Driving and texting

[christim]

I saw this video a while ago. Good message. Made this thread a sticky as anyone driving should see it. If you are a passenger and the driver is texting tell them it ain't cool and to stop. If you are the driver...it still isn't cool. Stop. It isn't worth it.

 

[pc747]

I emailed that video to everyone I know.

 

[THier]

WOW,,, Horrible video,,, but great message. EVERY driver in the world should watch it.

Here is the crazy thing,, in many areas it is illegal to talk on cell phone,,, unless you are a cop,,, tell me this,, what makes a cop so special? They are human,, and many have MUCH less driving experience than a lot of other people. I have been driving for about 30 years, over a million miles under my belt. Zero accidents that were my fault. One ticket, (very early in my driving life). I used to run a sand drag Jeep,, in mud and sand, (less than ideal conditions) why is a twenty one year old cop a better driver than me, and folks like me?

I see cops talking and texting, or typing on their Tough book while weaving all over the place.

 

[Vulcan1600]

Friendly reminder.....no politics allowed in the forums.

 

[NeverEndingXsin]

Being that i am only 19 i definitely approve of this, yes im a teenager, and yes i have been tempted to text and drive, but its just way too dangerous and the last thing i wanna do is put my life or another persons life at risk.

bravo Michigan

 

[DC4MVP]

Texting while driving is pure idiotic. I drive tractor/trailer on occasion when we have to move some of our heavy equipment from job site to job site. You simply do not understand how stupid some of these kids are.

I'm behind the wheel of 25,000 pound truck/trailer as it is. Now, add a CAT 950H loader to the trailer and that adds another 40,000 pounds

I'm driving down the freeway with 65,000 pounds and all day I see these morons swerving in the lanes, going ten under the speed limit, and slamming on their breaks because they didn't see a slow down all because they were busy texting.

With my 65,000 pound rig, if that person swerves into me or slams on their breaks in front of me going from 70 mph down to 30 mph and I can't stop or move in time...the odds are they're going to be seriously hurt or die. Even a rear ending...no car will stand a chance against that rig.

Now, imagine someone from the opposite direction swerving into my lane? They won't stand a chance. And to be completely frank, if I see a car coming fight for me when I'm behind that rig, I'm not going to be trying to swerve out of the way or nothing simply because if it's a head on crash against a car, odds are that I'll make it through the crash

However, if I try and swerve out of the way and I lose control, the odds of me getting hurt or killed sky rockets.

It's going to sound callus as hell, but I'd rather go home to my family that night rather than you so I'm doing everything I can to protect myself rather than you.

And what's sad...I'd probably walk away without a scratch from that wreck.

Oh, and keep in mind...65,000 pounds is considered a "light load." We still have another 15,000 pounds before we hit the legal limit of 80,000 lbs until we need a permit.

I see it everyday. Texting and driving. Just don't do it. I want to get home to my family and I'm sure you do as well.

EDIT: Here's pictures of what a typical rigs looks like.

One with a CASE 1121 loader on the back which is bit bigger than the size of a CAT 950. Keep in mind, the 950's are probably the smallest loaders we run and those alone weigh just over 40,000 lbs. This CASE is probably at 64,000 lbs.

Here's one with a CAT 325 excavator. Also, the 325 in considered small. We typically don't run anything below a 330. Most common will be 345's and 365's.

I REALLY hope my examples put a little fear into you.

 

[jasonppp]

i drive tractor trailor myself my biggest load total weight 78'500, it isnt just the four wheelers not paying attention to the road. in my instance sometimes the 18 wheeler is messing with more extravagant items. ie.... laptop, gps, cb, tv and much more. i have seen this in action i drive once in awhile i would say i drive maybe 12 hours a week in the summer. and 36 hours in the fall to spring. i am not saying your one of them you prolly are an experienced and intuitive driver and prolly dont do none of the above.

this is why i drive so little this is the heavy load

this is the light load

i just move the loads ie.. setup teardown and drive

these examples are not even our biggest load which require 3 day permit to move

all drivers just need to pay attention to the road more and the toys less

and to you four wheelers out there the little red flashing light on either side of the 53' + trailor. is usually a very important sign plz pay attention more

 

[Taegost]

Michigan's ban on texting while driving went into affect at 12:01 this morning. It's a primary offense, meaning they don't need any other reason to pull you over and ticket you, $100 first offense, $200 for second. I could not be happier!!! Unfortunately, I think it will be a long time before they ban phone calls. Can't come soon enough!

While I strongly agree that texting while driving is about as stupid as you can get, I see nothing wrong with driving and talking on the phone if you are on a hands free device.

What do you want to do next? Make it illegal to have a conversation with a person sitting with you in the car? I think that's more dangerous then talking on the phone. How often do you turn your head to talk to someone? Don't play the radio?

Somethings people just take too far.

A couple years ago, Connecticut banned "anything that will distract you from the act of driving". The law is very ambiguous, and they can pull you over and ticket you for something as innocent as changing the volume on the radio, or drinking a coffee.

 

[jsh1120]

lol - germans fell for propaganda in the 1930's too.... "protect us big governement from ourselves, we are unable to do it on our own."

[mod delete - no politics]

Texting while driving and laws like this are why I have limo tint on my vehicle bwahahaha....



I think the biggest issue in that video wasn't texting, it was driving while being a teenager.

Unfortunately, Hook, there is a mountain of research that indicates a hands free phone is no safer than carrying on a conversation with a phone in the hand. And each is far more dangerous than talking to someone else in your car.

there was also research that said windsheild wipers should be banned because they distracted drivers back in the early 1900's.....there was research that said the Jews were to blame for Germany's problems post WWI.... there was plenty of research that said smoking cigs isn't dangerous, there's plenty of research that says Global warming is real....

Research is not always right.


All this law is going to do is make people text with their phones down in their laps as opposed to up above the dash.... which is more dangerous.... I argue, looking down as opposed to having it in the line of sight of the road. but whatever, your nanny state doesn't affect me...

Uh, pointing out erroneous research is not an valid attack on research in general. But feel free to remain ignorant; it's your right.

Otherwise, try googling the topic and you'll find results like these...

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]University of Kansas psychology professor Paul Atchley, has also studied hands free technology. "Hands free devices are probably only safer under very limited circumstances. My own work uses hands-free devices, and we see reductions in attention in 20 year-old drivers that reduces their attention to the level we might see in an 85 year-old driver," he says.
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[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Barry H. Kantowitz, director of the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute, also believes cell phones pose a serious hazard to safe driving. He says he doesn't hold out much hope for hands-free devices because they don't reduce the amount of concentration required to process a phone conversation.
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[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Donald Redelmeier and Robert Tibshirani of the University of Toronto, authors of a frequently cited 1997 New England Journal of Medicine paper on cell phone distraction, reported that hands-free phones offered no large safety advantage over hand-held phones. They postulated that the main factor in a collision might be a driver's limitations in attention rather than his or her dexterity. They also thought that hands-free phones might provide drivers with a false sense of security that might cause them to expose themselves to greater risk than if they had a hand-held phone.
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[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]http://www.roadandtravel.com/safetyandsecurity/handsfreecellphone.htm[/FONT]


P.S. Yes, there is a mountain of research indicating global warming is real. And that's because it is.

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[dlwhtrose]

Arizona also has a no texting law. The problem with the no texting laws are that they are not enforced. In addition, us droid users that do not use voice dialing sometimes give off the appearance that we are texting when we are trying to dial. Since owning my droid I have stopped calling out and of course I never text while driving. If I have to make a call I dial while I am at a light then I use the speaker phone to talk. Ironically my teenage daughter showed me this video back when it came out. She found it and took it to her school administrators. She pushed to have it shown in its entirety at one of their safety assemblys.

 

[TJH_RULZ]

There's nothing funny about anything eliassami5 - bravo for Michigan passing the law like California already has. Unfortunately PA does not yet have a texting law on the books. This is a very disturbing, but very worthwhile video to watch because after watching it, you'll have a constant reminder if you ever do decide to text and drive.

Last year a 19 year old girl was texting and driving, went through a 4 way stop and broadsided a fellow motorcycle rider and his wife who was riding on the back. It killed his wife and the 19 year old girl's life is ruined - manslaughter charges. This was such a senseless thing, wife dead and 19 yr. old in jail. I am also an avid motorcycle rider and constantly dodging weaving cars. I have much less of a chance to live on my bike than I do in my Jeep.

Although the video is very graphic, I appreciate the fact that you posted it ricks.

Where i am at in PA it is illegal to use your cellphone on a highway or within city limits. oh and just because research says its safer to talk to the person next to you doesn't mean it is, all you have to do is make it trick enough people or put it in there head then it will never die.
I mean come on you can do anything with numbers example i can make 1=2 see

• Step 1: -1/1 = 1/-1
• Step 2: Taking the square root of both sides:
  
• Step 3: Simplifying:
  
• Step 4: In other words, i/1 = 1/i.
• Step 5: Therefore, i / 2 = 1 / (2i),
• Step 6: i/2 + 3/(2i) = 1/(2i) + 3/(2i),
• Step 7: i (i/2 + 3/(2i) ) = i ( 1/(2i) + 3/(2i) ),
• Step 8:
  
  ,
• Step 9: (-1)/2 + 3/2 = 1/2 + 3/2,
• Step 10: and this shows that 1=2.

 

[96accord]

I text while @ traffic lights... I know it's still bad.. I'm sure every once in a while I will text while driving...

 

[Natolx]

Michigan's ban on texting while driving went into affect at 12:01 this morning. It's a primary offense, meaning they don't need any other reason to pull you over and ticket you, $100 first offense, $200 for second. I could not be happier!!! Unfortunately, I think it will be a long time before they ban phone calls. Can't come soon enough!

While I strongly agree that texting while driving is about as stupid as you can get, I see nothing wrong with driving and talking on the phone if you are on a hands free device.

What do you want to do next? Make it illegal to have a conversation with a person sitting with you in the car? I think that's more dangerous then talking on the phone. How often do you turn your head to talk to someone? Don't play the radio?

Somethings people just take too far.

Unfortunately, Hook, there is a mountain of research that indicates a hands free phone is no safer than carrying on a conversation with a phone in the hand. And each is far more dangerous than talking to someone else in your car.

The reason for this counter-intuitive result appears to be that when you are talking to someone else in your car that person is experiencing the same environment you are. The conversation pauses naturally as each participant observes the traffic conditions and adjusts almost subconsciously to those stimuli.

When you are speaking to someone over a phone, whether held or hands-free, the other person does not adjust to those conditions and encourages you to ignore them as well while you try to put your mind into the conversation.

I know I personally am FAR more distracted from driving when I have a person in the car I'm talking to than when talking on the phone. This is rated on the number of "close calls" where I have to catch myself, which is to say I can't recall a single time I had a close call while on the phone and have had plenty of "close calls" when having an engaging conversation with someone in the passenger seat(and no I'm not looking at them). I realize this is anecdotal evidence with a sample size of 1 but at least for me the research is totally bunk.

 

[jsh1120]

Where i am at in PA it is illegal to use your cellphone on a highway or within city limits. oh and just because research says its safer to talk to the person next to you doesn't mean it is, all you have to do is make it trick enough people or put it in there (sic) head then it will never die.
I mean come on you can do anything with numbers example i can make 1=2 see

• Step 1: -1/1 = 1/-1
• Step 2: Taking the square root of both sides:
  
• Step 3: Simplifying:
  
• Step 4: In other words, i/1 = 1/i.
• Step 5: Therefore, i / 2 = 1 / (2i),
• Step 6: i/2 + 3/(2i) = 1/(2i) + 3/(2i),
• Step 7: i (i/2 + 3/(2i) ) = i ( 1/(2i) + 3/(2i) ),
• Step 8:
  
  ,
• Step 9: (-1)/2 + 3/2 = 1/2 + 3/2,
• Step 10: and this shows that 1=2.

That, however, is not "research." And frankly, I'm inclined to take the word of folks who know the difference between "there" and "their."

P.S. -1(-1) = 1.

 

[jsh1120]

I know I personally am FAR more distracted from driving when I have a person in the car I'm talking to than when talking on the phone. This is rated on the number of "close calls" where I have to catch myself, which is to say I can't recall a single time I had a close call while on the phone and have had plenty of "close calls" when having an engaging conversation with someone in the passenger seat(and no I'm not looking at them). I realize this is anecdotal evidence with a sample size of 1 but at least for me the research is totally bunk.

And that's why science is not based on sample sizes of 1.