Texting & Driving
 

One of our VP's sent this out. Our group has committed to not email or text while driving. I am guilty of it, no more.
Please watch especially those out here with children old enough to drive.

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Video's blocked, but I've always like this:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1267132720.jpg

Try this...

Texting While Driving


It works

powerful.

girl almost hit me the other day while texting. I think she would have bounced off my 31s and ran off the road.

I've done it. Realized I was all over the road one time. Kind of surprised myself at how off-course I got. Haven't done it since.

I've read a text but never wrote one. Even trying to hold the phone while driving is a challenge with a manual transmission so I bought a bluetooth headset. One of the best things I've ever bought. I keep it in the car.

It should be perfectly legal to shoot texting drivers in moving vehicles in the face with a .357 magnum.

Don't do it...please!
 

I had have so many near misses on our highways and freeways here....kids are usually the culprits (but not always - the guys in suits aren't much better). I can see them in my rearview mirror texting away or beside me doing the same. Their eyes are not on the road. Instead they are gawking at their bloody phone. I have lost count of the number of times I have made the split second decision to take drastic evasive action to avoid being hit at over 100kph... Texters are just not aware behind the wheel...

It's illegal now to even hand hold your phone down here. Must be in a secure cradle or connected to bluetooth/handsfree. Lots of restrictions as to usage as well. We've had too many serious accidents that have been attributed to mobile phone/texting use.

http://www.tacsafety.com.au/upload/videos/distractions1.html

http://www.tacsafety.com.au/upload/videos/distractions2.html

On another note...I am going to hit my daughter and her friends over their thick heads very soon...the number of times I have watched them texting as they cross a busy road...eyes on their phones, not paying attention to the cars...more than once I have grabbed Charlotte by the arm and pulled her out of the way of traffic. What can be so bloody important in a text that it can't wait a few seconds??? I whacked her phone clean out of her hand once in the process of grabbing her to safety...you think she would have got it then. Doesn't seem to matter what I say either....for a smart girl she can be remarkably stupid sometimes.

I don't even like talking on the phone while I drive. I really don't like others talking on the phone while driving. Texters ought to be thrown under the jail, it should be mandatory jail time felony with a requirement of having to register as a text offender, and make them have it painted on their car.

Lisa good point on the walking also. I believe here in the states Florida has made it illegal to walk and text at the same time. And again, guilty as charged.

What about the idiots in stores texting while pushing shopping carts?

Tonight, a woman crashed right into a support pole in front of me. She was coming at me, texting. She didn't even look up to see what/who she around. I tried not to laugh directly at her but said out loud "I wish I had my camera with me".

yep, she heard me.:D


dumba$$ people

Mark,

How I WISH they would do that here...for the life of me I do not understand how mobile phones have become almost the most important item in most kids' lives...I just can't comprehend it.

OMG I have seen that too...and a guy walk straight into a tree...and a girl walk straight into a light pole...I didn't bother trying to stifle the laugh on either occasion....they deserved the ridicule...the girl stumbled away holding her nose; I felt a tiny bit of pity for her...passed quickly though.

I feel lucky to live in a country like the US where the drivers are all so talented no laws prohibiting talking on the phone while driving are necessary, unlike Germany for instance.
Jim

while commuting on the bike I see all kinds of scary stuff going on behind the wheel. what puzzles me is why dont the police see it? It is everywhere.

It's illegal to talk on the cell or text here in philly, but i doubt the cops do much enforcing of it.

Just another selective tool in their harassment arsenal.

One of my favorite demotivational posters...

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1267148247.jpg

Have no fear.

A few of the auto manufacturers announced that they will be offering mobile WiFi in their vehicles next yr. WTF are they thinking???

Study after study has shown that hands-free has absolutely no reduction on accidents than holding the phone to your ear (talking about voice conversations, not texting).

And I'll freely admit to sending the occasional short email from my blackberry on the road. Only on an empty highway or stopped at a red light, but I do do it.. But with a full keyboard I don't even have to take my eyes off the road, I can do it all by feel. A couple typos, but so what.

With all this fuss about texting and driving, why is there no push to reduce the sensory overflow that is the interior of the modern car? We used to have a 2004 Ford Explorer. I hated the radio/climate controls, because everything was a damn button - not a dial or slider in sight, except maybe volume. I once counted the buttons on the console - 64 f##king buttons. And that was just radio and climate, that didn't include the buttons on the steering wheel for radio and cruise control.

Absolutely.

Driving one armed around a kart track, depending on conditions, I can gain a tenth, but typically its a loss of of a tenth or two a lap. I can also try to glance at and read a scoreboard right as I should be slowing down for turn one...most of the time I make that to.

I think if someone puts enough attention outside their car, and keeping their car on the road where it should be is simply natural, there's not too much wrong with texting and driving, just be ready to drop that phone if someone cuts in front of you, etc.

I send out a text maybe once a month, sometimes more, not enough to find the need to do it while driving, but I feel there are situations I could safely do it. I'm not annoyed that I'm not supposed to in the state I do most of my driving in - I do not trust most drivers to text and drive.

I can't even dial and drive. I'm serious. Hands off for me. Whatever it is, I'm sure I'll be able to deal with it when the car stops moving.

I'm guilty, but trying to do better.

I have all the hands free gear, but seriously its easier and less distracting to just hold the phone.

When I drive my car, the phone and stereo are OFF, so that's a good thing.

+1

A high school girl hit a tree about a mile from our house while texting a friend on the way too school one morning. Have to pass the tree with the makeshift memorial every day. Stupid, stupid loss.

"Driving one armed around a kart track, depending on conditions, I can gain a tenth, but typically its a loss of of a tenth or two a lap. I can also try to glance at and read a scoreboard right as I should be slowing down for turn one...most of the time I make that to.

I think if someone puts enough attention outside their car, and keeping their car on the road where it should be is simply natural, there's not too much wrong with texting and driving, just be ready to drop that phone if someone cuts in front of you, etc."

The problem is not related to this. The difficulty comes from our centres of communication.

When we communicate with another person, we are hard-wired to look for body language, facial expression, eye contact, etc. which makes up so much of the message. Studies (U of Toronto and others) have shown the part of the brain engaged in this activity is the same area we are using for defensive driving or projecting possible difficulties with road or traffic conditions.

If you are trying to communicate with an individual not present (or out of sight) the multitasking going on inside your noggin will add 1/3 to 1/2 second to your reaction time. Worse than .08%BAC.

Switch off the phone.

Les

A highschool kid flipped and hit a tree and died just off the road I lived on. He was not texting. I pass the tree with its makeshift memorial every time I drive from home. Stupid Stupid loss. Its not very explainable, he wasn't on drugs, alcohol, he just goofed up(He was within 5-10MPH of the speed limit to). Very sad.

I think a real issue should be "texting on the job". Unless its business related, you are stealing the time from your employer.

OldE, if I am trying to visually communicate with someone standing off track my times go to pieces!!! I try to keep it either a very simple colored sign in which the color is the meaning(no words or symbols), or if allowed, radio. I drive by and see a black NOS energy drink billboard being held up - and know to bring it down into the pits, etc...

What Les said; Tervuren, you only THINK you are not a hazard and can drive just fine while texting, you are mistaken. Hope you stop before you hurt or kill someone.

Classic "I'm good enough to pull it off, but no one else is" nonsense.

Hello, I have done this ONCE in my life. Texting in general is just not something I do...

It's a terminatable offense to text while driving where I work, whether you're on company time or using a company phone.

I consider myself a way above average driver and I don't text and drive.

Here in California, they first passed a law against hand-held cell phones while driving. And they were considering outlawing texting while driving.

How could they have decided that talking with both eyes on the road was bad, but they weren't yet sure about texting with no eyes on the road?

Look again. Studies show that hands-free is way different from holding the phone to your ear. That has also been my observation. Mark on Page 1 makes the same observation. Way different.

At a stop light, fine. Texting or typing from the driver's seat of a moving vehicle is playing with fire.

I believe they should make accidents caused by/while talking on the phone or texting a seriously punished offense. Not that that would probably deter most people. I don't notice any difference in the number of people doing that around me while I'm driving since it became illegal (the talking part).

I have a friend that owns a body shop. He loves people that text and drive. His business is booming....

Texting while driving? Hell im driving right now while im replying to this :)

had to decide a few days ago..
do I let her hit me or..
NOT a clue I was there..
thankfully she was going elsewhere..
had she not..
her car would NOT have moved upon her return..
her and her babies could have walked back to hell for all I care...

Rika

I have never texted while driving. In fact I have never texted period. Never sent one, and if I get one I delete it without reading it. I'm not even sure how to send one.

We advanced from the telegraph to the telephone for a reason. If someone wants to talk to me, they have to talk to me.
Now get off my lawn!

My morning commute typically happens at 50mph with 3-5 lanes of traffic carrying only a second or so of space between us. It's dangerous, no foolin', and I don't even take my eyes off the road to find my coffee cup unless there's a slow-down or a big opening. I definitely do NOT make phone calls in that kind of traffic.

My afternoon commute is a different story. My typical average speed is maybe 10mph, and there are long periods when I'm just stopped, or barely rolling waiting for traffic to start moving again. I have no problems making phone calls in that kind of traffic, and often pass the time that way -- the mental activity required to move the car forward another car length, then push out the clutch and wait just isn't that much. In fact, my last phone had buttons, and it wasn't terribly challenging to type without looking, so I will admit to having sent a few texts while driving.

My new phone is an iPhone, and while I like it, the loss of tactile buttons means there's no way I can type without looking. I also haven't figured out how to place a call by voice, which means that I can't even place a call without risking an accident.

Dan