distracted driving

There have been three fatal single car accidents in my town in the last 6 days, and the news was just reporting another serious one right before it got dark outside. Showed pictures of a car with the roof cut off, but no word on the occupant. Last fatal was 3 years ago when an old lady pulled out of the gas station without looking. Before that the last one was 10 years ago. Talked to an EMT/firefighter today. Its hit the emergency responders in our town pretty hard. My daughter recently turned 16 and she wants her permit.

We just (like, just) got in from Orlando. Before getting a hundred yards from our parking spot we encountered two cars driving the wrong way up a one way. Then we had someone who couldn't stay in their lane. Once on the highway, a Mustang blew by us like we were standing still. It's everywhere.

E36 M3s gettin' crazier than it ever was. Used to be drunk drivers but since the lowering of BAC to .08 the papers are still E36 M3 full of DUI arrests... how did you not get the message yet moron. Driving courtesy has long E36 M3 the bed, berkeleying forgetaboutit. No use starting on the 'phone people' w/ the instrument glued to their ear yet alone texters, you motherberkeleyers gotta be some kind of berkeleying special. They're everywhere tho. I've escaped too many potential incidents lately that I lost count. If ya gotta talk use Bluetooth for chrissakes, get the goddamn berkeleying phone outta yur ear.

This phenomenom lies solely w/ law makers and enforcement, they seem hesitant to ramp things up tho.

Swear to almighty God I'm gonna royally berkeleying flip out on some asshat phoner or texter one of these days and it ain't gonna be berkeleying pretty... but I'll prolly be the bad guy.

Laws and enforcement... HELLO! Get with the berkeleying program.

(removed comments about local distracted pedestrians at night)

Personally I'm scared to death of distracted driving in parking lots in my miata. Seems like everybody from 16 to 70 is talking or texting or taking pictures in their giant suvs instead of looking in the lane, I can't count the number of close calls I've had.At least on the highway there are possible ways to get around, not in tight lot. I really used to think old grandmas driving was scary, now that i've seen them trying to use an iphone while driving? That's a reality scarier than any movie I've ever seen

In reply to fasted: It's sexual assault if you shove the phone up their ass. You can plead to simple assault or less breaking it over their head(it broke when they wrecked into me). I asked my lawyer the last time I saw him, because I fully expect to go through this in a Walmart parking lot.

Adults and texting: I guess I am naive, but I am constantly amazed to see so many adults fooling around with their phones while driving.

Every single day. If the crown of the road didn't direct them into the rumble strips on the shoulder there'd be even more casualties.

Teens are bad, but the soccer moms in their Escalades, QX56/Armada, Denali, are all doing it as bad or worse, 90% have their phone on their hand or resting against the steering wheel, swerving all over the road.

Construction, heating and air, and similar business' drivers are almost as bad as the soccer moms. You'd think if you're driving around with a business name, and phone number slapped on the side of your truck/van, you'd do your best not to be a jackass on the road, but that doesn't seem to be the case around here.

I've threatened to install a PA on all of our vehicles, and our work truck, but knowing me I'd get myself into a lot of trouble. I could just record, "Put the berkleying phone down and pay attention!!!," and play it on a loop. Bonus in addition to accosting distracted drivers, if I had Ride of the Valkyries playing the rest of the time folks would probably get berk out of my way.

Amen. If I was a pessimist, I'd said it is a harbinger for the end of our society. The combination of inattention, inability and sheer rudeness makes it unbelievably frightening out there. I'm seriously considering installing a dash cam so I have evidence should I need it. And into all this we're getting ready to release our now 16 year old daughter.

bigdaddylee82 wrote: Construction, heating and air, and similar business' drivers are almost as bad as the soccer moms. You'd think if you're driving around with a business name, and phone number slapped on the side of your truck/van, you'd do your best not to be a jackass on the road, but that doesn't seem to be the case around here.

Funny you mention this. Just yesterday, I had a heating & air van tailgating me so badly I was preparing to pull over to let him around me. He finally felt he had enough of an opening to cut into the inside travel lane, sped around me and cut me off, all to get to the rapidly approaching red light. Not only did he have the company name and phone number on the truck, but a "how am I driving" phone number and vehicle ID listed! Yeah, I called.

Phones need to be regulated by the FCC so they don't work (except for 911 calls) while in motion. It would be a simple thing to use triangulation from cell towers to shut them down. Too bad if you're on a bus, train or on the backseat. Idiots have ruined it for everyone. I even see cops on the phone in their cruisers.

Many of us send our kids to this:

Tire Rack street Survival

I've stood on the street corner in our little town at rush hour. Every third vehicle will have a phone stuck to the driver's ear. I've done this three times now and it's 1/3 every time. I'm to the point where I keep my thumbs on the horn buttons at certain intersections around here, and I accelerate hard away from stops where there are two turn lanes. I've been cut off too often by phone wielding SUV drivers.

tr8todd wrote: My daughter recently turned 16 and she wants her permit.

That's why my spawnling will be driving a Volvo or such, and not a Camry.

Accident avoidance is great. I want him to survive it when he doesn't avoid it.

In reply to jimbob_racing:

Jimbob is on to something here. All smartphones have GPS chips in them these days as well. Should be possible to integrate that with the phone OS so it disables the phone above a certain velocity.

I run almost daily in a suburban environment and have a lot of close calls and get a good look at a lot of drivers. The number driving with one hand on the wheel and a phone in the other is huge, possibly a majority.

Learn the pit maneuver, learn it quick, and learn it good. Use it at opportune times. Berkers will never know what hit them. They were too busy taking a selfie.

David S. Wallens wrote: Adults and texting: I guess I am naive, but I am constantly amazed to see so many adults fooling around with their phones while driving.

I admit to using my phone while stopped at lights sometimes. However, I have literally dropped my phone into my lap as soon as the light changes.

bigdaddylee82 wrote: Construction, heating and air, and similar business' drivers are almost as bad as the soccer moms. You'd think if you're driving around with a business name, and phone number slapped on the side of your truck/van, you'd do your best not to be a jackass on the road, but that doesn't seem to be the case around here.

That's been the case since long before there were handheld devices. I got my license in 1981 and remember thinking to myself that the most dangerous shiny happy people on the road were construction laborers driving like animals in overloaded, under-maintained 1/4-ton company pickups.

NYS has a law against phone use while driving.

Too bad it isn't enforced.

bigdaddylee82 wrote: Teens are bad, but the soccer moms in their Escalades, QX56/Armada, Denali, are all doing it as bad or worse, 90% have their phone on their hand or resting against the steering wheel, swerving all over the road.

I almost got hit by an Escalade the other day in a parking lot. Lady, on her phone, backed and turned to the left without looking. I did not even have time to hit the horn, I was barely able to throw it in reverse and floor it to get out of her way... my transmission was not happy over that one

Appleseed wrote: Learn the pit maneuver, learn it quick, and learn it good. Use it at opportune times. Berkers will never know what hit them. They were too busy taking a selfie.

I've put probably way too much thought into the idea of mounting a compressed air powered tennis ball cannon on the front of the XJ.

foxtrapper wrote:

tr8todd wrote: My daughter recently turned 16 and she wants her permit.

That's why my spawnling will be driving a Volvo or such, and not a Camry. Accident avoidance is great. I want him to survive it when he doesn't avoid it.

Our daughter has done both Tire Rack Street Survival and our local Sheriff's office 1.5 day teen driver course. Like you, I'm as concerned about her getting hit as I am about her hitting something. She will be in my wife's former DD, a Jetta TDI wagon.

Re using a phone at a red light (I too do this), another epidemic that is a result of phones is that the light turns green and nothing happens, because the first car(s) in line has a driver looking down, not at the light.

I'm not sure what scares me more. Phone use, or how distracting the HVACcarputerinfotainmentcenter on most modern cars is.

I'm not huge on legislating new rules for cars, but I'd really like to see some safe standards for this.

Furious_E wrote:

Appleseed wrote: Learn the pit maneuver, learn it quick, and learn it good. Use it at opportune times. Berkers will never know what hit them. They were too busy taking a selfie.

I've put probably way too much thought into the idea of mounting a compressed air powered tennis ball cannon on the front of the XJ.

I did more slightly more than an arbitrary amount of research into building a directional EMP device that could be controlled remotely from the cabin of one's car. Sadly I concluded there was no way to proceed with out me eventually becoming a felon. One can dream though.

ProDarwin wrote: I'm not sure what scares me more. Phone use, or how distracting the HVACcarputerinfotainmentcenter on most modern cars is. I'm not huge on legislating new rules for cars, but I'd really like to see some safe standards for this.

The Concert Coach gets around this by basically turning off most of the touch screen when the car is in motion. You need to do almost anything via voice command.

Not sure it's an improvement.

fasted58 wrote: E36 M3s gettin' crazier than it ever was. Used to be drunk drivers but since the lowering of BAC to .08 the papers are still E36 M3 full of DUI arrests... how did you not get the message yet moron. Driving courtesy has long E36 M3 the bed, berkeleying forgetaboutit. No use starting on the 'phone people' w/ the instrument glued to their ear yet alone texters, you motherberkeleyers gotta be some kind of berkeleying special. They're everywhere tho. I've escaped too many potential incidents lately that I lost count. If ya gotta talk use Bluetooth for chrissakes, get the goddamn berkeleying phone outta yur ear. This phenomenom lies solely w/ law makers and enforcement, they seem hesitant to ramp things up tho. Swear to almighty God I'm gonna royally berkeleying flip out on some asshat phoner or texter one of these days and it ain't gonna be berkeleying pretty... but I'll prolly be the bad guy. Laws and enforcement... HELLO! Get with the berkeleying program.

The laws are on the books and the word is being put out. The electronic amber alert/traffic billboards are constantly plastered with anti phone use and texting messages. There is no way law enforcement could keep up with the amount of usage out there. We are dependent on society to pull our heads out of our collective asses. So basically we're screwed.

David S. Wallens wrote: Adults and texting: I guess I am naive, but I am constantly amazed to see so many adults fooling around with their phones while driving.

everyone who almost hits me is texting. every day on the highway people drift into my lane or cut gentle sweeping curves. i'm driving a giant green van or a giant ram with a big white enclosed trailer, and the only explanation is they're distracted by their phone because you can't not see me.

Last summer I watched a college-aged young man walking down the sidewalk, nose buried in his phone, walk squarely into a sign post. I'd be willing to bet his driving is about the same.