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Driving While Texting Bans Starting To Take Off
from the what's-next...? dept
A couple of weeks ago, it was reported that the Washington state legislature was considering a ban on driving while texting, and now some politicians in New Jersey want to see the same for their state. Of course, these laws are just the latest in a long strong of laws that are designed to make it illegal to drive while distracted. Except, of course, you can't have a blanket law that makes it illegal to be distracted -- that would be impossible -- so legislatures are trying to accomplish this in piecemeal fashion, going after one distraction at a time. The state assemblyman behind the New Jersey ban doesn't seem to have a good understanding of text messaging, since he claims it requires drivers to completely take their eyes off the road, which many people who send text messages would probably dispute. Furthermore, his own data in support of the law undermines his claim. According to the research he cites, one in five drivers has dashed out a text message while driving (you might want to take the figures with a grain of salt, since it's not clear where they're coming from). But if that were true, then you'd expect a lot more SMS-related accidents, if it really is as dangerous as he claims. Of course, this debate really misses the bigger point: it make sense for the police to flag drivers that are driving recklessly, but since there are so many possible distractions, from screaming children in the back seat to distracting billboards, going after these things on a case-by-case basis doesn't make much sense.
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Call me stupid but....
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well....
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Driving while distracted
http://www.japantoday.com/jp/news/401084
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Common Sense
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Re: Common Sense
Being distracted is nowhere near as dangerous as some of the stupid manoeuvres I have seen carried out (like driving up footpaths, U-turns accross a median strip, going the wrong way around a roundabout)
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Don't we already have a law...
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Re:
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We the People
Ban radios.
Ban pets.
Ban nose picking.
Ban ear picking.
Ban scratching.
Ban itching.
Ban eating.
Ban drinking.
But to make us the safest, we should ban the greatest danger of all:
Ban driving.
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We elect the politics to serve us, not to treat us like children that need protection despite our own will.
Unfortunately that is the theory. Practically, politics belong to a different cast, that is to many of us, entitled to treat us like children.
One would think that with the power to vote, people would know better and make better choices. Wrong again.
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Ideas?
And I'm a woman, so don't say I'm being sexist. Besides, I've never seen a man putting on make-up while driving, whereas I've been in several near misses with women who've been doing it.
Okay, but seriously, what do you guys think would actually work in getting people to stop texting/putting on make-up/reading newspapers (I almost got into an accident with a woman who was reading a newspaper while driving, she had the entire thing open and set on her steering wheel as she drove) while driving? Since no one likes the laws...what might work?
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yyy
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