More Cell Phone Stuff......Getting tired of it.

[DrkKnight614]

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com...aspx?GT1=33004

I'm really starting to get tired of all this cell phone and texting while driving bs. Countless articles being done talking about how it is soooo bad and how more and more nanny laws are being pushed to stop this evil evil buisness behind the wheel. The whole article above is just a perfect example of how words can be played around with to more serve the point....even if some things are contradictory or said to confuse the reader.

"As evidence piles up that using a cell phone while driving carries significant -- and often fatal -- risks, aggressive efforts are under way to end talking and texting behind the wheel."

Piles up? what evidence...only a few studies have been done to say that it is fatal to talk on a cell phone and drive. Theres been countless studies showing that accident rates have not decreased since cell phone and texting laws went into effect and there has been no increase in accident rates because of cell phones either. Also the whole talking on the cell phone is like being intoxicated thing...I find it hard to believe. Seems like just another scare tatic.

Now before you people start flamming me, in no way do I think its ok to talk on the cell phone or text while driving or think that it doesn't reduce your reaction time or skills. It totally does, but the amount of attention and the amount of MONEY being spent towards this single issue is getting freaking ridiculous. More laws are trying to be put into effect and the government is starting up a whole against distracted driving campaign which is bound to cost a fortune.

Fear, scare tatics and the will to make more money off the people is the only thing driving this whole movement.

"It's not a small problem: Nearly 6,000 people died in crashes involving distracted driving in 2008, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. That's 16% of all traffic fatalities for that year. In addition, 500,000 were injured in 2008 in accidents involving some form of driver distraction, the U.S. Department of Transportation reports."

Um great, I like how the writer includes this little statistic, making it seem like 6,000 people died in crashes b/c they were talking on their cell phone. Yes it includes a link for the description of distracted driving and she doesn't say it was all caused by cell phone use, but when your reading this, the whole article is targeted towards cell phone use, so its not difficult to think that most people will simply go, omg 6k people died b/c they were talking on their cell phone....easily taking it outta context...which is the point. If you click on the link the distracted driving has many descriptions and those 6k people who died could of been doing any numerous things. 5999 of them could of been stuffing their faces with Mcdonalds or fiddling with the radio will 1 could of been killed b/c they were on the phone. Now I'm exaggerating and I'm sure more then 1 person died b/c of cell phone use but just trying to make a point of how this whole issue is being twisted.

And like I said....no credible information has been found that shows anything has changed as far as accident rates.

"A new study from the Highway Loss Data Institute indicates cell phone bans have not resulted in fewer traffic accidents. The study examined insurance claims from crashes before and after the bans and said that not only have claim rates not gone down but that there has been no change in driving patterns compared with states without bans."


And this is no surprise...if studies keep being done and an "increase" in cell phone can be determined, then don't be surprised when insurance rates go up......I know we all want that.

"If crashes due to distracted driving increase, it will have a negative impact on rates," says Bill Windsor, the associate vice president of safety at Nationwide. "But if we can reduce overall losses due to distracted driving, it will have a positive impact on rates."

Yay, now celebrities are getting involved to push this too.

"Last week, Oprah Winfrey dedicated two episodes of her talk show to recognizing people who had lost loved ones to distracted driving. She asked her audience to take the "No Phone Zone" pledge to hang up their phones while driving. With Winfrey on board, anything can happen."

Notice how everything keeps talking about distracted driving...yet the only thing being focused on is cell phones? Why is that.....why didn't Oprah declare her pledge "Keep Your Hands on the Wheel and Your Eyes on the Road." Or stop putting on makeup, or checking your email, or reading the paper, or stuffing your mouth with food????????

Other distracting activities include:
•Using a cell phone
•Eating and drinking
•Talking to passengers
•Grooming
•Reading, including maps
•Using a PDA or navigation system
•Watching a video
•Changing the radio station, CD, or Mp3 player.

Not one study or article has been about the 100s of other distractions while driving. Why aren't an of these other distractions on the list being addressed? That is why I'm getting annoyed by this whole movenment. If these people in charge or these universitys or whoever is doing the studies really wanted to do some good, they'd be including every distration thats behind the wheel....not just cell phones. They'd also be doing studies on how many people would fail their road test if they had to take it again tomorrow. They'd be doing studies about how many young drivers would be better drivers if they took high speed driving courses and courses of how to control your car in wet conditions and if you went into a skid..ETC ETC ETC ETC.

But no...this one piece of technology is being singled out...why, only thing I can come up with is that enough fear has been enabled that laws were able to be passed against it and so more revenue could be brought in....or so they thought. Its obvious that it is very hard to enforce these laws at all. But it seems they will continue to push until phones are totally banned from being out in a car all together.

Maybe the government affilites who will be running this campaign against distracted driving (which obviously should just be changed to Mothers Against Cell Phone Use Behind The Wheel...bc they obviously could care less about the other distractions) should instead set up programs to really teach people how to drive and reasses the state road tests (which are definitely outdated and haven't changed much since your parents took them).

Case in point...too much attention is being dedicated to the wrong places and the obvious solutions to making our roads safer are overlooked for whatever reason.

Rant over.

[Sponsor]

[NAD23ZX3]

Eating food is not even similar to texting while driving. Have you ever read a book while driving? Just look at who usually talks the most on a cell phone, teenagers. The most inexperienced and dangerous group of drivers, who never believe they may be doing something wrong.

It's just a fact that using a cell phone while driving is stupid. No ones pushing that article in your face. People got along fine without cell phones, and they EVEN drove places.

[puppetman]

thats an epic rant

il admit i text while i drive. i do it much less now though since ive had my mtx focus. honestly its getting to where i really dont want to text while i drive. its too much touble to get my phone out of my pocket lol

but yeah are there a ton of people crashing and dying because of this? i want to see that statistic. i dont even need to look at my phone to type somthing, so maybe we should take these full keybard phones away from these 16 year old newbie drivers. its as dangerous for me to do it as it is to drive with one hand, because thats all it really is that im doing. of course i dont mean to say that texting or talking on the phone is safe, im just saying it hasnt gotten anybody in my presence hurt. but whatever, id like to see everything listed in the link outlawed. makeup and food and whatnot lol

[mjd4277]

You don't necessarily have to look at statistics. Just look at the police reports that are on file where a cell phone was a contributing factor in an accident.

[mlbbaseball]

holy crap that was long, but at the same time its true!

[karguy427]

Originally Posted by DrkKnight614

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com...aspx?GT1=33004

I'm really starting to get tired of all this cell phone and texting while driving bs. Countless articles being done talking about how it is soooo bad and how more and more nanny laws are being pushed to stop this evil evil buisness behind the wheel. The whole article above is just a perfect example of how words can be played around with to more serve the point....even if some things are contradictory or said to confuse the reader.

"As evidence piles up that using a cell phone while driving carries significant -- and often fatal -- risks, aggressive efforts are under way to end talking and texting behind the wheel."

Piles up? what evidence...only a few studies have been done to say that it is fatal to talk on a cell phone and drive. Theres been countless studies showing that accident rates have not decreased since cell phone and texting laws went into effect and there has been no increase in accident rates because of cell phones either. Also the whole talking on the cell phone is like being intoxicated thing...I find it hard to believe. Seems like just another scare tatic.
They not only have statistical evidence to back up their claims, they have doucmentation from insurance companies as well. I'm in insurance claims. Distracted driving has become a real problem. Think about it - I-pods, cell phones, PDA's, audio system remotes, GPS units, who wouldn't be distracted with all these devices around?

Now before you people start flamming me, in no way do I think its ok to talk on the cell phone or text while driving or think that it doesn't reduce your reaction time or skills. It totally does, but the amount of attention and the amount of MONEY being spent towards this single issue is getting freaking ridiculous. More laws are trying to be put into effect and the government is starting up a whole against distracted driving campaign which is bound to cost a fortune.

Fear, scare tatics and the will to make more money off the people is the only thing driving this whole movement.

"It's not a small problem: Nearly 6,000 people died in crashes involving distracted driving in 2008, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. That's 16% of all traffic fatalities for that year. In addition, 500,000 were injured in 2008 in accidents involving some form of driver distraction, the U.S. Department of Transportation reports."

Um great, I like how the writer includes this little statistic, making it seem like 6,000 people died in crashes b/c they were talking on their cell phone. Yes it includes a link for the description of distracted driving and she doesn't say it was all caused by cell phone use, but when your reading this, the whole article is targeted towards cell phone use, so its not difficult to think that most people will simply go, omg 6k people died b/c they were talking on their cell phone....easily taking it outta context...which is the point. If you click on the link the distracted driving has many descriptions and those 6k people who died could of been doing any numerous things. 5999 of them could of been stuffing their faces with Mcdonalds or fiddling with the radio will 1 could of been killed b/c they were on the phone. Now I'm exaggerating and I'm sure more then 1 person died b/c of cell phone use but just trying to make a point of how this whole issue is being twisted.
The issue is 'distracted driving', not 'driving while texting'. But texting is a big part of it because of the length of the distraction that results from it.

And like I said....no credible information has been found that shows anything has changed as far as accident rates.

"A new study from the Highway Loss Data Institute indicates cell phone bans have not resulted in fewer traffic accidents. The study examined insurance claims from crashes before and after the bans and said that not only have claim rates not gone down but that there has been no change in driving patterns compared with states without bans."
I'm not surprised with this statistic. It's too soon to be able to determine whether there's been any change in driving habits. Most of the 'ban' laws just went into effect within the last year.


And this is no surprise...if studies keep being done and an "increase" in cell phone can be determined, then don't be surprised when insurance rates go up......I know we all want that.

"If crashes due to distracted driving increase, it will have a negative impact on rates," says Bill Windsor, the associate vice president of safety at Nationwide. "But if we can reduce overall losses due to distracted driving, it will have a positive impact on rates."

Yay, now celebrities are getting involved to push this too.

"Last week, Oprah Winfrey dedicated two episodes of her talk show to recognizing people who had lost loved ones to distracted driving. She asked her audience to take the "No Phone Zone" pledge to hang up their phones while driving. With Winfrey on board, anything can happen."

Notice how everything keeps talking about distracted driving...yet the only thing being focused on is cell phones? Why is that.....why didn't Oprah declare her pledge "Keep Your Hands on the Wheel and Your Eyes on the Road." Or stop putting on makeup, or checking your email, or reading the paper, or stuffing your mouth with food????????

Other distracting activities include:
•Using a cell phone
•Eating and drinking
•Talking to passengers
•Grooming
•Reading, including maps
•Using a PDA or navigation system
•Watching a video
•Changing the radio station, CD, or Mp3 player.

Not one study or article has been about the 100s of other distractions while driving. Why aren't an of these other distractions on the list being addressed? That is why I'm getting annoyed by this whole movenment. If these people in charge or these universitys or whoever is doing the studies really wanted to do some good, they'd be including every distration thats behind the wheel....not just cell phones. They'd also be doing studies on how many people would fail their road test if they had to take it again tomorrow. They'd be doing studies about how many young drivers would be better drivers if they took high speed driving courses and courses of how to control your car in wet conditions and if you went into a skid..ETC ETC ETC ETC.

But no...this one piece of technology is being singled out...why, only thing I can come up with is that enough fear has been enabled that laws were able to be passed against it and so more revenue could be brought in....or so they thought. Its obvious that it is very hard to enforce these laws at all. But it seems they will continue to push until phones are totally banned from being out in a car all together.
I agree with you here. The focus (no pun intended) should be on distracted driving as a whole, whether it's a cell phone, PDA, GPS or whatever.........

Maybe the government affilites who will be running this campaign against distracted driving (which obviously should just be changed to Mothers Against Cell Phone Use Behind The Wheel...bc they obviously could care less about the other distractions) should instead set up programs to really teach people how to drive and reasses the state road tests (which are definitely outdated and haven't changed much since your parents took them).

Case in point...too much attention is being dedicated to the wrong places and the obvious solutions to making our roads safer are overlooked for whatever reason.
Hopefully, the driver's education courses will be updated to get the point across.

Rant over.

Simply put, if you're paying attention to something else (anything else) when you should be paying attention to what you're doing on the road, CUT IT OUT!!!!

[pistolgripbmx]

I'm reading this on my cell while driving.

















jkz all teh wayzzz

[bluefront]

It's very difficult to prove a person was using a cell phone when his "accident" occurred. Unless the driver admits it, or you can get that info from the cell phone company, it's difficult to prove anything.

Meaning.....cell phone usage may be to blame in a much bigger percentage of accidents than is currently reported.

And.....the people coming out against cell phone usage while driving, aren't trying to sell you a product. That makes the whole thing more believable.

And.....there have been studies that tend to prove that talking on a cell phone is more of a distraction than almost anything else you can do while driving. This involves how a person's brain handles this sort of stuff.

Conclusion....you're safer around drunks while driving, than cell phone users. (studies prove it) Pretty scary stuff.....the practice should be stopped. And it can be right now.....the phone can be turned off by the cell phone company software, if the built-in GPS indicates movement.

And it should be....

[arrestmespi]

Yes it should be stopped, but not by the cell phone companies they technolgy can't tell if your driving or riding.

[UnbridledCarnage]

i txt while i drive. i get yelled at all the time about it. and across the river in hoosier-land they are trying to make it illegal