And I can’t count how many times I’ve been stuck behind people who are not on the phone, but are also paying little to no attention to what they are others are doing. The point is not that a phone cannot be distracting. The point is that the phone has become the sole thing people focus on - as if all would be well if outlawed cell phones in cars. I’m fine with concerns about the cell phone IF it is only ONE of the things that people worry about in terms of making people better drivers.
Just last night on the way home from work I was fiddling with my iPhone tunes but keeping my eye on the traffic through town (very congested), but still aware enough to not ram into the cars in front of me when the cars in the lane next to me nearly had a pile up from going to fast and then encountering stopped traffic. Some fenders kissed as well.
So, how bad is that, that I came through all that in better shape then the ‘non distracted’ drivers?
I have noticed countless people drifting into my lane and when passed, see they were also fiddling with their phones…
If I had been that recruiter, your dear Kevin would have been the last person I ever killed while driving. The guilt would have driven me to kill myself.
Please folks. Cell phones are not the only type of distracted driving. It’s no use doing something that will prevent only 20% of all fatal accidents. If you can’t solve a problem 100%, there’s no use trying to solve it at all. Don’t bother saving 20,000 lives, if the other 50,000 people are still going to die.
Don’t quit smoking, because it’s not the only cause of cancer (and your cigarette taxes are keeping my taxes down).
Talking on a cell phone is no more distracting than talking to a passenger – in a foreign language you got C’s in college 20 years ago, while Verdi is blasting on the radio and you desperately have to go to the bathroom.
I use to grab my cell phone, not answer it but look to see who it was, while I was driving. After these and more close calls I changed my habit and do not even look. No matter what it is on the phone I know that if I answer it I can not change anything. Gee your mom is in the hospital, will answering it help her? NO!! and you might cause an accident. Work calls, who the heck wants to talk to them anyway.
Man in the last 2 years I have almost had 5 or more wrecks and close calls cause of the cell phone morons.
On a guy driving on the highway decided to change lanes without looking. He was on his cell and doing about 50 or less mph on the HWY in the left hand lane when he made the decision. I hit the horn and swerved when he got the idea and moved back over.
A woman in a suv was crossing traffic to join the north bound lane. She was on her phone and crossed over into the center turn lane. With her head back laughing she, not even taking a look she began to merge into my lane of traffic. I was on a 5 lane and in the left lane because i was going to turn left about 50 yards down the road. I hit the horn and brakes and she never even gave a look, just crossed my lane and got into the right hand lane.
I was at an intersection in town sitting at the light. The light changed to green and I had to wait for oncoming traffic to pass before I could make a left hand turn. Out of the corner of my eye I see this Honda Civic with a girl driving. Cell phone to her hear, looking down at something.
It was so surreal. I knew she had no intention of stopping, and in an instance I looked in my rear view mirror, no one there threw it into reverse and backed up about 15ft. Just as I looked back I saw her enter the intersection and a car slam into the drivers door. She spun at an angle in front of me crossing my lane and the lane next to me and crashed into a pole. Thank goodness no one was in the lane next to me going the other way.
I would say both cars were totaled. Like I told the cops if she had not been on the phone she probably would have stopped.
I have found a great way to get distracted. I have done this twice, and won’t ever do it again. I have been studying a foreign language, and tried to listed to a language tape (20 years ago) and a laguage mp3 file (recently) while driving on the freeway. The exercise says a sentence in English and then I try to say it in the foreign language. Both times, I either drove past my exit, or found myself in an exit lane when I didn’t want to exit. Listening to language tapes is truly distracting and dangerous. It proves to me that “hands free” talking on a cell phone is not safe.
As mentioned on this week’s show a lot of technology is moving to cars. I heard about one recently that is of great concern to me. Apparently GM has (or is readying) a voice activated Facebook update app for your car! It will read Facebook status updates and news feeds. Of ALL the things one needs to NOT do while driving it is updating their Facebook page or ‘following’ their friends status changes. It apparently also allows voice activated texting. It will read your texts and you can reply with 1 of 4 canned messages.