There are vast areas in the midwest, particularly in the upper midwest, where you can drive for many miles before seeing another car. Areas where you can see the road disapear into its vanishing point on the horizon, and see a car coming from many miles away. In North Dakota I could look toward a town 20 miles away and even see if it was raining there.
There are also areas such as NH where the roads are winding and rolling and every bend is blocked by trees, hills, houses, or whatnot. The crown of the road constantly changes as well. Things continually change every foot of the road.
Then there are areas like Boston where every other driver is out to kill you.
And then there are neighborhoods full of children where a moment’s distraction can result in an innocent child dying and a family destroyed.
It’s unrealistic to believe that the same driving practices necessary in Boston or in the populated neighborhood are necessary in North Dakota. It’s unrealistic to judge others by our own driving environment. Let’s stop judging one another.
The most distracted driver I saw today was not on the phone. He was trying to read something on the passenger’s seat. Recently it was someone actually flipping through a catalog or magazine or something - up on the steering wheel while tooling down an interstate. Then there are kids and dogs and fast food and radios and CD players and bill boards and hot looking drivers and pedestrians and… And even aside from the directly distracted that there are those people who just literally don’t pay any attention at all.
We can all continue to talk about phones if we want. But its sort of like thinking that the titanic was sunk by the tip of the ice berg. Distracted driving is not an invention of the portable information age.
You wouldn’t want your anesthetist or surgeon yammering or texting on their phone while doing your open heart surgery, and you wouldn’t want your pilot doing it while your plane is ready for takeoff. Why would you do it while driving an SUV in someone’s direction at 60 mph? It can be just as dangerous for you, and can kill you just as dead.
Couple of good bumper stickers; “Just put down the phone and no one will get hurt” and “Honk if you love Jesus. Text me if you want to meet Jesus soon.”
You wouldn’t want your anesthetist or surgeon yammering or texting on their phone while doing your open heart surgery, and you wouldn’t want your pilot doing it while your plane is ready for takeoff.
Uh, pretty sure the cockpit crew will acknowledge being cleared for takeoff via 2-way radio communication with tower just before takeoff. Granted, in a FAR-121 airplane, that’ll be the non-flying crewmember, but any plane that has a flight crew of one, that’ll be the pilot.
(Or are radio communications–CB, aircraft radio, etc–okay, and cell phones not? If so, why?)
It has been proven that a person cannot talk on the phone and concentrate on driving at the same time. Talking on the phone and driving should be banned and criminal charges be brought for anyone caught doing so. How many people have to be killed before this stupid practice is forbidden.
Just awhile ago a bicyclist was killed by a driver using their phone in my area, if the same driver was intoxicated, it would have been an offense, but being impaired by talking on the phone is okay?
I do not talk on a cell phone while I drive, mainly because I have seen people killed by distracted drivers. I couldn’t live with myself if I killed someone due to a careless distraction I could have easily prevented.
The last time I was driving distracted, the distraction was my very own day dream. I don’t know where my phone was. But if it had rung, it would have snapped me out of it.
I use my phone while driving. Once a call is initiated or answered, I don’t feel it’s any less safe than having a conversation with a passenger. It’s kind of a toss up in a sense because a passenger can look for hazards, but a person is also inclined to turn their head and make eye contact with a passenger once in a while, thus taking their eyes off the road, while if I’m on my phone, I’m always looking straight ahead. It’s probably a lot safer than looking at your satnav, seeking a radio station, searching for something in the center console, etc.
I will also text while driving, but only while waiting at lights, not while in motion, and I still frequently glance up.
Obviously a younger, more inexperienced driver has not learned to multitask as well as a more seasoned driver, and doesn’t possess the unconscious habits and perhaps ‘muscle memory’ for driving as much as someone older, though perhaps their reflexes are a little better.
got bluetooth in my car it answers the phone for me and hangs up too . i don’t call out on it but i will take a call coming in i do try to keep it short