NTSB proposes no cell phones including hands free

[91344George]

Originally Posted By: AstroTurf

Now had you done that... You may have realized that your CAPS LOCK was on.

Is there a law against CAPS LOCK?

Subject yourself to its punishment please.

Jim


I can't resist ....You mad?

 

[fdcg27]

Originally Posted By: Cujet
Originally Posted By: Merkava_4
I don't know how you people can drive with a cell phone. When I'm out there driving, my full attention is on driving. My eyes are constantly scanning the rear view mirror, both side view mirrors, and out the front window. It's a major distraction whenever the car radio goes to a commercial. Most of the time I drive with the radio off. There's so much stuff going on out there, it consumes my full attention. I don't want nobody running into my beautiful Buick. If you're in the other car talking on a cell phone, I'll either try to get away from you, or I'll watch you more closely in anticipation that you're gonna screw up.


The very same way I can pilot an aircraft, talk on the radio, manage the engine/s, manipulate the ailerons, elevator, rudder, flight spoilers, landing gear, autopilot, navigate both horizontally and vertically, avoid other aircraft and so on. You get proper training, know when to do what, and take pride in managing it all properly.


Cujet, there are only certain phases of flight that require the level of attention driving a car requires all of the time.
If you're flying anything really fast, you almost ceratinly have a pilot in both seats anyway, with whom you split the workload.
Navigate vertically?
If it's trimmed properly for whatever you're doing (climb, cruise, descent) it navigates itself.
Navigate horizontally?
It will pretty well follow whatever course you've set without constant attention, and almost anything has at least a simple autopilot, which is meant to be used.
In terms of actual navigation, I'm sure you have GPS to use.
There is also a dearth of other traffic to deal with, there is no aerial construction, and you won't find many pedestrians or bicyclists up there either.
Heck, if you're flying IFR, you don't even need to worry about any other traffic. You just fly as cleared.
The only valid comparison between flying and driving would be flying close formation.
Sorry, Cujet, but this is not a valid comparison, and it has nothing to do with driver training.

 

[UNC036]

Originally Posted By: 91344George
Originally Posted By: AstroTurf

Now had you done that... You may have realized that your CAPS LOCK was on.

Is there a law against CAPS LOCK?

Subject yourself to its punishment please.

Jim


I can't resist ....You mad?

Just a lil... LOLz

And, Haven fun with it.

Jim

 

[Al]

Sad thing in this country (and universally I suppose): We as a people are too stupid to do the right thing. And lo-and behold people even dumber than 90% of us (Over-paid brainless Government Workers [Politicians]) make another dumb law.

I heard that a Legislator witnessed a Tuba Player playing his Tuba on the street corner and it caused an accident. A law was made to ban (only) Tuba Players from playing less than 25 feet from the road.

Originally Posted By: rg200amp

Take DUI laws. If it was not against the law, whould you drive drunk? No?
Well, like any law, the people that would not do it, don't need a law to tell them not to do it.


I have followed your posts. You probably should have stopped early on in this thread.

You are of course wrong here. Drunk driving laws have cut drunk driving fatalities.

I do think texting should be made illegal while driving. Unfortunately another law that will be ignored by many. But it will save lives.

 

[Jeepster_nut]

Originally Posted By: Cujet
While we are at it, we should ban radio communications for pilots. Cops too. Definitely ban radios and their inevitable use from firefighters and EMS vehicles.

Or is this going to be another situation where government can do it but the citizenry can't??? Because that defines tyranny.


There is a huge difference in using a radio in a professional manner and/or life saving event vs. some stupid teenager or 20 something texting their moronic friends about Sabrina's Facebook update or Twitter post while going highway speeds. I am all for jamming devices being phased into new car production that only allows 911 calls while the vehicle is in motion.

 

[DC44]

They should ban talking to passengers in the car too, that's very distracting.

I mean it requires the same mental effort.

Texting and driving is not good and very distracting I've been guilty of it myself. I try not to do that or only when stopped.

 

[Maximus1966]

I've heard that the technology exists to prevent cell phones from working if moving more than 5MPH. If this is true, wouldn't that be the answer? I'm sure the manufacturers would have to be forced to provide the technology, but the idea seems appealing.

 

[pottymouth]

How would this technology differentiate between a driver on the phone and a passenger? How about taxis and liveries?

 

[oil_spaz]

Not that the government cares, but there is a tremendous amount of business conducted on cell phones while people are driving. I don't think the economy can afford another productivity hit right now.

 

[PandaBear]

There should be no civilian excuse for texting while driving, calling while driving may be ok because your eyes are on the road.

 

[65cuda]

I think it would survive though. Business managed to get by before cell phones and there is nothing to stop you from pulling over or waiting until you are at a stop to try to answer a business question. Actually I wonder why some of this is done anyway since you can use teleconference for at least some business instead of driving someplace. Besides that I have this deep seated attachment to living and would hate to give it up because some businessman decided the call was more important than his driving.

 

[daves87rs]

Originally Posted By: chevyboy14
I hope to not turn this to political but Ron Paul says It best if we stop to stop all risk, crimes or bad actions we will have no liberty. I don't think you should text and drive and you shouldn't talk if you are not a good enough driver to do so. That being said. The federal govt doesn't need to propose more laws . Let tbe states decide how they want to handle it . But I think hands free being illegal is a little absurd .


+1

 

[65cuda]

The NTSB was a recommendation to the STATES. Studies have shown that there is little difference between hand held and handsfree. Sorry but I don't like risking my hide because someone thinks they can multitask when they really can't. That is kind of like saying I thought I was a good driver when drunk because I never got pulled over and caused a wreck that I knew of. Ron Paul probably would have some different thoughts if his kid was killed because of a person deciding that they were a good driver while on their cell phone.

 

[rpn453]

Originally Posted By: Trajan
Nobody asked, so I will.

What were the first bus driver doing when he piled into the wreck in front of him?

What was the second one who piled into it doing?

The initial collision was the idiot in the pickup fault.


I wonder if the pickup driver was even responsible for his own death, or if he was actually killed by the negligent school bus drivers behind him.

Oh well, accidents happen. As long as they weren't doing whatever bad driving habits we're choosing to demonize at the moment it's all good.

 

[ueberooo]

I just only now read the article from the OP's link. Really sad. It looks like the school buses had shoddy if not malfunctioning brakes.

Without reading the accident report it's hard to say if other people or mechanical failure was also partially to blame for the texter's death.

If both, one, or all lanes come to a full stop in the middle of nowhere, with no rush hour, maybe around a bend.... it certainly would be a very high risk situation, though one is supposed to be able to stop and drive at appropriate speed to be able to do so, at any place any time (of course, in real life, with little guarantee).

Here is the OP's USA today excerpt about the accident:

Quote:
The recommendation from the safety board followed a hearing on a Missouri highway crash on Aug. 5, 2010, which killed two people and injured 38. The chain-reaction crash of four vehicles included two school buses.

The board ruled that the initial collision was caused by a pickup driver, Daniel Schatz, 19, who was one of the fatalities, sending 11 text messages in the 11 minutes before the crash. His pickup rammed the back of a tractor-trailer that had slowed for construction on Interstate 44 near Gray Summit.

Schatz's truck was then rear-ended by a school bus, which was rear-ended by another school bus. The buses, which investigators found had brake problems, carried members of the John F. Hodge High School band. A student, Jessica Brinker, 15, who sat in the last row of the first bus, died in the crash.


http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2011-12-13/ntsb-cellphone-ban-driving/51874966/1

And a link to a texting law ban:

http://www.iihs.org/laws/maptextingbans.aspx

[img:center]http://www.iihs.org/laws/datastoreimages.ashx?documentName=TextingBanChart[/img]

 

[Maximus1966]

Originally Posted By: pottymouth
Originally Posted By: Maximus1966
I've heard that the technology exists to prevent cell phones from working if moving more than 5MPH. If this is true, wouldn't that be the answer? I'm sure the manufacturers would have to be forced to provide the technology, but the idea seems appealing.


How would this technology differentiate between a driver on the phone and a passenger? How about taxis and liveries?


I don't see the need to differentiate. If the driver can wait until safely stopped to talk or text, certainly a passenger can also. Having come from an era when you had to stop, get out and talk on a pay phone if travelling, I feel we won't have much of a problem with not texting while driving. Added to that is the fact that an extremely high percentage of these mobile calls and texts are probably totally not necessary. From my experience they mostly consist of, "Hey, howya doing?, "How was your day?, "What's for supper?, " How did Timmy do in school today?", etc.

Taxis? I don't think there is much of a safety problem with experienced taxi drivers using their radios as intended.

 

[jcwit]

I'm all for it. I'm tired of sharing my side of the highway with oncoming vehicles drifting towards me. Let alone the idiots blasting thru a crossroads with stop signs while they yak on the phone or worse yet text.

 

[Vikas]

So if that pick up truck driver was not there at all, then the school buses would have rammed in to the tractor trailer, right??

Where is the logic applied to this particular accident case?

- Vikas

 

[rg200amp]

Originally Posted By: Maximus1966
Originally Posted By: pottymouth
Originally Posted By: Maximus1966
I've heard that the technology exists to prevent cell phones from working if moving more than 5MPH. If this is true, wouldn't that be the answer? I'm sure the manufacturers would have to be forced to provide the technology, but the idea seems appealing.


How would this technology differentiate between a driver on the phone and a passenger? How about taxis and liveries?


I don't see the need to differentiate. If the driver can wait until safely stopped to talk or text, certainly a passenger can also. Having come from an era when you had to stop, get out and talk on a pay phone if travelling, I feel we won't have much of a problem with not texting while driving. Added to that is the fact that an extremely high percentage of these mobile calls and texts are probably totally not necessary. From my experience they mostly consist of, "Hey, howya doing?, "How was your day?, "What's for supper?, " How did Timmy do in school today?", etc.

Taxis? I don't think there is much of a safety problem with experienced taxi drivers using their radios as intended.


You know, I hear North Korea is really nice this time of year. You would like it.

 

[oldmaninsc]

Originally Posted By: rg200amp


You know, I hear North Korea is really nice this time of year. You would like it.


Wow - it really makes me wonder how so many of us survived ALL those years - decades actually without a cell phone. Somewhere I missed the part where it became a right to drive AND to have a cell phone to talk on and text on!

Maybe we should just have a cell phone implanted into babies when they are born.

The problem is - if people had "common sense" there wouldn't be a need for ANY laws, period! I just wonder if some of our opinions would change if it was one of our loved ones who was killed in an "accident" or more accurately 'incident' involving texting!