at their gps sensor and they are only 2 miles from home. my grandfarther drove to florida in 1943 with a map. he let the passneger read it as he drove way can,t pass talk on the phone.
it is always the drive . I even seen them watching a movie on the dash . I hit the air horns and they shit themselfs.

I have not had an accident since before the cell phone age, but I have had maybe a half dozen close calls and I believe half of them involved the other driver on a cell phone.

It's perfectly possible to drive and talk with an acceptable level of safety. As pointed out, pilots do roughly the same thing every day.

The problem, IMO, is a failure of discipline and prioritization. When I was learning to fly, I was taught: "Aviate, navigate, communicate--IN THAT ORDER!" I use the same philosophy in driving: I've tossed the phone aside (without explanation) when presented with a novel or demanding traffic situation so that I might not be distracted. The problem arises when drivers want to assign higher priority to "not offending" their conversation partner that driving, with predictable results.

I've adopted a version of the "sterile cockpit" rule from aviation, which states all conversation during t/o, departure, approach and landing must be directly related to flight ops. I'll allow myself to talk fairly freely on a lightly-travelled interstate; however, I'd probably just ignore a ringing phone while driving in unfamiliar, urban traffic.

Wrong.

The problems with cell phone conversations are:

1. The conversation has nothing to do with driving (pilots are getting instructions on where to fly to avoid other planes, so the pilot argument is specious).

2. The person on the other end of the conversation is not in the car. (Someone in the car will see a developing traffic situation, and hopefully will shut up.)

The worst case is when the driver's boss is on the other end of the conversation, and is giving business instructions to an employee who is driving. And it is doubly dangerous if the boss is the kind who demands undivided attention.

Almost as bad is a salesman who is trying to make a sale on the cell phone, and is calculating figures for the deal while driving.

I'm sick and tired of the people who are so self-important that they block the intersection trying to squeee their way into the last little bit of a green light, thereby blocking those who actually do have the green. 9 times out of 10 I hit the red light at the busy intersection near my home and to pass time while waiting I count the number of people on their phones as they drive past me- it's unbelievable! WHAT in the world is everyone talking about?!! I passed a car that was going 50 mph on the freeway yesterday- the guy was READING the newspaper!! It's all fun and games until someone's day is ruined by losing their life because of someone else's stupidity.

Personally, I thing Bill Maher said it best:

"No answering the phone during sex. According to Ad Age magazine, 15% of Americans answer their cell phones during sex. Which is not only rude but dangerous because it interferes with your driving."

I ride a motorcycle regularly, and cell phone yakkers are just another of the many species of idiots trying to kill me. A soccer mom in a minivan with virtually no visibility, juggling three kids, a cell phone, and a hot latte is the kind of suicidal death threat Al Quaeda can only dream of.

However, back in the days before cell phones were widespread, I used to work on my Uncle's watermelon farm. (cue wavy flashback lines...)

There were many, MANY times when people would look DIRECTLY at me -- look me in the eye, even -- driving a huge bright red truck stuffed with 20,000 pounds of watermelons... and then calmly proceed as if they saw nothing but blue sky.

I have no idea how I avoided several gruesome wrecks with severed limbs and squashed watermelons flying everywhere. Any truck driver can tell you the same type of story -- narrow escapes from determinedly suicidal car pilots are just a many-times-daily part of the job.

Idiotic drivers are everywhere. Cell phones have just given them another weapon.

I also agree that driver education is a joke in the US. But God forbid we try to keep idiots from driving -- one core idiot belief is that they're all born with the ability to drive like Emerson Fittipaldi. So driver training or testing is obviously a complete waste of time...