Don't Drive and Text!

Found out one of my co-workers lost his mother over my "weekend" (wed and thurs) to a young girl who ran a red light while texting.

They went out to eat after both brothers had finished work.. so my co-worker's wife, his brother's wife, and his mom were in the van, while both brothers showed up in their trucks. After eating, it was my co-worker, the van, and then his brother.. half way through the light, this girl broadsided the van.

His Mom fought and beat lung cancer.. but 4 hours after the accident, succumbed to her injuries and died. the others in the van are all in serious but stable condition and are expected to make a near total recovery.. we wait to hear about my co-workers wife as she already had serious back problems from another accident years ago.

One life was ended, another completely ruined, and two others hang in the balance to see how much pain they spend the rest of their lives in. This does not include the loss of a loved one in such a fast and horrible way... Please do not Text and Drive!

Sorry to hear that. Unfortunately this problem is NOT going to go away. The police have given up on ticketing people where I live because of the all lives matter fiasco. My guess nothing will happen until a politician's family or celebrity's family or themselves get caught in it before things really start getting serious in enforcing the law. I am a defensive driver every berkeleying day trying to keep my family safe on the roads and it sucks. Close calls happens every week.

I know of three people who have lost their lives in the same manor just within this last week. A collage friend of my wife and newborn baby were killed after walking an elder child to school by a texting red light runner.

The penalties need to be at least as stiff as DUI penalties if not stronger. It's just madness.

I see this every day.

As long as other drivers tolerate drivers who exhibit poor behavior while sharing my roads, this will continue.

People are too "nice" while witnessing unsafe behavior, use your horn DAMN IT!

Get a dash cam, point at it and smile when douche bags get upset with you for calling them on their bad behavior.

I could do a daily half-hour TV show just editing and doing a running commentary on the things my dash cam witnesses.

Remember to change your ammo from hollow points to FMJ (for your in-car carry) so you can penetrate your car door in case of road rage zombie attack!

Yes, please do your best not to tolerate it.

I rode up next to an idiot texting in his lap on a fairly narrow road. His window was open, so all I had to do was look at him. A nice honk should work in most cases.

I'd sure like to see scramblers legal.

What we need is a system whereby you can't text while in a moving vehicle. each car has a short range text messaging jammer installed. The only way to circumvent it is to plug your phone in a usb connected to the car which only lets you send or receive txt messages when fully stopped.

In reply to YA:

Right. But they are illegal.

No jammers please, it is possible to text while driving safely.

You voice input the text, and judiciously choose when and how you do it to not impair your driving.....

Im a trained professional I can juggle a cheeseburger while, navigating via GPS, sexting some ho, changing CDs, while driving a manual shift 18 speed semi towing triples in downtown rush hour traffic. (in addition to updating my drivers log at the required 15min intervals)

Some people should not be allowed to drive, DMV issues licenses to people who can't read english! (but that is a whole different can of worms)

Every driver should be able to shoot at offending cars with a paint ball gun, anyone with more than 2 paintball hits on their car should be impounded, fined, and go back through driver education class!

bentwrench wrote: Some people should not be allowed to drive, DMV issues licenses to people who can't read english! (but that is a whole different can of worms)

I have seen no correlation between ability to speak English, and driving skill. Plenty of people who speak English and suck at driving. Plenty of people who don't speak English who are good drivers.

I've long been a proponent of signal jammers, for various reasons but texting is one. I don't see why it would difficult to have the OS pull from the phones gps and prevent use above say 10-15mph. Too me, an out of touch tech guy, it seems an easy if than statement to implement.

Even connected over Bluetooth, it shouldn't(i think) be too difficult. Music and nav get exceptions, but texting and calls only through voice over blue tooth.

I'm sure there's an abundance of reasons, legal and other, why it wouldn't work. But if it's just someone didn't think of it, I claim the idea.

I often RIDE in a car and use my phone; jammers are not going to be the answer.

bentwrench wrote: Every driver should be able to shoot at offending cars with a paint ball gun, anyone with more than 2 paintball hits on their car should be impounded, fined, and go back through driver education class!

^THIS

If someone is driving slowly in traffic, 99% of the time they are looking down at their phone. This E36 M3 really has to stop. I was damn near killed by a distracted driver and there was no punishment for her. Unfortunately many many people will die needlessly before this is fixed.

bentwrench wrote: No jammers please, it is possible to text while driving safely. You voice input the text, and judiciously choose when and how you do it to not impair your driving..... Im a trained professional I can juggle a cheeseburger while, navigating via GPS, sexting some ho, changing CDs, while driving a manual shift 18 speed semi towing triples in downtown rush hour traffic. (in addition to updating my drivers log at the required 15min intervals) Some people should not be allowed to drive, DMV issues licenses to people who can't read english! (but that is a whole different can of worms) Every driver should be able to shoot at offending cars with a paint ball gun, anyone with more than 2 paintball hits on their car should be impounded, fined, and go back through driver education class!

I do hope your are not serious. There are way too many studies for me to quote showing a degradation in driving skill while talking, texting or just generally distracted. I don't care how good you think you are behind the wheel, distraction is distraction. Mental focus is affected by cognitive distraction. There is no right place or time. I've said it before and I'll say it a million times more, when you are behind the wheel you are in the act of driving, so do that and nothing else.

Until we all come to realize we're not super human, that there is no such thing as multi tasking well, and we all share in the risk that is driving then needless deaths such as the OP posted about will continue to occur. And why should the death need happen to some famous person's loved one for us all to take it seriously? That's just passing the buck.

I have no qualms publicly shaming anyone using a phone for any reason behind the wheel. I'll call them out at a stop light, on Facebook, or even this forum. Just stop doing it. And stop justifying your desire to do it.
Hashtag,nomoredeathsnomoreexcuses Regards,
George Rooney Driver education instructor and car enthusiast.

To the OP, I feel your pain. I lost a friend on a bike to a young, high, inexperienced teen. Nothing makes it any easier to deal with. I miss him everyday, and I start my semester off talking about him to my students. I want them to outlive me and their parents. Just a damn shame. Sorry, I gotta go pet my dogs and feel good again.

Saw a stat the other day. People driving 5 miles an hour slower than the flow of traffic are 4 times more likely to cause an accident than a driver going 5 miles per hour faster than the flow of traffic. My buddy's wife is a perfect example. She drives slow and says its because the road is full of bad drivers. This is a direct quote " I see accidents happening all around me, but I'm never in one" She thinks she is an excellent driver. At least she never lets go of the death grip she has on the wheel long enough to text.

My co-worker was in today.. though not really there. He is out of PTO, so unless he wants to make Zero money, he has to come to work.

His Mom died of a heart attack induced by the accident. Girl has been charged with vehicular manslaughter and due to a complete lack of remorse on her part (she stayed in her car, unhurt, talking to her b/f on the phone rather than getting out and checking if people were ok.. ) a lawsuit is already in the works. I doubt I can say more than this now. They are not after money, they want to make an example out of her.. and I do not blame them in the least

We're at a strange confluence of technologies. Ten years ago, very little texting was going on. Ten years from now, cars will self drive to the point that your attention can be on something other than the road.

It'd be nice if people would stop doing stupid E36 M3, but I'm afraid the reality is that they will continue to look down at their handhelds and text or see if they have more likes or whatever. It's an addiction (many studies actually show this) with a new set of downsides that has come along so quickly, we as a culture don't have the tools in our box to deal with it appropriately yet.

Stay safe my friends.

Texting while driving is much like the traction circle, let’s call it “The Attention Circle”. Your brain only has so much computing power. That computing power is divided between the front, rear, and sides of the car. Then add in what is on the radio, thinking about bacon, etc. Text messaging takes away a huge amount of that computing power. You have to compose a message and use a hand to manually input the message which usually involves looking away from the road since many phones have touchscreens. Me personally, I can’t type a text message and have a conversation at the same time.

bentwrench wrote: Im a trained professional I can juggle a cheeseburger while, navigating via GPS, sexting some ho, changing CDs, while driving a manual shift 18 speed semi towing triples in downtown rush hour traffic. (in addition to updating my drivers log at the required 15min intervals) Some people should not be allowed to drive,

Please tell me you're joking. If you are, cool, great joke. If you aren't, then you're one of those who shouldn't be allowed to drive.

I've pretty much stopped riding a motorcycle to work. It's just too dangerous now. Even the Miata isn't safe, but at least it will keep my parts more-or-less contained. There are just too many drivers wandering out of their lane and missing lights.

chandlerGTi wrote: I often RIDE in a car and use my phone; jammers are not going to be the answer.

I'd would 100% phones locking when moving for ALL users. For the greater good.

But I'd also support breathalyzers being required for all cars/drivers. For the greater good.

I'm weird like that. I don't trust people.

In reply to ProDarwin:

It's always easy to take away things from other people for the common good. How easily would you give up the ability to drive yourself for the common good? It's not that much of a stretch anymore.

It's terrible when we loose anyone. Parents need to teach their kids a little about physics. Our pastor was hit by a 17 year old girl texting and rear ended him. He was injured but has recovered. Car was totaled. We can only do our part to help.

Street Survival School

Wall-e wrote: In reply to ProDarwin: It's always easy to take away things from other people for the common good. How easily would you give up the ability to drive yourself for the common good? It's not that much of a stretch anymore.

Well its different to take away someone's transportation & potentially their ability to get to work/take care of family/etc. vs a minor inconvenience like blowing into a tube to start the car or not being able to surf social media from the passenger seat.

I view the first option as a temporary solution anyway. As soon as something like that was implemented, the race would be on among car manufacturers/app developers/phone companies/etc. to figure out a more advanced solution that would allow for texting while passenger, but keep drivers off phones.

It always pisses off cell phone users who can't stay in their lane,

when at 45 mph they are half way into your lane you beat on their window and tell them to put the phone down!