OUR OPINION: Cars crash despite texting, phone bans
December 13, 2011 at 6:04 pm in Grand Forks Herald
Before we ban a tool that motorists find useful and convenient, let’s make sure the ban would work. Continue Reading
OUR OPINION: Cars crash despite texting, phone bans
5 Comments
What utter dreck, Cell phones and texting are well know root causes for crashes, accidents and near misses while driving. Often killing other people in the process.
Texting does need to be made a crime while driving. Would you compose a Letter to the Editor while driving? Do your English homework while driving? Work on that report that is due this morning while driving?
Of course not. What is different about texting? Not a whole lot.
The human brain is not designed to multitask. It has to switch between whatever tasks your are doing and that takes time. Time that severely cuts into your reaction time. When you try to multitask, your error also rate goes up because you are not giving your full attention to any one task.
When you are behind the wheel of a moving vehicle, you have one job: Do it safely. How can you do that when your mind and eyes are focused somewhere else?
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The comment above is COMPLETELY the wrong attitude.
The problem is not cell phone use or “texting”, the problem is collisions. There’s already legal remedies when collisions happen. We don’t need to ban specific activities that MIGHT lead to a collision. All we need to do is assure that the at-fault party is financially responsible for the aftermath, and the existing laws and procedures do a reasonable job of that.
What’s next–a ban on eating french fries while driving? A ban on drinking bottled water while driving? How many “other” distractions can we legislate against? How many laws can be created to restrict our lives?
Nope. All we need is to legislate against the collision, the cause is unimportant.
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While i am not a fan of Government involvement in peoples lives, i wholeheartedly disagree with your statement that says “All we need to do is assure that the at-fault party is financially responsible for the aftermath” If someone is texting while driving and they cross the center line and kill my son or daughter do you really believe i am worried about a financial settlement? This is not about money, this is about protecting others from peoples stupidity. If the only bad thing to happen in a collision was the death of the person texting then knock yourself out. Its the innocent bystanders that are being protected here. My right to freedom ends at the point where it infringes on yours and i believe your right to text and drive does not trump my right to return to my family safely at night. The roads are for traveling not socializing.
I would accept your plan of no ban on texting, eating, and drinking if you accept my plan of instituting an immediate death sentence to the individual that caused the death of an innocent person. That leaves the decision up to the individual and everyone will know that if a person dies because of your decision to text and drive, that you will suffer the same fate.
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Seems to me 3000 dead in 2010 in collisions where cell phones were in use is enough evidence for. the ban on phones while driving.
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I’m not worried about me but the other guy. The dangers of driving a motor vehicle isn’t anything to take for granted. Very few of us, outside of a state trooper, understands what happens when the momentum of a vehicle is no longer under the driver’s control. Try losing control in a snowstorm and see what happens.
Personally I love talking on the cell phone while driving. It means I’m not wasting time just driving. However, I think they should be banned so that others, or me, don’t needlessly kill or injure others.
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