CA to ban most popular form of entertainment in cars

YAY!

 

Even with the bluetooth thing in your ear, you're mind is not on the road as much as it should be. I'm not sure what the new law in CA will look like... most go for a hands free thing being ok. I think they should write it in the legislation that if your cell phone was active when you caused an accident, you are substantially more liable in both civil and criminal cases.

You drive down the tollways in Chicagoland, you see way too many people with no clue they are on the road. Cell phone in one ear, big goofy engaged in their conversation s-eatin grin on their face and one finger on the wheel.

You have a few people who can talk and drive ok and every single person claims to be that person... but we all know the other drivers really aren't paying attention because we all really know how much it distracts us when we are on the phone.

So, when you kill someone else by causing an accident while you were on the phone, jack up the seriousness by about 3 notches and go for the jugular. Maybe people start to see other people getting some real jail time for having killed that family of 5 when they should have been driving instead of talking, less people will have BS nonessential conversations while driving.

Every call I make while on the road is a choice... every one I answer is a choice, how long I stay on the phone is a choice.. I choose to talk and cause a crash while doing it and I should be responsible for that.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Arroyo @ Sep 15 2006, 12:44 AM) [snapback]319944[/snapback]</div>

They'll find it difficult to enforce this. The UK has had a national ban for some time and police have prosecuted a few offenders but on any journey of more than a couple of miles you'll see at least one driver using a hand-held phone. This law is like speed-limits, almost impossible to enforce properly. But then I suppose that applies to most laws.

 

The US government has already done this. On all military posts, it's now illegal to drive & use a cell unless it's hands-free, and the training posts have taken that one step further, banning its soldiers from using anything but hands-free while driving OFF post, as well. Harder to prosecute, but like seatbelt, adultery, and sodomy laws, they'll tack it on whenever you're busted for something else... (weird connection, I know, but think about it; it's true)

 

From what I've read, it's the mental distraction of talking on the phone more than having one hand occupied, that raises the liklihood of an accident. Likewise for other forms of distraction.

It would be hard to enforce a ban against hands-free phones, however, because it would be hard to spot. The hands-on phones would be easier to spot and give tickets for, but maybe the effect would be simply to push people towards the hands-free phones.

But I applaud any laws against cell phones while driving.

I give very high marks to the realtor who found me my house when I moved to Spokane: His phone rang a lot. When we were driving, he let the machine answer, and several times during the day, when we were stopped, he checked his messages. If it was his wife calling (which he knew from the distinctive ring tone) he found a safe place to park and called her back. Needless to say I liked him. Anyone buying a house in Spokane can PM me and I'll give you his name and number.

 

I doubt anyone would claim you are as safe talking on a cell phone while driving as you are not doing so of course. But, I've never been convinced by this. I think it more has to do with the news and the constant harping over the years on the issue. BTW - I do NOT drive while using a cell phone before you think I do...

Talking to someone in the other seat, telling kids to sit down, reaching in the back seat for kids, looking at your face (is it ready for work), combing hair, all sorts of things, probably hundreds cause equal distraction none of which are banned. So, for that reason, I've always been against such bans. It's just something to pick on.

Have not known anyone who was in an accident while talking on a cell (though obviously there are many examples I am not saying there are not), have known of accidents with other distractions. A niece of ours drove our car (silly us) and was reaching in the back seat and went off the road for example and wrecked the car.

For me, a ban on "unsafe driving practices" which is likely already in place is enough.

Sorry to buck the trend! I don't agree at all with such bans. They are just the popular thing of the day. Don't make logical sense though as is.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Godiva @ Sep 14 2006, 11:06 PM) [snapback]319952[/snapback]</div>

I'll double the size of that and raise you.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daronspicher @ Sep 15 2006, 03:02 AM) [snapback]319970[/snapback]</div>

This post just goes to show that no matter how differently we think about things in life, we all have something in common. Good post Daron. How I wish we could find common ground and build on it for our every day lives.

 

Considering how cutting edge on legistration California is supposed to be, I'm surprised it wasn't in place years ago.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Steve F @ Sep 15 2006, 10:01 AM) [snapback]320077[/snapback]</div>

I tend to agree here. No matter all the evidence to the contrary, some people continue to believe that you can legislate away careless behavior. You can't, for the most part.
By the way, the cell phone issue has some precedents. When window wipers were first proposed, it was a very controversial idea. Some people feared that the back and forth motion would hypnotize drivers, and thus be dangerous. The same goes with radios. This was also seen as a dangerous distraction by some, and thus inappropriate for a vehicle.

 

Compared to spiders I don't find my cell phone that distracting. The other day there was a very large spider (3" dia) on my outside rear view mirror tucked in and barely holding on at 65 mph. I figured I would just open the window a bit and take a rolled up piece of paper and knock it off. When I rolled down the window and I hit the spider it jumped onto the window and ran inside over my seat belt and onto the back door. I kept telling myself to pay attention and not worry about the spider. I got to the exit of freeway and pulled into the parking lot of a post office and found the spider on back door. I tried to swat it off but it ran to the outside of the open back door. Went around to outside and it ran inside. Did this inside outside thing a few times till I was able to swat it off the car. I must have looked like an idiot to people in the parking lot swatting my car with a rolled up magazine. Spiders should be banned from cars!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Oxo @ Sep 15 2006, 03:17 AM) [snapback]319972[/snapback]</div>

New York has had their version of this law since 2001 and they'd issued nearly 300,000 citations through May 2004. Still, reports in the news were that overall use of cell phones while driving was actually up after an initial drop.

Whenever I see anyone driving 10 mph slower than everyone else in the middle lanes on a freeway, they almost always have a phone pressed up against their ear. I encounter this so often I actually sprained my middle finger.

 

It is a total waste of time though. Are you going to spend billions of dollars for each and every device anyone could use passing new laws like we don't have enough already? Does that mean it is ok for me to mount an X-Box in the front seat so I can play while driving? After all, it doesn't ban that. I could rattle off HUNDREDS of things that would be unsafe. It's great for lawmakers to justify their existence, but, wasteful for taxpayers.

It's absurd to ban cell phones specifically and not anythng else that is distracting. While you guys are keying on cell phones just like the ignorant news media, I see people ALL THE TIME doing other things that are not safe as I am looking for them, you are looking for those evil cell phones only apparently.

If a driver is driving in an unsafe manner, which could be anything, that should be an offense. NOT limited to specific devices. Here in Dallas, I see people driving like manics without cell phones.

Again, don't get me wrong, cell phones can be very distracting. But so can hundreds if not thousands of other things. Ban them all, or, ban NONE.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Steve F @ Sep 15 2006, 01:18 PM) [snapback]320229[/snapback]</div>

I think the point is that cell phones are the most common form of distracted driving. They should pass and enforce laws against "distracted driving," leaving the concept fairly open, but cell phones deserve a special mention for occupying the number-one place in the list of distracted driving habits.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daronspicher @ Sep 15 2006, 03:02 AM) [snapback]319970[/snapback]</div>

Just because you are talking on a cell phone doesn't mean you caused an accident. You should be hit if using the phone caused an accident. This type of prosecution was done sucessfully against a person who was fiddling with their music and drifted into pedestrians.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(koa @ Sep 15 2006, 10:40 AM) [snapback]320165[/snapback]</div>

Let's write a law.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(miwaku @ Sep 15 2006, 03:24 AM) [snapback]319974[/snapback]</div>

They got adultery laws?

That should clear the highways faster than a Sobriety Inspection Checkpoint!

Combining the two:

Years ago it was possible to listen to mobile phones on a Bearcat scanner. I had it on at one in the morning and heard this guy call his wife at home. "Real bad accident on the I-5," he explained. "I'm likely to be tied up for an hour or so." She said she was in bed and would see him in the morning. "Love ya...."

Thirty seconds later the same guy makes a second call and a different woman answers. "I'll be over in ten minutes," he said.

If they caught him with his seatbelt off it would have been a trifecta under the new laws.

"Book him, Danno!"

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Stan57 @ Sep 16 2006, 07:56 AM) [snapback]320503[/snapback]</div>

When I was a teenager, a cop told me the most dangerous vehicle he could imagine was a car full of nuns. They had about zero hours of total driving experience, thought the good Lord would take care of them and couldn't see diddly with their heads back inside that cave of a veil they used to wear. And they're all numbing themselves into a coma reciting a group rosary.

In all the years since, whenever I came across such a car, I'd pull into the nearest bar to avoid the upcoming accident.

You have to do whatever is necessary to keep safe!