[M_Six]

You just don't want to be doing this. No excuses. This poor local kid got hit by a 17-year old girl who was texting while driving. Teenagers are bad enough drivers without the added distraction of texting. Now a 7-year old boy is dead and a 17-year old girl is probably going to do some time. 2 lives ruined.

[hongsc]

It really doesn't solve the problem. Teens/adults will just do something else to occupy their time. I've seen some stupid stuff just driving from people reading books, shaving, doing their hair, make-up...... There will always be something else.

[PINeely]

Seems that so many people view driving as the distraction.

[M_Six]

Originally Posted by hongsc

It really doesn't solve the problem. Teens/adults will just do something else to occupy their time. I've seen some stupid stuff just driving from people reading books, shaving, doing their hair, make-up...... There will always be something else.

True, distracted driving is nothing new, but texting takes more eye focus than other distractions, so there's no way to text and "keep an eye on the road."

In a strange twist to this story, the boy's father posted on the town's FB page, where there is a lengthy discussion about the case, that he forgives the girl who hit his son because he (the father) has also texted while driving and knows what a temptation it is.

[michaelthepsycho]

That father's a better man.

Whatever happened to just listening to music?

[zx10guy]

I had a thread talking about this very subject:

http://www.1addicts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1113292

[M_Six]

Originally Posted by zx10guy

I had a thread talking about this very subject:

http://www.1addicts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1113292

Ah, that was the thread. I knew there was one here somewhere, I just couldn't find it.

[Billup]

I've been ran off the road on my motorcycle by two girls who were texting and driving. Took everything in me not to put the metal tips of my boots through their windows. Talk about life flashing before your eyes.

[Whostheboss]

Originally Posted by hongsc

It really doesn't solve the problem. Teens/adults will just do something else to occupy their time. I've seen some stupid stuff just driving from people reading books, shaving, doing their hair, make-up...... There will always be something else.

Yes, just the other day, i saw i guy shaving AND reading the paper while in traffic.

[NickyC]

"In other matters, Branson said the department received a complaint Friday evening from the accident victim's family about an unauthorized page being set up on www.gofundme.com in their name. He said the department is investigating this matter."

People are scum, evil, vile SCUM.

[P1]

Just send a text message when you're at a stop light. Doing it while driving, although we've all done it at some point, is a major distraction.

[Templar]

I've seen a lady straight up reading from a Kindle while driving. She was holding it with both hands while holding the steering wheel and reading from it.

[Maestro]

I try not to talk hands free on my cell phone anymore. Even though the BMW through the stereo hands free system works really well ans I do no struggle to hear the conversation. I have found that I drove from work to home on a conference call and could not remember how I got home. Not sure what it is about talking on the phone verses someone in the car, I just find it more distracting talking on the phone. Because of this I hardly have any calls in my car anymore.

BTW, before cell phones and texting the top 3 things that distracted drivers was playing with the radio, eating and yelling at the kids in the car. None of which did they create a law to stop these things.

Saturaday I was driving from Brooklyn to NJ and was stuck in traffic on one of the bridges only to see the guy next to me eating his dinner out of bowl and talking on his cell phone all while trying to deal with stop and go traffic. People are idiots.

[UncleWede]

Have you never had a conversation with a person in the car, then realized you have no idea how you got from point A to point B? OR sang a song the whole way?

Totally different from you staring at your phone and typing and not paying attention to the road. After a few years, you can go into "autopilot" and be relatively safe, because your eyes are still pointed at the road, and your singing or talking would stop the minute a 7yo walked out in front of you.

[fecurtis]

Send her ass to jail. Shit is inexcusable.

[NickyC]

Originally Posted by P1et

Just send a text message when you're at a stop light. Doing it while driving, although we've all done it at some point, is a major distraction.

No, we all haven't. I refuse to get text on any of my POS phones. I wish we could roll the clock back to a time when we didn't have all this crap. If work didn't force me to have a smartphone, I wouldn't even have one. I hate the f***ing things.

[zx10guy]

This topic is near and dear to me personally as I was a victim of someone who thought their phone was more important than killing someone.

I was driving my old Ford Focus to the dealership to get some warranty work done. I come up on an intersection which just had the light turn green. The opposite side traffic starts into the intersection. All of a sudden the lead car in the opposite lane starts to veer over the double yellow. A couple of seconds pass and this idiot isn't correcting her path. I realize this airhead is going to keep coming and hit me head on. I jerk my car over to the right trying to avoid this idiot. I could only go so far as there are huge snow banks on the right side of the road cutting off my means of escape. I look over at this person and I can now see it's some woman and guess what...she was staring at her cell phone. I was that close to her. Never mind I had my horn blowing the entire time. She only notices what was happening a second before the big bang. She tries to jerk her car over to her right. No luck. BANG.

Her front bumper cover goes flying several feet down her direction of travel. Plastic parts everywhere. My left front end gets crunched pretty good. She ended up taking out the left lower control arm, strut, wheel, head light, bumper, fender, and other miscellaneous parts. I had to crawl out the passenger side as the driver side door wouldn't open. I didn't even talk to her the entire time I was so mad. I kept my distance from her as I probably would have been arrested on assault charges. Cops responded and cite her. I forget the charges. But they were equally mad at her about how reckless she was.

[Samurai of 2day]

Originally Posted by Templar

I've seen a lady straight up reading from a Kindle while driving. She was holding it with both hands while holding the steering wheel and reading from it.

I see it all the time. I will never forget the time I was riding through traffic (I know, but it's hard not to split lanes when traffic is moving at 10 MPH on a 3 lane express way) this guy had a coffee in his hand, and the newspaper spread across his steering wheel. Talk about distracted driving.

When I'm on my bike, I trained myself to watch the drivers in their side mirrors to get an idea of what their attention is focused on.

Always use situational awareness as much as possible to reduce your chances of becoming a statistic.

[M_Six]

Originally Posted by NickyC

No, we all haven't. I refuse to get text on any of my POS phones. I wish we could roll the clock back to a time when we didn't have all this crap. If work didn't force me to have a smartphone, I wouldn't even have one. I hate the f***ing things.

Same here. Never texted while driving. My flip phone is a PITA to text on anyway, so I do it as rarely as possible. I wouldn't do it at all if folks would email me or call instead of texting. And I'll use the hands free system if I'm driving in little or no traffic, but once I'm in town or the traffic picks up, no more phone calls. It's not the driving I can't pay attention to, it's the phone call. Driving seems to be the primary focus with me, so anyone talking with me will realize I'm not listening to them after a bit. Maybe that's because I was driving for 25 years before I had a cell phone.

[NickyC]

Originally Posted by M_Six

Same here. Never texted while driving. My flip phone is a PITA to text on anyway, so I do it as rarely as possible. I wouldn't do it at all if folks would email me or call instead of texting. And I'll use the hands free system if I'm driving in little or no traffic, but once I'm in town or the traffic picks up, no more phone calls. It's not the driving I can't pay attention to, it's the phone call. Driving seems to be the primary focus with me, so anyone talking with me will realize I'm not listening to them after a bit. Maybe that's because I was driving for 25 years before I had a cell phone.

Yeah, I mute my phone while driving. Driving is one of the few pleasures I have remaining in this shit life, no way I'm infusing work into that time.

[M_Six]

Originally Posted by NickyC

"In other matters, Branson said the department received a complaint Friday evening from the accident victim's family about an unauthorized page being set up on www.gofundme.com in their name. He said the department is investigating this matter."

People are scum, evil, vile SCUM.

Turns out that was another family member who failed to notify the parents about the page. Page is gone now anyway.

Things are looking worse for the driver. Seems she had detectable amounts of marijuana in her system. That is a very bad thing in this state. I've seen a half dozen cases recently where drivers involved in fatal accidents got sentenced to 8-10 because they had smoked days or weeks prior to the accident. In this state if it's in your blood or urine, you're considered under the influence regardless of when you smoked or snorted. Really stupid law that is putting people in jail for a long time for no good reason.

[MrRoboto]

The smartphone should evolve to be the 'key' to the car of sorts. Car won't operate unless phone is docked in the glovebox.