Senators push nationwide ban on texting while driving

TOJ said:

Hey, maybe the police should randomly stop people and interrogate them about texting while driving.

They could install cameras everywhere and use recoginition software to capture and analyse evidence.

How about the police going to the government schools and asking the kids if their parents text while driving. They could then make them testify against their parents.

Aren't these some great ideas?

The good citizens of the USA are like the frog in the pot of water on the stove. Turn up the heat slowly and it will just sit there and cook. :2wave:


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Hell ya! Cameras in the cars to make sure we're behaving. Every car should have an interlock which can only be activated after a breath test, eliminate drunk driving. And every car should have a little RFID, GPS tracking and recording device which always uploads to the police so the police know where we are at, and if we commit any infraction we can be fined immediately! I mean, comeon. Someone think of the children or something like that. If we make enough things illegal, we'll all be doing something wrong at some point and thus the cops can just pick us up and haul us in whenever they feel like it. Like being disorderly in your own home.

Cilogy said:

Senators push nationwide ban on texting while driving - CNN.com

Ok so, all I can pretty much say is ... its about damn time.

Anyone guilty of this? When I was a new driver I admit that I did this same thing, but I have a set of very important safety rules since I got a speeding ticket last year.

The thing that angers me the most about my friends who text while driving is that they always claim that its not as bad as doing other things. They say they feel safer since they switched from having a car phone to just texting. That's pretty hilarious and even more so, dangerous. The report even says it right there that "when compared with dialing, talking, listening or reaching for an electronic device, texting posed the greatest accident risk ..."

Now, whether this is important, debatable, breaking news, I am unsure of, but I believe its an important piece of news that can avoid deadly statistics like this one, also mentioned in the CNN report:

"In September, a commuter train engineer missed a stop signal while trading text messages with a friend, leading to a collision with a freight train that killed 25 people in California, according to federal investigators. The accident also injured 101 people."

What do you think, is it justified? Or do you still think it "doesn't affect you?"

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I think it's a dumb law. Ever hear of reckless driving? But leave it to the Federal government to come up with new kinds of stupid laws. In the future, here are some more crimes we may see Congress pass legislation on:

1) Driving while distracted by set of large boobs.

2) Driving while dancing.... Figure THAT one out.

3) Driving while holding an armadillo on top of the steering wheel.

4) Driving while reading porn.

5) Driving while masturbating.

6) Driving while playing your guitar.

7) Driving while playing the Minute Waltz on the piano.

8) Driving while playing basketball.

9) Driving while making an atom bomb.

10) Driving while responding to this post.

All 10 of these are dumb, dumber, and reckless. They are also covered under existing reckless driving laws. Number 9 will also get you in a heap of trouble with Homeland Security.

Texting while driving is dumb, dumber, and reckless. That is ALSO covered under existing reckless driving laws.

So while Congress is doing what Congress does, that is, being stupid, I am waiting for the day they deign to be responsible and pass a balanced budget. I doubt if I will ever see it, though. More than likely, they will pass a law making it a criminal act to read legislation while driving.

aps said:

LOL NO, it pisses me off that someone cannot be pulled over for texting while driving ONLY.

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My revulsion with the proposal is that passenger car safety rules should not be the doman of the Feds. I know that the Feds stuck their claws into the states and forced the seat beltlaws by threatening to withold federal funds for highways if the staes did not impose seatbelt laws. The long arm of the Fedsis aout to do the same with this texting crap also.

Scarecrow Akhbar said:

Actually, try reading the Constitution and find that for me, will ya?

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Actually the burden is on you not Bird. Try to find where in the Constitution it prevents the 'guvmint' from attaching string, or roopes, or chains to i's funding.

Scarecrow Akhbar said:

It would make a minor traffic infraction a FEDERAL OFFENSE.

STOP and THINK about that for a change.

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That means the Federal Police Force would have to be expanded by 10 to 15 times what it is now. Wow now that would end the unemployment. Of couse we cannot aford to pay all of these Federali traffic cops but WTH WHAT NEXT?

Will the Fed 'Guvmint' get into safe sex? Imagine that the SSP Safe Sex Police. And they will start training in upper grammar school with Jr. Safe Sex Monitors !

Wow what a country !!

F107HyperSabr said:

What psses you off speeding, reckless driving, or the cops f-ing with you ?

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Is that a trick question LMFAO :mrgreen:

So what is the problem with another legal way to pull over anyone at anytime?:roll:

I wonder if our senators go jumping up and down screaming "ooh ooh let me do the next new stupid law"

Lets look at the real facts here.

Texting while driving is without question dumb, stupid, dangerous, punishable by reckless or careless driving, and yes people are dying from inattentive driving it creates. Like stated earlier the increase in accidents from this activity is well above the other distractions inside a vehicle.

Creating a new law for anything that tickles anyone in anyway when the action is already illegal under current law only waters down everything, and make the whole legal system an even larger mess of unusual, confusing, and contradicting laws that is almost impossible for the average citizen to understand.

There is also a problem with what we call it when a car collides or crashes with another car, another object or anything it is not an accident though we are prone to call it such. These things happen for a reason, the idea of making it seem forgiving by referring to a crash as an accident only complicates things further.

Still I believe there is an even more important issue, and that is
Accountability and responsibility and they both are seemingly often missing from the process. I have seen many discussions and debates over new feel good laws, and common sense seems to elude them often.

No matter if it is drunk driving, distracted driving, careless driving, or even reckless or some other illegal action involved there are already laws to cover them, but the penalties (both fines and criminal) are not always inline with the specific offense, and there needs to be adjustments to make the penalty match the offense. This is the case with a driver who causes a crash and harm to others and property by careless driving or reckless driving caused from driving while texting, while reading the paper, emailing, excessive speeding, driving while way too old, or anything else that was the real cause of the crash, and there was no accident that a driver not paying attention for any reason had collision etc.

You make tons of senseLenny but my contention is that passenger car driving laws are for the staes to decide not the Feds.

Scarecrow Akhbar said:

It would make a minor traffic infraction a FEDERAL OFFENSE.

STOP and THINK about that for a change.

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Why, you wanna break the law too? Go ahead jump into that pool all you want.

F107HyperSabr said:

You make tons of senseLenny but my contention is that passenger car driving laws are for the staes to decide not the Feds.

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Agreed!

But how to convince our law makers that making too many laws only leads to problems like this, and stopping this nonsense of just looking to get their names in the news (good for name recognition, and getting re elected etc) from writing up a bunch of feel good crap all the time is just wrong and needs to stop.