Originally Posted By: Stelth
I am so glad you brought this up. There is so much baloney going around about cell phones, distracted driving, blah, blah, blah. What a bunch of hooey.
Now, as a patrol officer, it's your job to enforce the law, so this is not a direct criticism of you. Someone breaks the law, you are supposed to intervene. Fine.
However, it's not possible to legislate or regulate all danger out of existence. There are poor drivers who can be distracted by almost anything, or who drive poorly whether distracted or not. As long as they are given licenses, they will cause accidents. Sure, I've missed an exit because I was talking on the phone. I've also missed exits because I was listening to something on the radio, or simply deep in thought. Am I a distracted driver? Sometimes, so's everybody.
If you want to get rid of distracted driving, sure, ban phones, ban radios, ban kids in the car (talk about a distraction!), ban coffee, sodas, food, cigarettes, any sort of cargo (groceries) that can shift, ban discussion with others in the car (I've heard this one proposed), and so on. I bet if you did all of those things, the accident rate wouldn't dip very much.
Distracted driving is already illegal, regardless of the cause. If you're swerving around the freeway, or otherwise driving erratically, you should expect to attract the attention of the local gendarmes. Somewhere, there should be a line between force and personal responsibility.
Having said all that, one doesn't get to choose which laws one obeys. That's why I already have a couple of bluetooth devices, and I'm still looking for one that really works in the environments where I need one.
And yes, I see cops all the time talking on cell phones while driving patrol cars.
I agree. Bad drivers are just that. Doesn't matter what else they are doing while driving... If anything.