Texting whilst driving

[Rupert_Baehr]

I used to live a few miles from I40 - a fairly busy Interstate. I40 had traffic but the road itself was nothing out of the ordinary. A few bends, but largely pretty boring.

 

Every week, the local newspaper would carry one or two articles with a headline similar to: 'Vehicle leaves the Interstate'. (As I said it was a pretty boring road and many vehicles seemed to get bored with staying on it.)

 

They were usually single-vehicle accidents; they usually involved a rollover (which usually involved a fatality) and somewhere in the text of the article would be the words "a cell-phone, turned on and active was found loose in the vehicle."

 

It happened on both sides of the river.

 

The governor of the state on the other side of the river said: "I've had enough of this!" and passed a law which says: "If you are caught using a cell phone while driving in Louisiana, you will be fined $1000."

 

The law is enforced, too.

 

That upset a lot of people: "We didn't know about that law!"

 

Well, you're supposed to know what the law is where you drive.

 

At $1000 a time, it's well worth enforcing. (He's made a lot of money out of that law - and possibly saved quite a few lives.)

 

If the fine for using a cell phone without a hands-free set was increased to, say, £1000 in the UK and the penalty for texting while driving was £1000 and 12 points, how long do you think it would take to persuade people to comply with the law?

Edited July 28, 2013 by Rupert_Baehr

[the_rudeboy]

I would have thought that young uns would be the worst culprits for phone use whilst driving but on my travels its nearly always 30 to 45ish year olds that are the worst for it.

I think the worst culprits for texting are young females.

[megalithic]

Bump the penalty up to 3 points and a grand fine. There's NEVER any cause to use a mobile whilst driving.

[vize]

we had a very nervous voyage from Longley to shiregreen as the taxi driver we had was watching tv (golf ) to be precise and at one point didn't take his eyes off his iphone for quite a while although we missed the bus the kerb took a beating Grrrrrr hate people like this !! textings bad but watching TV's worse =/!!

[PRESLEY]

we had a very nervous voyage from Longley to shiregreen as the taxi driver we had was watching tv (golf ) to be precise and at one point didn't take his eyes off his iphone for quite a while although we missed the bus the kerb took a beating Grrrrrr hate people like this !! textings bad but watching TV's worse =/!!

 

I wouldn't have paid, and let him call the police on his more important than life phone, then I would have gladly told the police why.

[megalithic]

Yup, should have reported the driver.

[vize]

yes I reported him to city taxi company driver 302 and they said they would investigate but I bet nothing will come of it =(

!!

[megalithic]

yes I reported him to taxi company and they said they would investigate!!

 

You should have reported him to the council mate.

[DT Ralge]

I have to agree with this after not wearing one in a serious accident probably saved my life.

The officer investigating the incident admitted that had I been wearing it I may have suffered serious injury or even death.

 

I still wear it for every journey but that thought always is in the back of my mind.

 

Seat belts are only good for a finite set of crash circumstances

 

But you can't tell which crash within the "finite set" you'll get involved in, can you? So you are best advised not to hedge your bets and wear it. Bear in mind that the humble belt has saved between 2000 and 2500 people per year.

Facts of the matter are that belts injure and are not a win-win. But add in airbags deploying and you are always best advised to wear a belt (airbag injuries with a belt happen but without a belt they are not pretty) so the "investigating officer" ought to be made to eat his/her speculative, unhelpful and wholly inaccurate words.

[R.A.N.D]

lets face it most of the idiots have a bird in the cavity there brian should reside in.