Cell Phones and Driving

[centipede]

Today's newspaper had an article titled "Driver charged in deadly Texas crash". The first paragraph states: Police filed intoxication manslaugher charges Sunday against a driver who lost control of his car while using a cell phone, plunging the vehicle into a rain-filled ditch and killing five children inside.

Defenders of cell phone use by motor vehicle operators can suggest that it wouldn't have happened if he weren't drunk, and there's a point to the argument but since we know there are millions who don't have accidents every time they drive drunk, we can also say that it wouldn't have happened if he weren't on the phone. In essence, this particular trajedy was the result of behavior in which the worst of both worlds were involved.

[Jon]

wow, ... well... "IF" he was drunk, then anything else he did was impaired, including his judgment about using the phone... so.. any talk about the cell phone use in this case is a waste. He could have just as well have been talking to himself if he was drunk...



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I do not believe that America is better than everybody else...
America "IS" everybody else.
HBAT

[PaulW]

"According to police, a passenger told police that the driver's mobile phone rang and he lost control when he tried to answer it."

Not quite the same as talking to himself.

[centipede]

Geez, how many people were in that car, anyway? The driver, 5 kids, and a witness makes 7. Any more?

Jon, if he was drunk and the phone didn't ring, he just might have ended his criminal act without a trajedy. If he was sober, 5 kids would still be dead and more likely than not, with the help of a "good" lawyer, the driver would have gotten away without being held responsible for their deaths because there are currently no laws against cell phone use by operators of motor vehicles.

[Jon]

Sorry... The phone did not kill anyone. If the phone ringing caused the problem, a 3 year old yelling could have also.. I guess those need to be outlawed also.

My guess is no one will do anything to him worse they what he is already doing to himself anyway... Maybe you guys should call him and see if you can mush him to suicide..


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I do not believe that America is better than everybody else...
America "IS" everybody else.
HBAT

[centipede]

Jon, I agree that cell phones don't kill people but those who use them while driving do, so please put your personal agenda aside and try, for the sake of future victims, to be more objective. Answering and fumbling with a cell phone and losing focus while chatting away with one hand on the wheel isn't even close to the simple procedure of telling a kid to shut up and if the kid doesn't and you're getting rattled, you can always pull over and take it from there; which would be no different than pulling over to answer the phone, or letting it go to voice mail for a minute or two while finding a place to pull over in order to return urgent messages. Please read my earlier posting about almost getting run down by someone talking on a phone while driving with one hand, and you may better understand my position on the subject. Cell phone use while driving is dangerous and it kills people!!!

[Jon]

LOL... I don't have a personal agenda.. I have a problem with laws that don't make sense... and anecdotal evidence.

If he was drunk. the Cell Phone has no barring on the case. There are already laws about driving while distracted, why do you need another one that says its "ILLEGAL TO DRIVE WHILE DISTRACTED". use the one that is already there.... Oh, and you will also have to require the removal of all distracting things from the car... you know.. radios, passengers, day dreaming drivers...

Also... the Rights of the millions of individuals are more important then the safety of the few so called victims. Using your logic, Cars should be banned... then bicycles, then walking, even eating... all can be attributed to killing people.


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I do not believe that America is better than everybody else...
America "IS" everybody else.
HBAT

[Greg]

I'm with Jon on this one. The problem isn't cell phones as much as inattentiveness. Cell phones are very visable while being used, but someone glancing down at a map would be just as, or even more dangerous, while driving.

I don't think Jon is promoting the use of phones while driving, as much as questioning the effectiveness or neccessity of this law. The law seems to me to single out the most visible form of inattention, but not the most common or dangerous.

punatoons

[centipede]

Jon, I'm violently opposed to laws that don't make sense, and I regret for assuming you had a personal agenda for being opposed to the issue (such as business-related, or not having the discipline to wait a few minutes before returning calls in a safer environment). As such, we are united in our opposition to things that don't make sense. But since it is a fact that an accident does not occur every time someone drives drunk, your argument that the phone had no bearing on this trajedy doesn't make sense because, by default, you are saying the driver would have gone off the road and into the ditch and killed 5 kids without the phone ever coming into play. Think about it.

You are blotting out the basic, issue-specific concern which involves people driving with one hand while engaged in a phone conversation by flippantly equating such an act with radios, passengers, screaming kids, and day dreaming, and then you drift even farther off the track to talk about bicycles, walking, and eating, and you even brought up suicide. You also mentioned having a problem with anecdotal evidence, and I do too, so I checked google under Cell Phone Accidents and read that in 2005, in the USA alone, cell phone distraction caused 2,600 deaths and 330,000 injuries. At some point, Jon, we must determine what is anecdotal evidence and what is stark reality, and deal with it accordingly. People like you and I are repulsed by mindless authority and we often get pig-headed and blind in our hatred of the concept. I've learned that when a person stops getting objective and resorts to a defense consisting of nothing more than silly and inane mockery, the brain has suffered a short-circuit, the result is babbling, and it's time to re-boot. There are plenty of other issues out there, pal. Use your energy where it's more constructive because the one before us threatens to kill or maim just about any of us at any time, and just about any place.

I've had enough of this subject, Jon. Say whatever else you may; I will not respond. By the way, I do like and agree with your belief that America is better than everybody else because America is everybody else, and I believe that anyone who embraces such a concept is not as off the wall as you have made yourself out to be on these pages.

[Bob Orts]

I believe Hawaii's current law only comes into play AFTER an accident and does nothing to prevent it. Just like DWI does not require an accident, its preventative. The proposed cell phone law is also preventative.

The Texas incident is when the current Hawaii law would kick in, AFTER the tragedy. The new law is intended to stop these;

Seventeen-year-old twins, Kathy and Kimberly Seager, were killed while stopped at a railroad crossing. The twin's car was crushed from behind by a 23-year-old driver who was talking on his cell phone. The driver didn't even try to stop.

Ryan Perez, 24, reached for his cell phone and slammed into a vehicle driven by 18-year-old Samantha Ibarra. Ibarra died in the crash.

Michael Ozyjowski, 75, was killed when he was run off the road by a woman driving and talking on a cell phone.

Tracey McDonald-Iwunze, 28, was using her phone when her car ran a stop light and killed Kathryn Marjama.

Dr. Michael Sanchez was hit and killed while jogging. The driver told police that he was was answering his cell phone.

Jun Joseph Kojima, age 27, died after being hit by an 18-year-old driver who was reaching for his cell phone.

Witnesses report that 48-year-old Janet Indermuehle was talking on her phone when she lost control and crashed. Indermuehle, her 15-year-old son Daniel Hall, and 14-year-old Tiffany Kastner were all killed.

These are just a sampling of the over 750 reports available where someone died at the hands of driver using a cell phone.