NTSB Complete Ban on Cell Phones in Cars

[Elderberry]

http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/13/us/ntsb-c ... index.html

What about if your cell phone is also your GPS navigator?

[unjonharley]

http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/13/us/ntsb-c ... index.html

What about if your cell phone is also your GPS navigator?

Fucking with your GPS at 70 mph is not good ether..

[graidawg]

http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/13/us/ntsb-c ... index.html

What about if your cell phone is also your GPS navigator?

Fucking with your GPS at 70 mph is not good ether..

because then you would be speeding...

[Dr. Pyro]

Not in Nevada, Montana or Texas, just to name a few. Black Rock City, well, not so much.

[Ugly Dougly]

Reckon it's differnt if you gots a CB radio. Them there things ain't as distractin'.
And I have no idea why I'm talking like this. 10-4.

[Elderberry]

It's already illegal to use your phone while driving in CA. Hands free is OK, though.

But I can't even walk a half a block to the post office to see at least three people in cars breaking that law.

[Sham]

It's not really the idea of having your hand pressed to the side of your head with a phone in it that is the problem. Your mind is drifting off in conversation and your thoughts are completely distracted.

By making handsfree or bluetooth mandatory, the distraction still exists, but none of the other drivers can tell. Even if cell phone use is totally banned, then everyone will resort to headsets of some sort and still use them. In my state, all texting is banned, so now people tend to keep their phones real low when they type---making the situation even worse.

If any type of cell phone use is allowed, it almost makes sense to ban any type of headset or handsfree, and force the use of the actual phone, so other drivers can be made aware that you are on the phone, and most likely distracted.

Banning all texting while driving makes sound sense, but phone use needs much more study.

[unjonharley]

I understand that some new car shut down cell phones.. Just heard a little blip and don't know much more about this..

Got a ticket in 1952 for having my arm around a sweetie.. The ticket was for inattentive driving.. Wages were $110, the ticket was 50 bucks.. A weeks wage, that hurt..

[Sola Gangsta]

Whatever happened to "reckless driving"? Did that law expire somehow? Do we need a new regulation for every minute detail? I agree that cell phones are distracting, but so are advertising billboards and a million other things. What about preoccupation within the mind itself? Do people really know what a "cause" is (as in the cause of an accident)? As Aristotle would have said, if something is a potential material cause to an accident, does that now mean that all material causes need to be regulated? What about the role of fortune/luck (tuche) in creating such situations? What role does chance play in liability? Must we now be "perfect citizens" in control of all causes (formal, final, material and efficient) such that liability exists even for factors of causation where a given antecedent does not result in a harmful consequent?

When a tragedy happens one looks for answers and very often "one" is singled out as "the cause" when in fact many factors have led to the tragedy. Because the modern mind has been profoundly impacted by the scientific model, most causes are thought of in the sense of "efficient causation" which may or may not be accurate.

[Elderberry]

So isn't talking to someone on a phone hands-free pretty much the same as talking with other passengers in the car? I guess the next step is to make talking in the car illegal too then.

[Ugly Dougly]

Don't let your thoughts wander either. If you must think about TTITD, please pull over and park until the thoughts subside.

[Elderberry]

Whatever happened to "reckless driving"? Did that law expire somehow? Do we need a new regulation for every minute detail? I agree that cell phones are distracting, but so are advertising billboards and a million other things. What about preoccupation within the mind itself? Do people really know what a "cause" is (as in the cause of an accident)? As Aristotle would have said, if something is a potential material cause to an accident, does that now mean that all material causes need to be regulated? What about the role of fortune/luck (tuche) in creating such situations? What role does chance play in liability? Must we now be "perfect citizens" in control of all causes (formal, final, material and efficient) such that liability exists even for factors of causation where a given antecedent does not result in a harmful consequent?

When a tragedy happens one looks for answers and very often "one" is singled out as "the cause" when in fact many factors have led to the tragedy. Because the modern mind has been profoundly impacted by the scientific model, most causes are thought of in the sense of "efficient causation" which may or may not be accurate.

Good points.

[Rice]

Don't let your thoughts wander either. If you must think about TTITD, please pull over and park until the thoughts subside.

Then I would starve or freeze to death at the side of the road...

[Savannah]

[AntiM]

This would suck for truckers trying to coordinate deliveries. Hard to pull over a semi, and it eats drive time.

[unjonharley]

This would suck for truckers trying to coordinate deliveries. Hard to pull over a semi, and it eats drive time.

Hell, I didn't even have power steering in the old hammer mill I drove.. You would have had to be at least twenty feet away from it to hear on a cell phone

[lemur]

in OVER THE TOP, a hit film from the 80s, sly stallone solved this problem...

he taught the kid how to drive the big rig.




use the phone when the kid drives, no problem.

[theCryptofishist]

It's going to be the insurance companies that are the enforcers on this. If they find you texting or talking just before the crash, they aren't going to pay. People will adjust when money's at risk. (Well, most of them.)

[oneeyeddick]

I have often wondered if just listening to your messages is considered talking on the phone.

[moonrise]

Shoosh! We don't want to give them any ideas so they go and instate the 'thought police"!! Oh man, if they only knew....(or do they?)...
...must find my tin foil hat...!!

Don't let your thoughts wander either. If you must think about TTITD, please pull over and park until the thoughts subside.

[Drawingablank]

This one does not seem to be a bad thing - at least on the surface. While I am against laws that micromanage every little part of our lives, drivers talking on cell phones seem to be just as dangerous as those who are DWI. But it seems like this would just open the floodgates to the lawmakers. For example: after cell phones, New Jersey was trying to pass a law against food or drinks in the front seat. I'm not sure if it was passed.

It might be interesting to compare how the statistics of accidents involving cell phones compare to accident statistics before the cell phone era.

[moonrise]

No food or drink in the front seat. People need to take medication, maybe they should just die for the New Jersey law? I doubt that'll fly, especially if Big Pharma has any interest.

No talking to passengers, don't touch that radio dial, sorry ya can't have water, what next? Big Brother please step out of my car!! unreal control freaks.

[unjonharley]

I use a bite tube for drinks when driving across the desert to Burning Man..

But I can't pat my head and rub my tummy at the same time.. So I pull off the road to use the cell or adjust the driving surroundings. Two head injuries in our family has mad bike and scooter riding with a helmet a good idea..


Go to a head injury nursing home.. Where they have to wear a helmet just to stand and walk.. Been there did that ain't no fucking fun.. Shut up and wear your helmet.

[moonrise]

Maybe we'll be required to wear helmets while driving. In time, in time...

[Sham]

The Government needs to keep their big, fat bureaucratic faces out of our collective urinals when we're peeing!

[moonrise]

Now that I think about it Sham, you drive a fast red phone car....that must be confusing to some of the (donut gobbling) cops...I wonder what goes through their (pea sized) brains...is he talking? Driving? (and let's not forget, red is the color that gets the MOST tickets!) Your poor guy Sham

When will you be driving the phone car back out to the burn? Soon? 2012?

[TomServo]

I could care less, what people do in their spare time. But, when your on the road, keep your eyes on the fucking road and your cell phone away from your head. While you may feel free to do whatever you want, in your vehicle....and you may claim, that you are an expert driver...I..or any other motorist, should NOT be expected to bet their lives on it.

[TomServo]

and...having driven well over 500,000 accident free miles, I can say..that cell phones are a distraction, to alot of drivers. Ask the dumb lady from Napa, who nearly had a closed casket funeral, after yakking on her cell, as my Tractor/Trailer nearly T-boned her tiny 4 wheeler.

[Ugly Dougly]

But I can't pat my head and rub my tummy at the same time...

We need more people to be so honest about their limitations.

[5280MeV]

This is such a hard issue for me.

Driving is one of those things that Americans simply do not take seriously enough (myself included) - we slam into each other at a rate of something like 30,000 fatalities in a year. On the other hand, it is an issue where the American populace is generally against government intervention.

I have read that driving while fatigued is more dangerous than DWI or cell phone use, by a measurable margin. As this is the greatest threat, it stands to be the first thing that should be outlawed, but how do you regulate that.

It isn't just cell phones, but just about any distraction - looking at cows on the side of the road, dancing while driving, trying to manipulate a large soda that won't fit in the cupholder and a cheeseburger raining condiments while managing the steering wheel with the free knee, and so on...

Aggressive driving is also a huge problem - tailgating is a huge risk, as well as just being in a hurry in some cases, exceeding the speed limit, or taking a left blindly around a lane of traffic.

I think that education and better awareness of the risk is the way to go. It is a shame that local media don't report highway fatalities the way they do murders - if they did I imagine that people would be a bit more cautious.