NTSB wants states ban all nonemergency driver cell phone, electronic use devices

[k4kyv]

The gene for common sense is no longer part of the human DNA chain! I guess we can attribute it to evolution!! And most feel that "it is only illegal if you get caught."

As far as laws, rules, and regulations go, they are ALL absolutely worthless unless there is someone to answer to for disobeying them, short, sweet, and simple. Kinda like when I was a kid, I knew that if I screwed up I was going to get the tar beat out of me.

That can be partly attributed to the proliferation of laws, regulations, legal actions and involvement of lawyers.  Nowadays, there is hardly any normal human activity that isn't illegal, a violation of some rule or subject to regulations and restrictions somewhere.  For example, the simple act of putting up on one's own property an outdoor antenna that isn't "stealth", or going to the local pub and ordering a beer.  With all these regulations and restrictions affecting nearly every trivial aspect of daily living, people have become numbed and no longer take any of them seriously, even the ones that do make sense and impact public safety.

Kinda like car intrusion alarms.  So many of those things so often are set off accidentally that no-one pays attention when they hear one beeping.

[steve_qix]

Well, I see a lot of bad drivers on the road every day (I also drive for my job pretty much daily) and usually on the highway.  I used to commute to Boston and also to Westboro every day.  SCARY !  Particularly in the afternoon. Literally, these people drive 80mph (yes, 80!) on a 3 lane highway - all hyped up on their coffee - passing and weaving in and out.

Anyway, back to the proposed law:

The problem with this proposed law is that it is unreasonable.  An outright ban is way, way too much.  Requiring hands free is a very reasonable regulation.  I *ALWAYS* use hands free - it is much safer (and sounds better, too).

All too many times we've all seen a (usually younger) driver holding a cell phone in one hand and trying to drive with the other.  It is not good, but an outright ban is probably worse.

Hands free is reasonable, and will solve the problem without killing the patient.

I do a lot of highway driving during the summer (like, 8,000 to 10,000 miles of it this past summer alone).  You get to see some pretty amazing stuff!  

3 weeks ago, my 20 year old and I were driving up to Portland Maine from Townsend (about 130 miles) and had a VERY near miss and witnessed a pile up.  A *WHEEL* (not just a tire) came flying off a car, which put that car out of control; another car hit that one, etc.  There were 7 vehicles involved.  THANKFULLY no roll-overs, and everyone appeared to be able to walk away.  Looking at the wheel, it seems as if the ball joints let go, and the whole assembly just fell off!  That could have been very, very bad.  We were cruising along at around 70 at the time.

[w1vtp]

Wow - just saw this discussion!  

<snip> 

...How about women putting on their makeup while driving?  Yup, better make a law for that, too.  I have actually been in a car while the [woman] driver was applying *EYE* makeup while looking in the rear view (yes, we were under way - she was steering with her knee!)....

I actually saw this happen on Rt 93 just north of Derry quite a while ago - - - a woman was STOPPED in the right travel lane applying makeup!!!!!!  I did lay on my horn as I passed her. She gave me that "Yea, Sooo?" look.  Wouldn't have believed it possible except I saw it myself

Al

[KB2WIG]

Wow - just saw this discussion!  

<snip> 

...How about women putting on their makeup while driving?  Yup, better make a law for that, too.  I have actually been in a car while the [woman] driver was applying *EYE* makeup while looking in the rear view (yes, we were under way - she was steering with her knee!)....

I've been told that farding in public is illegal in some states.  On another not, Broadcast Eng.,,

http://broadcastengineering.com/news/stop-farding-0110/

klc

I actually saw this happen on Rt 93 just north of Derry quite a while ago - - - a woman was STOPPED in the right travel lane applying makeup!!!!!!  I did lay on my horn as I passed her. She gave me that "Yea, Sooo?" look.  Wouldn't have believed it possible except I saw it myself

Al

[W1AEX]

That can be partly attributed to the proliferation of laws, regulations, legal actions and involvement of lawyers.  Nowadays, there is hardly any normal human activity that isn't illegal, a violation of some rule or subject to regulations and restrictions somewhere.

A few good men agree with you Don:

Plato - "Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws."
Winston Churchill - "If you have ten thousand regulations you destroy all respect for the law."
Benjamin Franklin - "Necessity knows no law; I know some attorneys of the same."

I'm not sure where the next one fits in, but fortunately there were no cellular phones when Richard was out and about:
Richard Nixon - "When the President does it, that means that it is not illegal."

I don't know who said this one (V for Vendetta perhaps?) but it sounds Orwellian:  "Bad laws make good men criminals."

At any rate, all too frequently when I come to a stop at a red light and glance in the rear view mirror, I see the driver in the car that's approaching my rear bumper looking down instead of "driving". When you have nowhere to go, this is fairly terrifying, but they usually manage to lock 'em up and stop in time. About a month ago I could clearly see that the car approaching behind me was not going to stop, so I made an illegal "right on red" turn and saved my life. That car sailed right through the red light, totally oblivious. I don't have a solution for this problem, I only know that it's a good idea to watch every other driver on the road while I'm driving because a lot of them aren't watching anything but their friggin' texting session.

[Opcom]

as one who drives the highway every day not sitting home.
It is a proven fact the average american is too stupid to drive and use a phone at the same time.
Not about rights it is about public safety

There should be some kind of intelligence test or common sense test plus a 'road rage' personality test as a prerequisite for a driver license.

If the gummint ever heads in that direction, the masses will come screaming out of the woodwork claiming 23 kinds of unfairness and probably find a way to play it off as discrimination of one sort or another. - And that's before anyone is actually asked to take the tests.

About half the people (only my opinion) on the road should not ever be allowed to drive or to operate any kind of powered equipment in public. They are too stupid to do it right.

Discrimination, usually thought to be only against some minority or another, can also be against the majority- we are sort of discussing that, where government employees are permitted to do things but it wants want to ban the public from those same benefits, strip the public of any advantage. Almost no one apparently sees that as discrimination though.

I don't -need- to use the cellphone in my vehicle but I will usually take calls, say I'm driving and will call back, and then I hang up. Its only the contact (service/duty) that matters, the call content can always wait for a safe time (and I need to have a notepad handy anyway). I don't care if others want to use the cellphone (or fix their face or shave or eat or watch the GPS) but I want them to PAY ATTENTION TO THE ROAD first and continuously.

[flintstone mop]

A friend of mine had something similar to Rob. Only he saw a distracted teen heading for him head-on. He stopped his truck. He had no where to go get out of the way. BAM!! Head-on collision. The teen was very apologetic, my friend was very angry. My friend has a large pick up truck and the teen's vehicle had a lot of damage.
The roadways are much much busier now than the 60's. And people are driving much faster. Basic rules of the road are options. I'm waiting for people to start driving through red lights. They do in the Philippines, but the driving speeds from the tremendous congestion is less than 20MPH, here people are going 55 through town.
Story and I'll move on.
I drive a school bus. I was first vehicle stopped at an intersection and the crossing guard stops ALL traffic to allow the buses loaded with students to exit the school and make their wide turns on these small town roads.
Someone several cars behind me cannot see why we are stopped and is honking his/her horn. They decide to break on through and pass all this stopped traffic and creates quite a mess in the intersection. The school crossing guard can't do anything but throw up his hands. No one was hit but that driver looked really foolish in the wrong lane almost tangling with 10 ton school buses. Now there is a local cop there and another cop to control that intersection at school dismissal to give out nice big tickets to impatient drivers.
And this is Tiny City USA!!! I imagine in bigger cities it is chaos.
Fred

[k4kyv]

I don't have a solution for this problem, I only know that it's a good idea to watch every other driver on the road while I'm driving because a lot of them aren't watching anything but their friggin' texting session.

When I first started driving, my father used to tell me to always assume the other driver is either drunk, or a damn fool.  I guess now you could add "or texting".

[Steve - K4HX]

I guess now you could add "or texting".

This falls in the damn fool category.

[WA1GFZ]

Then there is the A.H. that no amount of laws can control....like the two who cut me off last night. one used an exit ramp as a passing lane and missed me at 70 by about 5 feet. Oh to have a hook mounted cannon 

[K9PNP]

4 times in my own development I have had near misses on my motorcycle because of a "soccer mom" talking on the phone while she was driving! This is a bit ridiculous that they didn't even hear my loud pipes because they were more interested in the phone.

The gene for common sense is no longer part of the human DNA chain! I guess we can attribute it to evolution!! And most feel that "it is only illegal if you get caught."

Lots of people now can't hear a siren operating at the audio level that causes physical pain at about 10 feet away.  See it every day.  Of course the level of sound-proofing in some of the cars doesn't help that problem.

Yeh, I think the common sense gene starting leaving in the early 1960's.  Mostly extinct now.  Even if you get caught, with the right attorney it still may not be illegal by the time it gets through the current court system.

[Steve - K4HX]

If you don't watch it, the highway patrol will get you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zEzHPsi87w&feature=related

[K1JJ]

If you don't watch it, the highway patrol will get you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zEzHPsi87w&feature=related

"That hat makes me want a taco."

 

[W8IXY]

Then there is the A.H. that no amount of laws can control....like the two who cut me off last night. one used an exit ramp as a passing lane and missed me at 70 by about 5 feet. Oh to have a hook mounted cannon 

Hey....were you on the same ramp as I was?   Exactly the same thing happened to me two nights ago.  As soon as the fool passed me on the left, he swerved right, cut me off (I had to hit the brakes..HARD), almost got rear ended, and the idiot almost got a couple of others as he cut sharply across the left two lanes to pull off the exit ramp about 300 feet farther up.

I think all kinds of "get even" thoughts at those times.  I have considered a pipe with a gasoline pump and sparkplug to spit "super backfires" out to someone who tailgates.  Or hooking up a windshield washer nozzle to spray the tailgaters.   I thought about mounting a flash camera strobe light in a taillight, but that could get someone killed.  I was thinking of a "mudball cannon" just behind the grill, that you could launch at the imbecile who passed you and cut you off, and he'd hear a good "thunk", but no real damage.

A couple of decades ago I read somewhere in an ad in the back of a Popular Science (or similar) magazine, of someone offering a kit, that when set off, released an extremely foul smelling aroma to the tailgater's cabin air intake.  I should have ordered that.

I did have some fun last summer when some nut case kid was sitting beside me at a light, with his 5000 watt bass system pounding away.  Just to see what would happen, I fired up the mobile with 50 watts at 440mHz, and something happened to his system.  I looked over at him as he was frantically fiddling with some of the knobs in his dash a couple of seconds after I fired up. 

I don't want anyone to get hurt, but I really would like to find a good way to "annoy back".

73
Ted  W8IXY

[Opcom]

I drive a F-550 4x4 flatbed truck now, quite a bit larger and much heavier than the 1/2 ton pickup, and I do not care about tailgaters any more. I don't think I get them much as they don't want to eat that piece of metal. Let me be clear I never brake for tailgaters, the only thing I ever will do is:
slow lane: run the speed limit or in some cases take my foot off the fuel to make them go away.  
fast lane: move over safely, after I decide it is clear, or temporarily speed up and then move over when clear.
If I aint passing, I'm not in the fast lane.

I am amazed at how those in sports cars will tailgate things that their vehicles could never safely withstand a bump with.

I am only still concerned with those many non-turn-signal-using drivers who daily try to wedge themselves in between the front of my truck and the vehicle in front of me during rush hour traffic when there is not enough space and clearly plenty of room behind me. So far I've refused (in the absence of turn signals and politeness) as I did when I had a small truck, but they still always get mad. But they seem to be more pushy towards me now that my truck is much larger than before. That is backwards.

It is not my fault if they do not know how to drive, use a turn signal, or stay out of the immediate and dangerous space in the lane I am controlling. The way to enter that space is to use a turn signal and wait for the space to be safely enlarged. The way to cause an accident and have to pay for all kinds of damage is to come on over into where the 2-ton truck is.

Some woman in an SUV wanted on the interstate, there was a mile of space behind me, and she tried to run full-tilt up to the end of the entrance ramp and come over right beside me, expecting me to change lanes or brake to accommodate that.

Don't take me wrong, the truck is no slouch on the road and is not what most people would consider "slow" if they'd ever driven it, unlike much older or heavily laden trucks of this class. I was running 60 with the cruise control and she used the entrance ramp as a drag strip. There was no space for me to move over, it couldn't safely happen. At the very last moment she slammed on the brakes and entered the highway behind me.

I could sense her "me-first entitlement attitude" and see her mouth cursing and she came zooming out from behind me (where she should have been due to yielding properly) and her passenger, a man, rolled down the window and shot the finger. I suppose that was at her bidding. Then they went up a couple cars and cut someone else off forcing them to hit their brakes, so that they were then 'in front' of me.

I called the highway patrol and reported an aggressive angry driver and passenger and gave them the plate and description. The trooper called me back, asked me what I was driving and where I was, confirmed her location in traffic (mile marker), number and description of people in the vehicle, asked about weapons, etc., and then after a couple minutes two HiPo passed me up and pulled her over as by now she was some 1/2 mile down range. As I passed by at reduced speed (in TX it is required to go 15 below when passing a stopped emerg. vehicle) in the right lane I had my passenger roll down the window and stick his face out the window and wave and smile. He said he'd never seen anyone drop their jaw and bug their eyes out like that before! Also said she looked like a Klingon with bad makeup. Wish there was a picture.

These front-cutter-offer-people did not act out their fantasies like this when I had the 1/2 ton pickup truck. I think it was because of the massive wrap around Ranch Hand bumper on the front of it.

Therefore I will soon be getting a wrap-around ranch hand or cattlemen front bumper on the F550 appropriate to its size for my own safety in deterring these occurrences. There are many costly heat exchangers in the front of the F-550 and I do not want any of them damaged in case the really stupid and mean driver comes along.

Isn't it best to gear up for safety and keep a cool temper? Let all these other people be crazy and stupid and do what they want, and not be affected by it.

[WB2EMS]

Reminds me of Alan Dean Foster's short story "Why Johnny can't speed." 

Makes you want to take one of those cheap HD video recorders and run it routinely in the car to catch those antics. Be nice to be able to download a video of the bad driving and hand it off to the trooper via email.

Maybe that's the cure. If there are enough people out there recording bad behavior, and if the enforcement agencies would act on such input, maybe folks would behave better - never knowing who is watching. Sort of like the Tru-Vue glasses in David Brin's "Earth" novel.

Either that, or bring back dueling. Historically that was a limiting factor on bad public behavior. 

[WA1GFZ]

Gee, I thought people in Texas drove pretty well. I was in the DFW area a few times and never had any problrms. I just drove in Ma. Monday, now there is real talent on the road. Ct. is catching up though.
I love those people who come down a ramp and think the sea should part for them.  You would think if you drove an over priced yuppie mobile there would be a bit more care taken to not fold it into a smaller HOS.
I really miss my 1972 camper special with the oak flat bed and homebrew 350+.03. The jethro mobile.
A buddy in LA set up his windshield washers to shoot over the car and hit the tail gater behind him. I think he had to refill twice a week.
I've ofter dreamed of a radiator dart gun for tail gaters, and a 30mm AH64 chain gun for the hood.

[Sam KS2AM]

The jethro mobile.

 

[WB2EMS]

I've ofter dreamed of a radiator dart gun for tail gaters, and a 30mm AH64 chain gun for the hood.

I remember reading about an author, I think it might have been Jack London, who was said to have rigged out his automobile with a demilled 30 caliber machine gun on a tripod in the trunk facing rearward and an arrangement to remotely raise the trunk lid while driving. Bet that got tailgaters attention. 

The ones I hate the most are when I'm riding a motorcycle and some jerk is right on my butt. If I get unhorsed in any fashion, it's clear I'm going under his wheels. What they think they are doing is beyond me, unless it's deliberate intimidation. I usually just slow down and urge them to pass. It's handy to have a fast stalking horse out front to trip the radar traps before I get there.

[WA1GFZ]

Back in 2001 a clown from Canada rear ended me while I was stopped for a school bus. He was on his cell phone going almost 40. He hit me so hard in his little rice burner that the whole front end of the car went under my truck up to the fire wall. My head went through the back window. He bent the frame of my 88 3/4 ton truck that I had just installed a new radiator and timing chain. I drove home his car required a flat bed. I was not hurt but the truck was totaled. I could have had it fixed but the transmission sounded very funky.
The car slammed against the rear end so figured there was a bunch of hidden damage. Even the adjuster was bummed when he saw how clean the truck was.