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08/30/09
Also texting while driving is fucking moronic.
08/30/09
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08/30/09
I think that is absolutely wonderful. I can't fucking stand people who text while driving. You might as well pound a pint of vodka and put a blindfold on.
08/30/09
Fines are the punishment for doing things like this, not prison. We have far too many people in prison already.
08/30/09
The prison terms are not for "being stupid" but rather for acting in an avoidable manner which led to devastating conclusions.
If I lived in Utah, i'd be very please (not because I live in Utah, but because of this law).
08/30/09
It is in my small opinion that some are more naturally suited to multitasking and in turn texting/talking/changing radio stations while driving than others. I text while driving, and will continue to do so, until it is illegal in my state. I am very selective as to when I do and know the stiuations where it is beyond my multitasking abilites.
08/30/09
So, what you're saying is, because you can do it safely, then everyone is able to do it safely? There shouldn't be a law passed because you don't like it?
And, just for the record, the problem isn't what happens when YOU crash and burn. The law and people have no problem with idiots that have suicidal behavior. The law is passed to prevent you from hurting other people when you crash and burn. If you run into a tree while texting and driving, nobody cares, but if you hurt other people while doing it, that makes you a felon (or murderer).
08/30/09
Or until you crash and die. Sorry, but if your eyes are on your phone, they're not on the road. Things can get hairy VERY quickly at highway speeds - in the time it takes for you to look down at your phone, type a couple letters, and look up again, you could be right up in somebody else's rear bumper.
It's not so much about how many things you're able to do at one time as it is about awareness of your surroundings and the ability to react extremely quickly.
08/30/09
There is no universal 'this is unsafe' measurement for humans because they (pay attention here) are not all the same. The ability to FOCUS attention on the most important aspects of driving while SIPHONING a portion of unused attention to other tasks is a learned process, but is not impossible.
Attention is finite, but driving does not always require all of it. That is all.
08/30/09
08/30/09
However, there are a great many people who can't handle it. And the law does have to be universal. We either let everybody text while driving or we don't. And so a law like this protects us from the people who can't handle it.
So maybe you're an amazingly coordinated and responsible person who can text at traffic lights and in bumper-to-bumper traffic, and who knows that it's not a good idea in heavy traffic at 70 mph. I commend you for this, and if everybody were like that I'd be the first to agree that a law like this is unnecessary. but everybody is NOT like this, and therefore we need a law to protect us from being maimed or killed by them.
08/30/09
It takes a split second worth of attention loss for something terrible to happen. That siphoned amount of attention you use to send a text could cost me my life.
08/30/09
08/30/09
I think, having lived in both the US and Europe, that we in Europe, believe it or not, are getting better coverage of what is going on in the US politically than Americans get. I really hope you guys start to make demands to you government soon. Go on strike, protest, anything. Just stop believing and start being skeptical. Ask uncomfortable questions. Trust me it works in the long run.
Anyway. Hope i didn't come of as anti-American. I'm not.
Cheers!
08/30/09
08/30/09
I could provide countless examples for and against this argument, but that wouldn't accomplish anything. I'd much rather talk about the LACK of punishment for violent offenders. Taking the life of a person is a very serious offense, regardless if it is involuntary manslaughter or murder. The difference is that when driving we are already presented with numerous distractions. Traffic accidents are called that for a good reason: they are accidents.
Now, I am not justifying texting, drinking, or any other activity that further distracts you from guiding your two-ton death machine on the road each day. I am simply saying that we are all guilty of being distracted while on the road, whether it be the singing along to the radio, gazing at the hot rod that just drove by, or thinking about the crappy day we've had. These are very REAL distractions that don't require our hands to be removed to from the steering wheel, but can still have detrimental effects on our ability to drive.
I know a lot of you folks feel that 15 years isn't enough, especially if someone's life has been lost, but you must still remember one thing: we are all humans and as humans we make mistakes. Imagine being locked away for 15 years of your life for an honest mistake. There are murders and rapists who serve far less than 15 years, and they had the intent to be violent. To say that someone had the intent to hurt someone while driving and texting is outright ludicrous.
Please don't categorize dumb decisions with murder and rape.
08/30/09
An honest mistake that might lead to someone's death while driving is overreacting to a situation on the road, like swerving to avoid one accident and inadvertently causing another.
08/30/09
08/30/09
or eating a taco thats fine too?
or reading the news paper?
shaving?
or doing my make up? (hey i like to look nice for the ladys don't ask)
or hitting my stupid fighting kids in the back seat?
or reading a map?
or changing radio station?
yea texting is dangerous, but why not just have a fucking law that says if your "Distracted while driving" people do a ton of dumb shit on the road while driving it doesn't make the roads any safer by just limiting texting.
id love to see some of the statistics from crashes to see if there's been a spike in crashes that correlates to the number of text messages sent.
08/30/09
I agree. This is similar to the idea that video games cause obesity. Video games are not to blame. Obesity, in such cases, is caused by a 'sedentary lifestyle.' You might as well just ban couches and books because they can be 'abused' just as well.
08/30/09
I mean, to think that Net Neutrality should even be an issue is absurd, but unfortunelately i gotta write a letter to me crooked-ass congressman telling him not to mess with the Interwebz.
08/30/09
Let's take your exmple: you've just demonstrated an incomplete understanding of the whole 'net neutrality issue. Left to their own devices, the ISPs aren't going to keep the 'net neutral. There's too much money to be made by fiddling with connection speeds and promoting some websites over others. So there needs to be regulation that prevents them from doing this. So really, you ought to be writing your congressman and telling him or her that they should mess with the internet and keep it neutral.
But to get back to the texting vs. driving issue... I'm guessing you haven't been driving long enough to see or experience exactly how fast something can go wrong when you're driving. Sure, you can go years without anything happening, but it only takes one tiny instant of inattention to make contact with another vehicle. That one instant can drastically change or end a life before you even know what's happening. And the reason for a law like this is to keep idiots like you from doing that to other people.
08/30/09
(Also, I have to write the letter cuz my congressman voted against it, Wonderful).
08/31/09
I don't think there should be a special law banning texting while driving. Nor banning talking on a cell phone while driving. There should be strong laws against distracted driving, with particular application to persons driving in a visibly unsafe manner, whether or not that person is involved in an accident.
So whether you're distracted by changing the radio station, or dunking your chicken nuggets in BBQ sauce, or texting on your phone, or even looking over your shoulder at the kids fighting in the back seat, if you exhibit erratic behavior you should get a hefty penalty. Singling out texting is just giving in to moral panic about one facet of a much larger problem.
08/30/09
08/30/09
That's all rather tragic, but nevertheless, you should not have to go to PRISON for fifteen years for rear-ending someone while texting.
people get in crashes while texting because they either cannot multi-task, or because they have little self control. Texting is not what's killing people.
08/30/09
This activity is inherently dangerous. If you can't wait the 5 minutes or 50 minutes or 5 hours it takes to get to your destination then something very sad is going on. While I am torn by 15 years I also think about lives and families destroyed, not because someone could not "multitask" but because they could not wait the short amount of time it took to get to their destination before they sent that all important text or tweet or e-mail. . .
I was coming home from a wedding last night and while stopped at a red light I looked around to find out where that damn loud music was coming from. Next to me were two young ladies in a car with the music BLARING. Low and behold they were texting. Both faces illuminated while they looked down at their phones. They were in the exact same position. I thought to myself that they must be texting one another because they simply could not hear each other over the loud ass music. I also thought to myself, "can't you just simply wait for a while?" "Can't you talk to one another? You are sitting not one foot away from another flesh and blood individual. . . . " Technology is a wonderful thing but it does change who and what we are and not always for the better.
By the way. . . people criminally prosecuted all the time for "lack of self control." ONE EXAMPLE: Just ask the men and women who go to jail because they have shaken their baby to death. It seem that they just could not stand to hear it crying anymore. . .
08/30/09
Drivers Ed. was a complete waste of my time when I was 16. I had already spent lots of time riding dirtbikes and doing other outdoor activities that train you to pay attention to more than one thing at a time. I learned all I needed to know about the rules of the road from watching other drivers before I had my own license... and yes I do mean both what the rules are and what rules MOST drivers fail to follow... which is just as important if not more so in driving defensively.
08/30/09
My point being that we already have laws about remaining in control of your vehicle. If you don't maintain control and get into an accident and kill someone. It is still manslaughter and a ticket.
DUI Laws are different and I agree with them, but a texting law is unnecessary. Missouri is even worse as it only applies to those under 21 years old, as if you are perfectly capable of texting and driving just because you are old enough to drink and drive.
texting and driving is stupid but no worse than any other bad choice people make while driving.
08/29/09
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08/29/09
Nice how things work themselves out
08/29/09
08/29/09