NTSB recommends full ban on use of cell phones while driving

daisy7

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Washington (CNN) -- A federal safety board called Tuesday for a nationwide ban on the use of cell phones and text messaging devices while driving.

The recommendation is the most far-reaching yet by the National Transportation Safety Board, which in the past 10 years has increasingly sought to limit the use of portable electronic devices -- recommending bans for novice drivers, school bus drivers and commercial truckers. Tuesday's recommendation, if adopted by states, would outlaw non-emergency phone calls and texting by operators of every vehicle on the road.

It would apply to hands-free as well as hand-held devices, but devices installed in the vehicle by the manufacturer would be allowed, the NTSB said.

(snip)

http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/13/us/ntsb-cell-phone-ban/index.html?hpt=hp_t1
 
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/...cle_45bdf5f5-0576-5633-adea-dd76ece9ffad.html

4c5af9dac8fc4.image.jpg


you cannot see it but there is a pick up truck between the bus & the semi . . .

The NTSB said that a teen driver involved in the deadly, chain-reaction crash on Interstate 44 last year was texting before the pileup. Daniel Schatz, 19, sent 11 texts in 11 minutes prior to the crash on Aug. 5, 2010, federal officials said. The deadly crash on involved two school buses, a tractor-trailer and the pickup driven by Schatz.
 
I only had to watch this video 1 time before i decided I won't ride with someone who texts and drives. I DO NOT HAVE NOT AND WILL NOT ever text and drive.

[video=youtube;NMYKXSPgaIw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMYKXSPgaIw[/video]
 
I think the pics above and the video i posted need to be shown to every driver's ed class. They should run it on a loop at the local DOT offices as well.
Getting into a car with a texting driver is just as dangerous as getting into a car with a drunk driver.
When my kids are old enough they will see the movies and pics, all that i can come up with, to warn them of the dangers if it hasn't been outlawed by then. I hope it is.
 
Getting into a car with a texting driver is even worse than getting into a car with a drunk driver.

Car and Driver performed each test five times, dropping the slowest time. The magazine found that reaction time was much worse for both drivers when they were texting while driving than when they were under the influence of alcohol.

At 35 miles an hour, Mr. Alterman’s average reaction time was .57 seconds, but while texting it rose to 1.36 seconds, more than twice his average reaction time of .64 seconds while under the influence. Mr. Brown fared better, but his average reaction time of .45 seconds rose to .52 seconds while texting, worse than his average time of .46 seconds while driving drunk.

(snip)

http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/25/texting-is-more-dangerous-than-driving-drunk/
 
I rarely use my phone in the car and never text. Once, I was talking to a good friend of mine who was driving down Biscayne Blvd. in Miami and he said "I'm gonna have to call you back, cuz somehow I'm driving on the sidewalk." :eek:

So, I also really try not to talk to peeps when they are driving. The friend I mentioned above called me last week when he was driving and I told him I wasn't gonna talk to him and he could call me when he was out of his car :)
 
One of the best news stories I have read recently. I have been nearly killed twice in my life by cell phone impaired drivers. In one case I took to a ditch and saw the other driver just speed by with his cell up to his ear, doubt he even knew how close he came. I also wittnessed a young driver texting, exiting from a parking lot and colliding with a pedestrian who wound up on her hood. This bimbo slowed down long enough to allow the elderly woman to roll off her hood then went on, never looking back (I stopped to offer assistance and she said she was ok).

I seriously think some people who use cell phones a lot have brain impairment, at least on a temporary basis. I anticipate hearing a lot about big government intruding on our lives, etc. Numbers speak loudly and the tens of thousands of people who are dead tonight because someone wanted to yak on a phone while driving add up to the best reason for this to be enacted.
 
Heck yeah! Am I happy? Heck no! I dont like the fact that the nt had to step in. Its just about like everything else, it takes one bad apple to spoil the whole bunch. I cant talk on the phone and drive, let alone text while driving and all my freinds know it. I get sick of seeing on the news about people causing wrecks or dying in a crash over texting. Sigh.
 
I agree, it is sad that the NTSB has to lobby for a law for something that should be just friggin plain common sense.

I don't do it, texting or talking. If I have to make a call I am in a parking lot. NOTHING is so danged important that I have to communicate with someone about that can't wait 10 minutes for me to get where I am going.

This one is a big DUH. And people who don't get that pizz me off.

Everybody thinks they are so danged important lately that whatever they need to convey must be conveyed right now, this second. It disgusts me.
 
Yes how about we stop protecting our snot nosed kids and show that commercial! I would rather curb the problem through education than yet another law. sigh. I have talked into my texting function; I just speak into it and it types it. Is my radio going to be banned because I have to look down to adjust it momentarily and the heater too? And in CA we can't drive without hands free devices so I'm usually fumbling in my purse for the earpiece. I get that handheld devices are dangerous. I'm just so sick of being regulated to death.

Back in the 90's we had "car phones" that were attached therein and there was not this big bruhaha about talking and driving.

I think texting is by far the MOST distracting and no one should ever do it. Never try typing stuff in your phone while driving. But speaking it, looking at the three word sentence and then hitting a button is akin to looking down at my heater settings.
 
But a word of caution - if you are ever in an accident, your phone records will most definitely be used against you!
 
I think the consequences need to be as tough as they are for drunk driving. I've heard many people talking about how they will just pay the $100 fine and keep doing it. IMO The first offense should be a $1000 fine, points on their licence that cause higher insurance premiums and loss of licence for 6 months. Then people will get it.

I never text or talk while driving. Being a good example for my child, is my priority as a parent. If my kid is in the car, I may dictate texts to him or have him sometimes relay messages for me. I am hoping by setting a good example and educating him by showing him that video posted above and talking about it all the time....that when the time comes for him to drive.... he won't do it either.
 
I don't text an drive. I think its a law in Maine. But even if its not, I can not figure out how people can do it. My eyes are on the road, at all times. I read something about not only will you kill yourself when you text and drive, but the one receiving the text to. I think about my children and how they are more important then reaching for my phone, and reading or texting. When I stop at my destination, is when I check my texts.
 
I don't think the commercial is that bad since it is "staged" with make up etc. Honestly, if someone was strong enough to allow photos of a deceased loved one, showing the real thing would mean more. I know that sounds gross, but the folks who do it most have to be "hit upside the head with a 2 by 4" and even that may not do any good.

The NC state fair always has a wrecked vehicle on display at one of the buildings and the one the past 2 years has been a HORRIBLY destroyed SUV that a father donated when his child was killed while texting on wet roads. There lliterally is no discernable drivers seat. The driver door is against the passenger seat and the entire front of the car is against what you can imagine might be the back of the driver's seat.

When my mom took drivers ed (she's almost 78) there was a movie they had to watch called I think red light? but it showed photographs of real wrecks and bodies. Most was black and white, but there were a few color. It was decided at some point it was far too graphic.

If I hear my phone rign or signal a text, I MIGHT check it at a red light if I am expecting an important call, but only at a complete stop and that's just to glimpse the front screen which will show a name of caller/texter so I can pull over in a parking lot to deal with it. Otherwise I just wait until I reach my destination to check it.
 
This story appeared on our local TV news website; most comments favor it. A few very loudly call it socialist and government intrusion. I responded and cited the thousands of traffic deaths due to cell phone use, it doesn't seen to matter to some people. They have their head in a place that all they can see is what they want to. I won't suggest where that is..
 
it's been banned here for quite awhile but we can still use bluetooths

most people aren't just receiving/sending one text & closing their phone - more often they are 'conversing' through texts and what should be a three second text turns into eleven minutes of 'distracted' driving, as we see in the truck/schoolbus accident posted above

recently where I live there was a young lady busted for driving down the (busy four-lane) freeway in the FAST LANE steering with her ELBOWS so that she could text

recently in my work parking lot, a girl who was texting backed into a car and took off

I don't get the obsession at all but I see it at family get-togethers when everyone under 25 has a phone in their hand and can't survive two hours without texting their friends - it drives me BATTY
 
Look, no hands! Italian driver caught on two phones

"An Italian driver was stopped by astonished police in the southern city of Bari on Saturday when they saw him speaking on two phones with a handset in each hand and no control of the wheel.
Asked to explain his actions, the 43-year-old driver of an Alfa Romeo 166 saloon car said he was speaking to his wife when his mother called and he could not hang up on either of them, the Corriere Della Sera daily reported."

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.2699eb33d802b2192beb15fca5af33d4.721&show_article=1
 

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