Movement to ban text messaging while behind the wheel gathers steam

[KRonn]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32584570/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/

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Cops, lawmakers send message: Dnt txt & drive
Movement to ban text messaging while behind the wheel gathers steam

Risk research only now emerging
It might seem obvious that using a cell phone would be a distraction for a driver, but only recently has a large body of research emerged to demonstrate it. There is even less research examining the specific risk of typing out text messages.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration concluded that in 2002 that a quarter-million accidents and 955 deaths could be attributed to drivers' use of cell phones, either texting or talking. That research was finally obtained by safety activists last month under the Freedom of Information Act — after it had sat on the shelf for years, The New York Times reported, because of concerns that publishing it might appear to be an act of political lobbying.

[Caliga]

I sometimes write emails at red lights.

[DGuller]

I sometimes write emails at red lights.

Do you stop, at least?

[Caliga]

errr... yes. 

[Ed Anger]

As long as blowjobs ain't banned while driving.

[Josephus]

About time, IMO.

The other day I actually saw in the lane beside me, on the highway, a young girl with a book on her steering wheel.

[garbon]

My state might be collapsing but we already did this.

P.S. Bans don't really work that well. I still see people holding their cell phones in their hands in the car, even though it is illegal.

[Zanza]

We had that for five years or so. Talking on the phone is also only permitted with a hands free set.

[MadImmortalMan]

We had that for five years or so. Talking on the phone is also only permitted with a hands free set.

Now we're finding out the hands-free thing doesn't really help.

[Zanza]

Now we're finding out the hands-free thing doesn't really help.

It's much better though. You don't have to look at the phone and can dial by voice. While it is of course still distracting, it is not more distracting than talking to a passenger IMHO.

[garbon]

I don't find holding a phone against my head to be very distracting.

[Josephus]

Now we're finding out the hands-free thing doesn't really help.

It's much better though. You don't have to look at the phone and can dial by voice. While it is of course still distracting, it is not more distracting than talking to a passenger IMHO.

Actually it is.

Here's why.

If you're in a car, driving. And you're talking to a passenger sitting next to you, that passenger is aware of your surroundings. If she can see by the driving conditions outside (slippery ice, perhaps), or by the fact that yuo're not paying attention to her cause some idiiot driver in front of you is swerving in between lanes, she is going to stop talking.

Someone on the other end of a phone, has no idea what your driving conditions are like and will keep yapping even if you're about to smack into a 10-ton truck.

[garbon]

Of course, if you go with that, you might think that one should always have a passenger as two sets of eyes are better than one.

Also, when I'm driving and something bad is going down, I say "Let me call you back, tough driving" and many people I know do the same.

[Josephus]

Well, we all know you are perfect, Garbon.

But by the time any other driver, other than you, says: "Let me call you back, tough driving"; that driver could have slid over a patch of ice, been unable to steer properly, sliding at 120 Km/H with one hand, and smacked into the back of a truck; while the person on the other end is saying, "So really, I was thinking about asking her out but her breas...hello? You still listening? What was that noise? Sounded like a steering wheel crashing though ribs. Hello?"

[garbon]

Drop the phone then.

Besides, I'm hardly perfect. I do have one totaled car to my record.