In the absence of hands-free text-messaging, it’s hard to argue with the support expressed Monday by the Kansas Department of Transportation and the Kansas Highway Patrol for a bill that would ban sending, writing and reading text messages while driving. “The volume of traffic on our highways in the 21st century and the legal speed at which vehicles can travel demand our undivided attention,” the Highway Patrol’s Maj. Mark Bruce told a House committee. Still, liberty-loving state lawmakers may not be ready to join the seven states and the District of Columbia in a full ban, at least until more research is available to serve the commonsense conclusion that texting while driving is dangerous. A first step for Kansas might be targeting teen texting, as part of a graduated licensing system.
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50 Comments
Using cell phones while driving needs to be outlawed as soon as possible. No question about it.
“JWink” –
I generally agree with your conclusion, but it doesn’t seem like a very conservative approach to the problem.
What is it about mobile phones that makes you so eager to deny someone their freedom of speech?
Shouldn’t this issue be discussed as a governmental-imposed limit on individual freedom?
Doesn’t your proposal violate my First Amendment rights?
I gave my kids a general rule, if I know that they are sending me a text while driving I will not answer it.
And yes we are different generation and in texting it shows, when I text it likes like a monkey picking fleas.
My oldest does not even glance at the keys while texting and the other two are close to being that good.
I do agree with it being illegal to text and drive even for my oldest!
MonkeyH: Easy answer to that one. Your 1st amendment right to freedom of speech doesn’t extend to the right to yell “Fire” in a crowded theater.
Same with using cell phones while driving. Your rights end when you endanger the lives of others.
I keep thinking about the situation where an accident victim was still lying in the street by the downtown Wichita library surrounded by wreckage of two vehicles. The police and emergency workers were just arriving.
Incredibly a woman in a SUV drove right through the mess talking on her cell phone oblivious to the agony going on there.
It should go without argument that texting is not only visually distracting from the road but mentally taking the driver away from the immediate needs of attentive driving.
As much as I love freedom, and the government staying out of private lives, I also love my family and my own life and don’t want either taken by someone looking at a cell phone texting.
I fully understand your POV, “JWink” –
But it stinks of post hoc ergo propter hoc.”
I’m not sure the woman in the SUV was an @sshole because she was on a cell phone (ableit, that’s probably way to bet). She may have been an @sshole in real life.
(Did she own a janitorial service?)
Maybe automobiles should be equipped with a weak cellular blocking signal that is operating anytime the vehicle is in motion only.
That might take away the danger of driving while under the influence of texting or talking.
I don’t know how many times I have nearly been hit or seen people completely absorbed in their phone when driving….and I’m guilty too.
Can you really legislate against blatant stupidity?
What the heck message is SO important that it cannot wait?
Ban texting and cell phones from use while driving.
Cell phones should not be used while operating a motor vehicle! Not for talking, not for texting, not in any way. If a person must contact another they need to pull over to do it.
Guess that shows what an old fogey I am! ;-)
How is talking on a hands free cell phone more distracting than talking to a passenger in the car? You banners never ever think anything out.
beber, in my experience when a situation needing your attention presents itself your passenger knows that, sees that with you. So that conversation stops while that situation is navigated.
I’ve seen just as many stupid drivers who are impaired by lighting a cigarette or by tilting their heads so as not to drip cheese from the Nachos Bell Grande on their chins.
I use my cell phone in the car daily. Multiple times. And 90% of it is work-related. And I’ve never been in an accident as a result of same.
Are we going to inhibit the wheels of commerce and economy for the many just to attempt to legislate the stupidity of the few?
one of the nation’s biggest problems — moral octuplets.
Cell phones are distracting enough while driving, but no more than eating, or drinking or changing radio stations.
Texting while driving? That’s just nuts. No one can do that safely.
” If a person must contact another they need to pull over to do it.
Guess that shows what an old fogey I am! ;-)”
Not at all linda. I refuse to have one of the things.
My brother? The total opposite. I rode along Kellogg the other day with him while he intermittently cursed other drivers WHILE attempting to text “hard to talk while you’re driving” on the itty bitty keys of his cell phone.
Their is a downside to instant communication. It devalues the content in favor of convenience.
“beber” asks –
“How is talking on a hands free cell phone more distracting than talking to a passenger in the car?”
I don’t know, but I’ve read studies that it is. Has to do with how the brain processes information. Something like, if the passenger is there your brain knows subtle things like posture and other body language and if you’re on the phone that part of the brain imagines that stuff… and spatial relationships are important enough when driving a car to be more distracting.
Ultimately it is, as you said, a matter of thinking things through.
I’ll bet there were people who blamed car radios for accidents back when the first one showed up that 1932 Studebaker.
I’m at that impasse. I think it’s a bad idea for people to talk (and especially text) on a cell phone while driving. But it would be an unenforceable ban; only thing you could do is write an additional ticket after an accident. And where does that get ya?
And as a practical matter, it’s probably less dangerous to hold a teleconference as you drive 70 mph on the Turnpike across the prairie than to chat with your girlfriend as you weave around the Dillon’s parking lot.
I think we could reduce government, lower the burden on law enforcement, and probably have a much better society if we revoked about 90% of the laws on the books and replaced it with a standard $100 fine for Being an Idiot.
I’m in my early 60s, retired, and that means I don’t drive often in the heaviest traffic. If I can, I plan my comings and goings while traffic is lighter. Recently I had to be at an appointment at 8 and it was on the other side of town. I almost felt like I needed to send out an “Elder Warning.” I left early, allowed so much extra time I arrived before the traffic even got heavy! ;-)
All that said, I’ve made myself sound older, slower, less capable than I think I am.
And guess what? My Mom also still drives. Scares the livin’ daylights outta me, and should scare you too! She, however, thinks she is a safe and very capable driver. She’s told me she knows when she should and shouldn’t drive.
See where I’m going with this? I judge my capabilities, my Mother judges hers…
We both have valid licenses!
So, always be aware that you aren’t just watching out for yourself, but everyone else on the road, all the other situations that might need your immediate attention.
It makes sense for me to pull over to make or receive a telephone call. I hope others of my capabilities make that decision too.
I wish they had cell phone jammers that you you could buy. Anywhere within a hundred feet of my vehicle would be a “dead” zone! Get off the phone and drive.
“…standard $100 fine for Being an Idiot.”
Sounds great! However, I have confidence we would need to argue about how big an idiot, etc.
What did we do prior to the availability of cell phones. Wow! we were living in the dark ages and didn’t even know it.
“lindainks55″ posted, re: “…a standard $100 fine for Being an Idiot.” –
“Sounds great! However, I have confidence we would need to argue about how big an idiot, etc.”
Yeah, I thought about that.
But there seems to me we might be better off if we got rid of all laws and replaced ‘em with a “Being an Idiot” statute.
If you’re a CEO of General Motors and your company has lost billions of dollars and you fly to Washington in your private jet to beg for taxpayers’ money, you’re an idiot. 30 years hard labor.
If you’re OJ Simpson and you plan to go over in the middle of the night and slit your ex-wife’s throat, you’re an idiot but there might me mitigating circumstances since she was, apparently, an idiot too. If you go over to slit your ex-wife’s throat and she happens to be with a waiter who brought her misplaced sunglasses by the house and you choose to slit his throat, too, you’re an evil idiot and deserve the needle.
If you’re a harried housewife and you don’t happen to notice the three-year-old playing on the driveway as you back out of the garage, you’re an idiot and should take your place in the cell next to OJ, even if the toddler dodges your Buick.
No texting while driving by any age. Hands free use is not as dangerous.
“I use my cell phone in the car daily. Multiple times. And 90% of it is work-related. And I’ve never been in an accident as a result of same.”—KSGolfnut
KSGolfnut, me too….but I have several times driven right past my exit or location where I was heading because of distraction with an involved business discussion on a cell while driving.
That tells me I am significantly distracted even though I am able to keep it between the shoulders and on my side of the road….at least so far.
If it were only for the one using the cell I wouldn’t care, let people do as they please but it’s not good to endanger everyone else sharing the road as well, who have no control over the other driver.
It would be so simple to put a weak cellular frequency blocking signal coming from the dash of a vehicle that transmitted only when the vehicle was in motion that prevented receiving or placing calls or text.
I mean they legislate mandatory seat belt use for safety, this would be the same thing.
One problem though would be it would effect passengers as well.
I heard of an invention being worked on several years ago for cell phones.
What it does is it has a micro-chip implanted that monitors the rotation of the wheels of a car and sends a message back so many feet (plus or minus 10 feet of the wheels) where cell phones will de-activate or simply be jammed if the wheels are rolling.
Haven’t heard anything else about this technology or its testing.
“I use my cell phone in the car daily. Multiple times. And 90% of it is work-related. And I’ve never been in an accident as a result of same.”—KSGolfnut
==========================================
Never being in one and causing one are two different things. You have no clue as to causing one because you are preoccupied. In other words, you don’t and can’t know whether you did or didn’t. Causing an accident doesn’t necessarily mean being in one.
Inattentive driving is already against the law. Why single out cell phones, when eating, putting on makeup, fiddling with the radio, countless other activities are equally distracting
test test
BlueJay
Posted February 11, 2009 at 8:27 am | Permalink
I wish they had cell phone jammers that you you could buy. Anywhere within a hundred feet of my vehicle would be a “dead” zone! Get off the phone and drive.
I wish movie theaters would use those, in Japan they do
#
TomPaine
Posted February 11, 2009 at 9:20 am | Permalink
Inattentive driving is already against the law. Why single out cell phones, when eating, putting on makeup, fiddling with the radio, countless other activities are equally distracting
—————————————
It is in some places. In Ohio, in certain cities, one can get a ticket for driving with any kind of beverage in your hand. Ohio highway patrol loved pulling over the ‘make-up’ artists practicing their art while driving. Don’t know if the laws are still on the books.
In Germany, in forested or hazardous ‘fire areas’ cigarette or other kinds of smoking is prohibited while driving.
I knew one guy that was in a serious accident running a red traffic signal, because he dropped a ‘hot ash’ from his cigarette between his legs just as he approached the intersection. He gave up smoking because of that. :)
I wish the automakers or someone would come up with a jamming device so that I can invent a device to disable it and get rich.
Let’s make a law for everything.
Like the grotesque and obese blob that is shoving a Big Mac and Super Sized Diet Coke down her/his throat while taking up two lanes of traffic. Let’s start there.
If no injury to body or property is done, no crime has been committed.
But I guess we’re still determined to outlaw ourselves into tyranny.
There are lots of things that distract persons while driving: the radio, changing a CD, talking, eating, etc. And yes, texting is one of them.
But legislating what people do inside their vehicles is nearly impossible to enforce. Writing laws that cannot be realistically enforced is worse than writing laws at all. And while I don’t think there is a 1st amendment issue here, it does begin down a road I’m not sure we want to go down.
So while I understand the sentiment, it seems to me that education and public relations is more the answer than prosecution. There are lots of things that may be bad; not all of them require a criminal law banning them; in fact, most do not.
And BTW – if criminal stupidity was prosecutable, well, the stories I could tell . . . criminee, you ought to hear the one about a guy we busted just last week. I laughed my a** off here in the office.
Reg, my cousin ran his car off the road after dropping his cig, probably why insurance rate are higher for smokers
If you post to the opinion line and think it will change anything…you’re an idiot. Ingnorance can be cured but, stupid is forever…
Actually, it’s about multitasking: You either can or can’t. It’s the ones who can’t that put people at risk if they decide to do pretty much anything else while driving. They’re the ones who cause accidents, and they’re the ones who will cause this law to be passed.
Maybe a multitasking test when getting a drivers license, and if one fails, one gets a bright red tattoo on their foreheads:-0
GMC, why single drunks then? if some idiot taking on his phone runs over some kid because he’s not paying attention why shouldn’t he suffer the same fate as the drunk
Aye GMC – my courses on driver’s safety while going through safety training at the university level was eye opening.
The old school thinking still applies to these basic functions
The T.E.A.M. approach to driving:
(T)ask –
(E)nvironment
(A)utomobile
(M)an
Each of those has a detailed series of lectures behind them and examples. I won’t bore anyone with the details, but the concept is a good way for the driver to remember what is prudent while driving and preparing to drive.
Like most states, there are too many ‘pointing’ licensed drivers out there instead of trained drivers.
Lot of people just point the nose of their automobile and go. That’s not always a good idea. :D
Several places where cell phone jammers would be helpful:
On the dashboard of your automobile;
near the cash register of supermarket checkout lines with customers waiting;
in high schoool Algebra class rooms;
while receiving a speeding ticket from an irritable Wichita police officer;
while waiting for the pellet to drop in the Lansing prison gas chamber.
CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?
The problem is not cell phones.
We already have laws on the books about inattentive driving and reckless driving.
Enforce the existing laws.
I and many others can drive and talk on the cell phone just fine.
Typical reaction by most people just like when it comes to guns is to ban the tool.
Nathaniel,
Fella, you know I am about as strong as anyone on the government staying out of peoples lives and not making it their business protecting us from ourselves.
On the other hand I do think government has a place in protecting us from others.
That is the situation here. If someone wants to take the risk of using a cell phone or not using a seat belt or helmet or whatever I think that should be up to the individual and not dictated to them. Neither should the rest of society be responsible for caring for them when they make dumb decisions and suffer for it.
But, when a person makes dumb decisions and harms others I think there is a place for regulation.
That’s all I’m about.
Neither myself, or my family including my grandkids I love have much defense against folks that can harm them with a vehicle either by driving under the influence or being distracted by a cell phone conversation. We can use the help with that.
“BlueJay
Posted February 11, 2009 at 8:27 am | Permalink
I wish they had cell phone jammers that you you could buy. Anywhere within a hundred feet of my vehicle would be a “dead” zone! Get off the phone and drive.”
Those are available, though illegal in the USA, on the glorious Internet. Even different strength jammers available (say for use in a room versus in an entire building.)
“Boxlock20
Posted February 11, 2009 at 10:53 am | Permalink
…On the other hand I do think government has a place in protecting us from others.
…against folks that can harm them with a vehicle either by driving under the influence or being distracted by a cell phone conversation. We can use the help with that.”
And since drivers are so good about following driving laws like speed limits, turn signals, and tailgating a new driving law will solve the problem, right?
“And since drivers are so good about following driving laws like speed limits, turn signals, and tailgating a new driving law will solve the problem, right?”—brian
It’s working to some extent, it helps increase compliance. And cell phone blocking in a moving vehicle would as well. Simply passing a law making it illegal would simply invite breaking it for many.
I don’t like the proliferation of laws ‘brian’, neither do I want myself or my family killed by some damn driver distracted texting on a cell phone.
brian_nuevo
Posted February 11, 2009 at 12:28 pm
And since drivers are so good about following driving laws like speed limits, turn signals, and tailgating a new driving law will solve the problem, right?
_____________________________________________________________________
Seems that it may be impossible to legislate safety. Too many people view laws as suggestions.
“Boxlock20
Posted February 11, 2009 at 1:01 pm | Permalink
I don’t like the proliferation of laws ‘brian’, neither do I want myself or my family killed by some damn driver distracted texting on a cell phone.”
So where do you think the line should be? How do we measure a proposed law to determine if it serves a useful purpose or is just an unneeded, nanny-state rule?
“So where do you think the line should be? How do we measure a proposed law to determine if it serves a useful purpose or is just an unneeded, nanny-state rule?”—brian
Fair question.
With statistics, simply look as closely as we can to the numbers of accidents that result when a cell phone was being used.
Ask of course, but also there is a record of cell calls and times. If people and property are being harmed, especially injury accidents, while people are driving and texting and making calls, then take action. If not…..no damn new law.
Seems reasonable to me.
“I wish they had cell phone jammers that you you could buy. Anywhere within a hundred feet of my vehicle would be a “dead” zone! Get off the phone and drive.”
Those are available, though illegal in the USA, on the glorious Internet.”
My brother bought one. He thought it would be funny to watch someone in the next car wonder why their cell phone went dead. The device didn’t work. I think he got scammed.
“fleettwood
Posted February 11, 2009 at 2:10 pm | Permalink
“I wish they had cell phone jammers that you you could buy. Anywhere within a hundred feet of my vehicle would be a “dead” zone! Get off the phone and drive.”
Those are available, though illegal in the USA, on the glorious Internet.”
My brother bought one. He thought it would be funny to watch someone in the next car wonder why their cell phone went dead. The device didn’t work. I think he got scammed.”
I wondered if they would actually work. Hard to complain to the BBB about getting sold a fake when it is illegal.
Perhaps a person could hand-carry that home from a vacation though….
I think a person could have a hoot with one of those.
“Hard to complain to the BBB about getting sold a fake when it is illegal.”
That’s what my brother said!