I agree 100%. I don't know what the laws should be, but I think texting and reading texts/e-mails should be a much bigger deal than it is. Like VI said, you cover much more ground than you think in the few seconds that you're looking at your phone, and there is a lot that can happen in that time. If you do it, you should stop. We all like cars, smartphones, and alcohol, but none of them go well together. We have to accept that.
People who willingly drive distracted obviously don't see the REAL issue. It's not YOUR life you're risking that matters. If you die, you rolled the idiot dice and hit snake eyes. Dug your own hole. It's every else that matters, the fleshy bowling pins known as "humans" crossing the street, walking their dogs and driving their kids to school. They are ALL at your mercy while you blindly control a two tonne wrecking ball. Air bags won't save you from a head-on, just ask Bruce-Caitlin's victim. And driving drunk/distracted can happen to anybody and hit hard, just ask the STL Cardinals. It's great that the majority of us choose to watch the road over our phones, but how much does that matter when we have to be always worry about being hit by one of the millions of people who don't? Jesus Christ not too long ago they busted a guy playing his trumpet out the window of his car while speeding on the 401. Just blowin' cheese, having a good old time on one of the most dangerous express highways known. Sure it's hilarious to hear about but what an irresponsible schmuck. These people exist.
Long, but worth a watch if you have the time: As someone who bikes to work every day, I cannot wait until self driving cars are the norm. Human drivers are awful at the best of times. With their heads buried in their phones they're downright murderous.
Personally, I wish the laws against drunk driving were harsher. Ever taken a breathalyzer to see what it really takes to get to .08? Unless you get behind the wheel right after you had a drink (so the alcohol on your breath will artificially inflate it), .08 means you can get pretty toasty before you're illegal. Buzzed driving is dangerous too. As far as texting and reading your phone, I'm surprised cars don't just come equipped with a cell phone jammer. Turn on the keys, it turns off your phone except for stuff like calls to emergency services. Seems pretty simple. But then again, I'm a paranoid driver. Phone is in the pocket until I get to where I'm going; if I need to make an urgent call I pull off the road. When I drank, if I even had a slight buzz I'd get my wife to drive. Over-cautious, yeah, but I'm alive. Been hit by drunk drivers a few times, and it made an impression. One time, I was on a date with a girl, and my truck got rear ended by a dude going 50 mph. We were collecting ourselves, when another vehicle slammed into us. Both drivers were drunk and I'm not sure how we escaped without serious injury (though I know the size of my truck vs. the two sedans had something to do with it). There's a curve in the road by our place that has taken a few lives, and several dozen vehicles. It sneaks up on you if you don't see the clearly marked warning signs; distracted driving kills.
Do you have any idea how fallible breathalyzers are? You can be stone-cold sober, rinse your mouth with alcohol-based mouthwash, and it will say that you're loaded. A certain well respected board member has reported that his/her court mandated breathalyzer gives false positives for eating the wrong types of bread. Breathalyzers are bullshit. But don't you fear, Revengeofthenerds, states all over the nation are mandating involuntary blood samples be taken from anyone suspected of driving under the influence of any mind altering substance. That means you will get your ass hauled off to the nearest hospital, strapped down, and have a blood sample taken. Fuck 4th amendment rights about "search and seizure," and forget about whether anyone was hurt.
Actually, they're not. Most of the time, they are spot on. Are there issues sometimes? Of course there are. Maybe the officer isn't certified, maybe the machine has not been calibrated correctly. But I can tell you as an attorney, there was a very in depth examination of the science behind the breathalyzer before it was admissible. The 4th Amendment generally requires a warrant, your consent is not necessary. One of the exceptions to this requirement is 'exigent circumstances' - for instance, when the evidence will disappear if the police have to obtain a warrant. Like say someones BAC will drop and not be what it was during the operation of a vehicle. Consent is not the standard - probable cause is, and again, if there's an exception, then yes, the police can search. You also seem to be hung up on the 'people are not hurt factor.' That's not the issue. The issue is whether or not someone is behind the wheel and cannot operate the vehicle properly due to intoxication. Now I know you're a big fan of showing how you were fucked by 'the man' but the thread is about cell phones, not about your bitching about DUI laws. Just because someone whom is intoxicated may be in some circumstances marginally safer than someone posting to their twitter account while doing 70 mph on a freeway in no way means drunk driving is safe. It isn't. So knock it off with the pontificating on how shitty DUI laws are.
Or, just...don't drink and drive. It's not like it's that HARD to avoid a DUI. You know the laws. Stop breaking them. I'm not so much a text-and-drive person as I am a text and read person and that is BAD. I have stopped since being pregnant and having the baby, but when I'm by myself, yea. I need to do better. Back when I had a motorola cell phone with the intellitype thing, I never had to look at my phone to text. Touch screens have stopped me pretty solidly because of misspelled words and the like.
A big difference between texting and driving and drunk driving is that you can put the phone down and focus right away as if you had never been texting. Being drunk doesn't work the same way. If I'm perfectly honest, while I try to avoid using my cell as much as possible while driving, I will permit myself to have a look at my phone - usually for maps, sometimes a text - if I'm stopped at a red light and have enough time to sneak a peek. I have sent texts while in motion (because I'm flawed and imperfect) but I refuse to do so in traffic or on the highway with cars in front of me. For the most part if it's important to use the phone while I'm on the road, I'll pull over and use it while filling up on gas or something.
The problem is, is when you're drunk you see the school bus. Your reactions may be slowed, but you do see it. When your eyes are staring at your phone, you don't even see it. Neither is better or worse, they're both fucked up. Seriously, I don't fucking get what is so important going on in your phone that you can't not look at it for a few minutes. I wish someone could explain that to me.
There's nothing to get. I imagine it's largely the same thing that convinces someone that they're alright to drive drunk. You're right though. There's little sense in comparing the two in an attempt to decide which is worse. They both cause the same results. Problem is that lawmaking and legislation move very slowly in reaction to advances in technology.
Really, it's no different than normal people without any real training think they're amazing drivers in the first place. Introduce them to some basic training and they quickly realize that they hardly know even the bare minimum. Germany's got it right, if you ask me; intensive driver training with some serious standards. The end result? The Autobahn... and drivers that are safe at driving 200 km/h. You'd be amazed at how many people I've instructed who thought they were hot shit drivers, only to be scared shitless when they brake hard enough to activate their ABS... "what the hell!?!? why is the brake pedal shaking? Is it broken!?" Throw anything at all into the mix, whether it's a screaming kid in the back seat, sneaking fries out of the bag coming out of a fast food drive-thru, or just plain old not paying attention, and you're potentially fucked. Never mind drinking or texting. People, in general, are very, very shitty drivers.... but they'll never believe it.
This. Hell, even I like to think I'm a pretty decent driver but just as recently as two weeks ago I narrowly avoided rear-ending someone because I stupidly slammed on the breaks instead of pulling off to the shoulder. I'm seriously considering taking a real driving course once I buy my new car mostly because I'll be dropping a pretty penny on it and I don't want to fuck it up due to my own ineptitude.
The insurance industry is usually opposed to advanced (by our standards) driver training, supposedly because it "emboldens thrill seekers." We have more accidents, they pay more claims but jack rates more than enough to compensate. It's not a conspiracy, just people acting in their own interests. I endeavor to pay full attention to my driving. I'm not perfect, especially when trying to play music over Bluetooth from an Android device (rich people should seriously hire a backseat weapons officer for that shit [reset the shuffle play, "playlist is empty", dump Double Twist in the task manager, still fucking up reset the phone...]). There comes a time to just forget the music, drop the phone and drive. Unlike the Germans I like my cupholders, but only so I can forget about my drink until I get to where I'm going (hey Jerry, fuck your cosmetic-only E39 cupholders and while you're at it, fick dich). Road, mirror, speedometer, rinse and repeat. If a cop lights you up, your passenger asks "were you speeding?" and your answer is "I don't know" you deserve a fucking ticket just for that. More than 20 years ago, when I was 19, I had one near miss because I was both driving too fast and off in space instead of concentrating on the road. That's one near miss; I learned from the mistake, though it was worth it for the look on a farmer's face that clearly said "You almost cracked up your parents' Benz, kid!" (a 1984 Mercedes 380SE did not come with ABS, at least not standard; I know this from firsthand experience on thankfully dry pavement). That's enough non-sequiturs for now, I'm not making much sense...