Distracted Driving – Are Your Drivers Violating the Law?

I always USED to pull over to the side of the road when I needed to answer/return a call.

Now I don't even answer it.

When I'm driving the only time I used my cell phone is my navigation. And that is a time saver, stress reliever as well as safer driving with traffic reports and up to date maps

I remember I used to plot my itinerary as a list before I left,

• 7 Miles, left on Hwy 29
• 63 miles keep right on 51
• and so on......

I miss a turn off and I was hosed.

I'm with you, I never answer while in an auto. In fact I don't even answer when a passenger. Let the guy drive without me yakkin'.

Whatever it is that they want, it'll wait.

My girlfriend complains that I don't answer the phone while out of the car either.

I tell her, if it makes you feel better, make believe its a land line.

Yeah, some of are old enough to remember when you didn't need to ask someone you just called "Hey where are ya at?" When he answered I already knew where he was, he was talking on an ivory colored phone that was bolted to the wall of his house!

That seems a hundred years ago, dunnit?

And facebook replaced party lines.......kinda.

this picture pretty funny though....

"Excuse me Officer, Can you wait till I finish eating?"

I feel like the law hasn't been as enforced lately as well as it should be.

Full disclosure, I received a ticket for texting while driving some years back. Since then, I put my phone in the glovebox while driving (or hand off to a passenger).

Every day, I drive past several cars on my way home from work that are talking on their cell phones (no, not the car talking, the driver inside). If police started doling out tickets like they used to, I suspect we'd start to see a curve in cell usage whilst driving. Of course, that's just my two cents.

It might have been Brazil, but one South American country banned cell phones while driving.

What was really amazing was that after the ban significantly more than 50% of those stopped by police for using a cell phone while driving turned out to be a fake cell phone!

So many people simply could not afford a cell phone, but the stigma of the image of talking on one was so great that many of those people resorted to buying fake phones so they could look "cool".

that sounds so odd, it could be true.

Wonder if they pick up discarded McDonalds bags and put them in the car also......

"Driving while using a cell phone reduces the amount of brain activity associated with driving by 37%."

For some drivers that would yield a negative brain activity quotient.

Sexist remark ahead:

I work in the downtown of the third largest city in Arizona. I spend a lot of time on the streets and I have 4 guys on golf carts out there, too. I'm truly appalled at the number of women I see every day, driving around trying to find an address or business while gabbing away on their cell phone. They are mostly oblivious to any pedistrian activity around them. Not to mention vehicles. They are certain that this is their God-given right, and are offended if anyone suggests that they put the phone down while driving.

OK, OK, I know guys do it too, but I assure you that women are far more loikely to do this.

The province in which I preside has banned hand-held devices while driving. The police busted a lot of people in the first few weeks the ban was implemented but now you don't hear any statistics. I too have seen lots of people ignore the ban. Ticks me off to no end that these bozos even think that their right to use a hand-held while driving trumps my expectations of a safe trip.

A couple of years ago, I was on a freeway in my city. I passed a woman in a minivan. No, I wasn't speeding. She was driving slow because: 1. She had the streering wheel tilted up as far as it could go. 2. She had a magazine open on the steering wheel. 3. She had a burger in one hand, flipped pages with the other and used the inside of her left knee to steer.

All this at 80kmh. It took all my strength to resist the urge to b*tchslap her at the next stop light.

<facepalm>

Texting While Driving Causes:

1. 1,600,000 accidents per year - National Safety Council
2. 330,000 injuries per year - Harvard Center for Risk Analysis Study
3. 11 teen deaths EVERY DAY - Ins. Institute for Hwy Safety Fatality Facts
4. Nearly 25% of ALL car accidents

Texting While Driving Is:

1. About 6 times more likely to cause an accident than driving intoxicated
2. The same as driving after 4 beers - National Hwy Transportation Safety Admin.
3. The number one driving distraction reported by teen drivers

Texting While Driving:

1. Makes you 23X more likely to crash - National Hwy Transportation Safety Admin.
2. Is the same as driving blind for 5 seconds at a time - VA. Tech Transportation Institute
3. Takes place by 800,000 drivers at any given time across the country
4. Slows your brake reaction speed by 18%- Human Factors & Ergonomics Society
5. Leads to a 400% increase with eyes off the road

Sadly this habitual behavior involves young & old, rich & poor, black / white / red / brown, public citizens as well as law enforcement / EMT / firefighters.

"Ticks me off to no end that these bozos even think that their right to use a hand-held while driving trumps my expectations of a safe trip." Ithink that reframes the issue pretty well- we do have an expectation of a safe trip. Milo

Is the law defined so narrowly even in an advanced country like USA? Kindly note carefully the words used - "Talking on handheld cell phone" - can cause accidents due to distraction.

That is why some manufacturers came up with devious ways - of fitments in cars where you can keep talking without using your hands. Internal car speakers get turned on, microphone is far away - but can pickup your voice. Police cannot detect. BUT you still get distracted and can cause accidents. Law makers should concentrate on the word DISTRACTION and punish use of nay means causing distraction- just HAND-HELD phones.

We have pedestrians using mobile phones- tenting, reading messages, and using headphones and listening to FM tunes while crossing road or rail tracks and have got killed. Who is responsible? Should manufacturers or scientists who introduce such products also take responsibility? Take the example of tobacco in cigarettes - manufacturers raked huge profits and now tobacco is being banned. Still a small percentage is not able to give up smoking in spite of the ban and manufacturers continue to manufacture for that small market.

Similarly can we ban manufacturers providing features in cars to use mobile phones- hands free? Even this can cause distraction. People use headphones while driving 2 wheelers and still keep talking continuously while driving- without concentrating on the road. Is this acceptable?

I have not used it while driving yet but, my new car has Bluetooth connected cell phone and voice activated calling. Activation buttons are on the steering wheel. I will pull over to make calls if necessary. Otherwise the phone is not used except in emergency situations...as are the mobile radios that are installed in many of my vehicles.

It not only the distract to operating the device, it's also the distraction require to engage in the conversation. There is a line on any accessory with in the car that can be posed as a distraction, and to a degree there is, radio, A/C, Heater, GPS, ect..... And what is acceptable.

All very good points, I guess it comes down to common sense - or lack there of.

People have become so used to multitasking that this mindset has sadly made its way into of all things ........... driving 4000+ pound objects - at high speed - in close proximity to - other large, heavy, fast moving objects.......... INSANE.

** An Extra 1,000 Pounds Increases Crash Fatalities by 47%

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I've contacted our states H.E.A.T. department (below) but I haven't received a reply yet....

For the first time in the history of highway safety the Georgia Governor's Office of Highway Safety has created a multi-jurisdictional task force to address aggressive and impaired driving in Georgia. Originally, three officers from six counties and the City of College Park and the City of Atlanta came together to form a team of twenty-four officers to form H.E.A.T. Since this formation, the H.E.A.T. team has continued to grow with agencies being added across the state each month.

THE GOALS

* Reduce the number of impaired driving crashes in Georgia by 10%.

* Enforce laws targeting Aggressive Driving around Georgia

WHAT IS H.E.A.T.?

H.E.A.T. is designed to educate the public and enforce laws related to impaired and aggressive driving. Each officer is armed with materials to educate Georgia citizens about our laws related to aggressive and impaired driving. Education and enforcement must go hand in hand if we are to be successful in reducing the number of crashes, fatalities and injuries on our highways.

Multi-tasking, thats funny. I think allot of people think they're good at multi-tasking until they actually add up the time to do that tasks and compare it to doing it individually. I will give in to those that are better than others. But that's it.

Holding a mobile phone whilst driving is an offence throughout the UK & has been for a few years. Using a hands free device is allowed. Despite this you see people driving with a phone held to their ear almost every day. Banning the practice is one thing, enforcing it is another problem entirely.

Banning the practice is one thing, enforcing it is another problem entirely.

We have the same problems in this country, only how the politician we elect deal with it is by creating more laws that will not be enforced.