CardsofSTL wrote:The real tragedy is that the person texting often ends up hurting or killing someone else
Link?
I'm not kidding about how close we were to getting slaughtered. And last night we responded to a car accident where someone smashed into a stopped vehicle. She wasn't drunk and I didn't ask if she was on her phone but odds are really good that she was.
Heck, Occam's Razor says if you don't watch where you're going you're going to hit someone. And Occam's Razor says if you hit enough people, some are going to get hurt.
CardsofSTL wrote:The real tragedy is that the person texting often ends up hurting or killing someone else
Link?
I'm not kidding about how close we were to getting slaughtered. And last night we responded to a car accident where someone smashed into a stopped vehicle. She wasn't drunk and I didn't ask if she was on her phone but odds are really good that she was.
Heck, Occam's Razor says if you don't watch where you're going you're going to hit someone. And Occam's Razor says if you hit enough people, some are going to get hurt.
stlouie_lipp wrote:They need to make harsh penalties for people who get caught doing this. Loss of driving privileges for a year or something.
Loss of driving privileges doesn't mean squat. The gal who totaled my car w/no insurance had her license revoked for a year; she received 2 tickets after that for "driving while suspended/revoked." How many times have you read about a drunk driver causing an accident while driving on a suspended/revoked license.
Almost every day, I'm affected by distracted drivers, and I try to keep as far away from them as possible. They don't look around and aren't aware of drivers and pedestrians around them, and some overcompensate by driving too slow in traffic, or leaving huge spaces between themselves and the car in front at stop lights. It's not as if they are good drivers to begin with. They are bad drivers who are suddenly lobotomized by an electronic gadget, and become threats to everyone around them. And the idiots don't have the slightest idea that they are driving a two-ton machine.
Last edited by sighyoung on April 20 17, 3:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
sighyoung wrote:Almost every day, I'm affected by distracted drivers, and I try to keep as far away from them as possible. They don't look around and aren't aware of drivers and pedestrians around them, and some overcompensate by driving too slow in traffic, or leaving huge spaces between themselves and the car in front at stop lights. It's not as if they are good drivers to begin with. They are bad drivers who are suddenly lobotomized by an electronic gadget, and become threats to everyone around them. And the idiots don't have the slightest idea that they are a two-ton machine.
That's probably what bothers me the most. Like I mentioned, one of my friends who does it, and even brags about it, drives trucks for a living. He is a skilled driver, much more than me, but this is a bad driving behavior. Saying "it's not hard" isn't a good defense. There's no way it doesn't at least make you somewhat worse. Everybody gets away with distracted driving until they don't. Hitting someone's dog (or kid) hardly seems like it's worth it.
stlouie_lipp wrote:They need to make harsh penalties for people who get caught doing this. Loss of driving privileges for a year or something.
Loss of driving privileges doesn't mean squat. The gal who totaled my car w/no insurance had her license revoked for a year; she received 2 tickets after that for "driving while suspended/revoked." How many times have you read about a drunk driver causing an accident while driving on a suspended/revoked license.
If somebody is going to willingly and repeatedly drive while drunk then what do they care about a suspended license?
What's been interesting about watching actual live TV again is the car adverts. Almost all of them have "hey, we added this cool collision alarm feature on this brand new expensive car...er...for teenagers". It's 100% a text-and-drive warning, and I'd love it if one of the car companies just came out and said it.
stlouie_lipp wrote:They need to make harsh penalties for people who get caught doing this. Loss of driving privileges for a year or something.
Loss of driving privileges doesn't mean squat. The gal who totaled my car w/no insurance had her license revoked for a year; she received 2 tickets after that for "driving while suspended/revoked." How many times have you read about a drunk driver causing an accident while driving on a suspended/revoked license.
If somebody is going to willingly and repeatedly drive while drunk then what do they care about a suspended license?
Obviously there are going to be people who don't care/ignore the law. There is nothing you can do about those people. But harsher penalties do deter the majority of drivers. Drunk driving has dropped precipitously over the years as the penalties for doing so have become more severe.
stlouie_lipp wrote:They need to make harsh penalties for people who get caught doing this. Loss of driving privileges for a year or something. I'm at the point that whenever I need to stop, even if it is simply for a stop light, I look in my rear view mirror to make sure the person behind me is looking up and sees the traffic is stopped.
So what do you do if that person is looking down? Run the traffic light?
In most instances there would some wiggle room to swerve out of the way if you see a car barreling down on you from behind.