A Message - Loud and Clear

[Izzyblueye]

In no way can I imagine why any one, exception NONE,can't pull off the road to have their phone conversation. Whether you make the call or some one calls you. Then hang it up and proceed to drive. We will all be a lot safer. Same goes for restaurants, movie theaters, which I don't use any more, with the advent of cell phones. I even witnessed this ludicrous act during a funeral service, by a young girl. Cell phones are great, I have one, but it will never be used by me while driving. A law is needed, we have abundantly proved we can't police ourselves.

[Rich & Zara]

What about that very hot cup of coffee that many of us drink while driving? Or maybe a handfull of a fast food sandwich? That poses more danger than talking on a hands free cell phone. right or wrong?

Zara

[chasfm11]

Zara, you're right. There are many things that we all do that distract us from our driving duties. I would agree with your thinking that if I were trying to drink coffee and turn my vehicle in a crowd of kids, I'd be putting those kids at every bit of the same risks as if I were talking on the cell phone with the same maneuver. I still think you are missing part of the point, however.

If I take a sip of coffee, I'm partially distracted in the act of drinking it. I am NOT, however, thinking about and concentrating on that cup of coffee. When the coffee cup is back in its holder, I'm able to focus on the road as I should. A cell phone conversation is very different, at least for most people. The concentration is intense. Watch someone on a cell phone and you will see them talking and gesturing. I saw a woman this week with the cell phone cradled in her neck and gesturing with both hands while driving. And that level of concentration goes on for minutes and even tens of minutes at a time. I would bet that if you were able to stop someone in a cell phone conversation, they could not describe their exact location correctly within a 1/2 mile. It is the "absorbed thinking" aspect of cell phone conversations that make them so dangerous. When I watch someone in a checkout line on the cell phone and they cannot break from it long enough to pay the cash register operator, I know that there is NO WAY they can drive a vehicle while talking with the same intensity. I certainly love my coffee in the morning but I'll never be absorbed in it like that.

It is one thing to talk on the cell phone intensely while driving in an area that requires limited driving interaction. I agree that an emergency situation requiring immediate recognition and action is possible any time but heavy traffic and numerous turns in succession require a different level of driving concentration. Most cell phone talkers won't make those kinds of differentiations. They talk regardless of the circumstances around them. That was my point in opening the thread about cell phone conversations while driving around walking children. If nothing shows the reckless disregard for others, that does.

[Izzyblueye]

Way to go CHASFM11: No one could have said it better or covered more points importance. There is a huge difference of what you do while driving. Even tuning a radio can cause momentary distraction, which can cause unbelievable mayhem. Driving is a full time job. IMHO tolerates no distractions. Cell phones are not a necessary function for the driver. I am really surprised the insurance industry has not put more pressure on the legislatures to ban the driver from using one.

[AmericanGypsea]

You know, we have a strict rule in our house that talking on the cell phone while driving is taboo. However, I start slipping on that and it starts out with "Can't talk-driving, can I call you back?" to being just a little bit longer until I am back to using the cell phone in the car. Then something pops up somewhere about the dangers of it and I decide that I'm going to stop being on the phone and driving at the same time because...chasfm11 is absolutely correct, in the middle of a phone call that is where my concentration is. Who knows? Maybe having my awareness of it again will save me from being in a car accident today. Thanks.

People in a checkout line yakking on the phone is my biggest peeve. They're loud. That's the one thing I never do.

Marcia

[RustyJC]

This Wednesday PM I was on my commute home from work in Houston area traffic. At one stoplight, I was sitting behind a pickup that was first in line - the driver had been talking on a handheld cellphone for at least a mile that I had been following him. When the light turned green, he sat there....and sat there....and sat there some more. After 10-15 seconds, I moved over one lane and went around him, which he didn't like at all but which isn't my point.

Now, why did this driver just sit there? Where was his concentration directed? Certainly not on driving or the situation around him!

Yes, I carry a cellphone, and yes, I have a hands-free cellphone in my car, but I don't make calls when I'm driving, and if I get an incoming call, I pull off the road at the earliest opportunity to take it.

Rusty

[j2detoit]

I feel tahat the use of school busses has dropped off a lot as is evident when ever school is in session and the traffic picking up and dropping off is rediculis What ever happened to walking or bus riding to school It seems to me that mabey it isn't COOL anymore ...or parents have gotten to protective I realize that times are much different than they were when I was in school but it seems to have gotten out of hand.Now as far as the cell phone thing That has gotten to be a way out of control issue that I don't know can ever be fixed Yes we have cell phones and have found them to be a tremendouse tool of communication. It is to bad that it is being used so unsafly and being abused by so many.It is disturbing to see anyone,teen,manor woman yaking and drivind at the same time all we can do is be careful and as defensive behind the wheel as possible Be careful out their and have fun

[chasfm11]

j2Detroit<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">feel tahat the use of school busses has dropped off a lot as is evident when ever school is in session and the traffic picking up and dropping off is rediculis What ever happened to walking or bus riding to school It seems to me that mabey it isn't COOL anymore ...or parents have gotten to protective I realize that times are much different than they were when I was in school but it seems to have gotten out of hand </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

While every area is different, the problem here is that school funding has cut back those who can be bussed to school. The circles of "walkers" now extend to a mile or more in many of our schools. When you couple that with the problem of children being accosted on their way to school, it is easy to understand why so many parents pick up and drop of. A local sheriff here just took out newspaper adds listing hundreds of convicted sexual preditors in his jurisdiction so that parents would be aware of them while their kids are trick or treating.

Additionally, kid's schedules are so hectic these days with sports, etc, that there simply
isn't time to have the bus rides that so many of used to "enjoy" The "Soccer Mom" title was earned, not simply bestowed.

[JimmyDee]

We had a guy killed a couple of months ago when his motorcycle hit a car with 4 teen girls in the car that pulled out in front of him. Driver was on a cell phone. She will probably do time for her deed. The cop, who is the son of a friend of my wife, stated that about 90% of the wrecks he deals with come from a person on a phone, a bunch of kids all talking, changing a CD or ajusting the radio. They think they can multitask but driving requiers one's full attention.
Jim

[Rich & Zara]

...and how many of you have a CB or Ham Radio in your vehicle? As a driver, will you talk on it while moving?

Zara

[chasfm11]

I, for one, have a CB radio in our RV. I turn it on from time to time, especially in a traffic jam. History would prove that is probably the only time that I would talk on it - in a traffic jam, moving at very slow speed with a lot of other cars.

I'm not sure about your intent, Zara. There are certainly a lot of possible driver distractions out there that we could talk about. I'd agree that all of them have the potential to cause accidents. The difference, at least, to me, is that talking on a cell phone while driving today IS causing many tragic accidents and that many people who do it are like addicts about it. More and more, I see people get in and start their vehicles and immediately start talking on a cell phone at the same time they are putting their vehicles in gear to move them. They don't seem to be able to drive without talking on the cell phone.
Deflecting the discussion to a list of all of the other distractions isn't going to change the cell phone problem or the consequences of it.

Please call the principal at the middle school in Southlake, TX and see if he or his teachers believe that anything besides parents talking on cell phones is putting those kids in his school at risk in the after school pick line. I read his article and already know his answer. When we have come to the point were a single type of action will risk the lives of our children, we are out of control and action needs to be taken. I still cannot imagine a conversation topic so important that it is worth killing a child over. I certainly hope that, as adults, we've all gotten past the teen age "it cannot happen to me" type of thinking.

[SeeTheUSA]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by chasfm11:
***snip***
Deflecting the discussion to a list of all of the other distractions isn't going to change the cell phone problem or the consequences of it.
***snip**
</div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I agree . . . reminds me of the YEARS of excuses, chatter, deflection regarding whether smoking is harmful to the smoker and/or those around the smoker. Finally we got it (most of us, anyway) . . . it's harmful! Are we going to excuse, chatter and deflect this issue for YEARS, too? My position is ANYTHING which reduces a driver's concentration on driving is potentially unsafe. Doesn't matter what we may think our Constitution gives us the right to do, unsafe is unsafe. What we need is a "brain-free" cell phone instead of a "hands-free" device. After saying all of that, do I do things while driving which reduce my concentration and which are, therefore, unsafe? Yes, but no matter how much I try to rationalize it, it remains UNSAFE!

Shame on me . . . if you or your loved-ones are out there on the road with me, I'm increasing the risk involved.

&gt;&gt;&gt;sound of me stepping down from my soap box&lt;&lt;&lt;

[CD]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">SeeTheUSA </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
You said it very well. As I remember during the last year or so, one of the big 3 TV networks did a study on cell phone distraction. They got a group of volunteers to run through a course with distractions, stop signs, cars that ran red lights etc. Their cars were set up with cameras that showed their reactions as well as what they were seeing. The result was they drove like they were DUI. When the volunteers saw the video they were shocked at how they had reacted. They thought they were very capable of multi tasking.