Cell phone driving nitwits

Today, i almost got into an accident for the upteenth time with a person talking on a cell phone will driving.

IMHO this activity should be outlawed. It has caused some horrendous acidents where i live. IMHO, most people are oblivious to what is going on around them while yakking on the phone. I have seen them go through stop signs, red lights and changing lanes without even a look. Last year a man and his daughter were killed when he seemingly didn't notice train crossing lights and got t-boned by a freight train. Later it was found out he was talking on the phone at the exact time of the accident.

How many people have to be hurt or die before something is done about this....

BTW, i own a cell phone but never use it while driving.

Rant over.


snowbound

 

Snowbound, I am with you 100%

 

I'm happy to see something is being attempted in your state Ron.

Here, it seems it has fallen on deaf ears.

@ mikel108

Hopefully enough people will speak out on this issue so it will be ignored no longer...


snowbound

 

They are all fools!! But they dont know it!!

 

I'd like to see the laws where ever, go to the point of making it illegal to even have one in your possesion while driving. And for the people who will say that they need it in case they have an emergency or get stranded, then some company needs to make a cell phone for "Emergency Use Only" with only 2 buttons on the phone. 1 and 9. Easy enough to make a 911 call with those two buttons.

 

they do make phones that are only for 911 and 411 I know i say it some where on the news. I also think that life was easier before the cell phone I always forget mine at home.To me it's that your mate can find you faster. or some one needs something. My daugter calls if I'm 5mins late from getting home from work. I know it sometimes a good thing but we have pay phones if you are out and about and need to call some use a pay phone

 

what's a pay phone?

 

Me too!

As a professional driver (daily 250 mi./400 km), everyday I see (possible) havoc resulting from this "MOBILE MADNESS"
Overhere in Holland, cell phone use while driving has already become illegal some 3 years ago, and hands-free devices have become mandatory.
Fine is equivalent of appr. $ 190.00 if one gets caught overhere.
Still, plenty of nutcases are challenging death and disaster by only paying attention to mostly unnecessary yakking....

KEEP YOUR EYES (AND EARS!) ON THE ROAD AND YOUR HANDS UPON THE WHEEL !!!

 

A pay phone is one of those public phones on the streets, where you pay a bit of money for making calls

 

Ditto for Oz (well Queensland anyway). Illegal to use without a hands-free device. About a $200 fine here. Only came in last year I think. Maybe we're not so backward down here!!
....but what about the idiots that send SMS text messages whilst driving ?

 

Every one you see anywhere now has a cell phone glued to their ear,I wouldnt want one.The phone at home is nusiance enough in my opinion.I like to be where no one can reach me at all "at times" just the loner in me I guess surely wouldnt want one to yak on when driving.I'ts hard enough to keep from being in an accident when paying attention!

 

It's against the Law here in the UK to talk on a cell-phone whilst driving....trouble is there's no Police really interested in enforcing it...too much trouble and paper-work.....like everything else here, we've got loads of New Laws produced recently butno enforcement!!....you could drive around all day gabbing on your phone without even seeing a policeman.....our local Newspaper drove around Grimsby and Cleethorpes for 4 hours during the day and never saw one Officer either on foot or in a car!!.....the place is Lawless........... The Chief Inspector was quoted as saying "All our Officers were busy during that period".....but he didn't say doing what!..



Cochise,

 

Hi
Im an HGV driver in th UK:- mobile phone use whilst driving over here is already illegal(you can use hands free)but that doesn't stop people(idiots!) using them,the problem is the police dont catch or see drivers using them!
(if the police drove round in an artic I'm sure from that vantage point more would be caught/seen:-you'd be suprised what you can see going on when your looking down on cars from about 12' in the air!)
I agree they should be outlawed everywhere but in all honesty I cannot say that I have witnessed an accident/near miss that can be blamed on phone use,and I drive about 700/800 k per day so when I hear car drivers saying they were in/nearly in an accident caused by someone using a mobile I wonder how they can be sure(unless they are the ones who were using it!)

 

Living in a city of 4 million as i do, u see this activity everywhere, constantly..... I have learned to drive very defensively because of this(and other things)
knowing that at any time one of them could do something very unexpected.

It also contributes to the horrible "road rage" problem we have here.

IMHO, no phone call is that important that can't wait a few minutes for someone to find a safe place to pull over and respond to it.


snowbound

 

Your funny

 

By law in the UK unless you are hands free you are supposed to stop and turn the engine off to use a mobile but this never seems to happen!The main problem ,I think, is that the type of person/driver who disregards this law is probably a poor driver anyway:-you know the type selfish with a "me me me me" attitude(normally drive 4x4's or bmw's or would like to!) and probably disregards most other motoring laws as well,as for road rage I thought we led the world in that its becoming endemic over here but seems to be bad almost everywhere!

 

I think u have hit the nail on the head.

The selfishness of some drivers, here anyway, is phenomenal.

They care nothing of others on the road and think all should be accommodated for them....

I fear it will take more tragedy to finally open the eyes of the powers that be to finally act on this, but it always seems to be too little to late.


snowbound

 

New South Wales is the same Needs to be hands free. Still alot of people yapping away without a care in the world, and never hard to pick, they are ALWAYS the ones that slow down....speed up....don't indicate....pull out in front of you....leaving a trail of oil slicks and thumbtacks behind them

It's a shame they are so ignorant, otherwise they would be able to read my lips

Glad you're o.k Snowbound

 

Hopefully we all will be CartoonBoy.

Thanks.


snowbound

 

On the rare ocassion that I need to use or answer the cell phone in the car I hit the speakerphone button and I have it set to dial on voice command so it is just almost hands off operation. it just sits in the seat and I just talk at the windshield or at the side windows or where ever I need to look to continue driving safetly. Works much better than an ear piece.

bigc

 

Allday my cell phone was off.I forgot to charge it lol so no one could call today. But I know people who only have a cel phone and not a home phone what do you think of that it does save money .


I'm at 400

 

Hey Suga! For a minute I thought you were talking about Poker winnings!
You sure are at 400!



It's not just hands free that will help, some people get to talking and forget what they are doing! You can't tell them that, but, you can follow them in the car and know their MIND is not on driving!

So, hands-free might help a little, but, even those who pride themselves on being great multi-taskers aren't that great when they are driving and listening to someone SOMEWHERE ELSE - on the phone! It's just not the same as talking to someone right in the car!!

I guess I am just not a phone talker, but, I listen to the one-sided conversations in the store and other places and think, "Is that all you have to talk about? How boring!" LOL! Most of them are inane conversations anyhow, certainly not important enough to run someone off the road!!

That's my 3 cents!

 

If it's like here in the US, they were all at the donut shop.

 

I'm a HGV driver too here in the UK, down in the South of the country and the amount of times I have been close to hitting another vehicle because they were on their mobile phone beggars belief. I deliver to farms and 99% of the time it is down small country lanes and yes you are right it's the morons with the big 4X4's who are the worse.