<p>Tell friends : “So you’re telling me that you get to have a temper tantrum when laws and science are inconvenient. Wow. Let me be your reference when someone wants to know about your maturity level”.</p>
<p>I had my phone in my hand recently when using google maps to follow some directions. I bought a dash/windshield mounted holder for the phone but it doesn’t stay on. A cop pulled behind me and followed me for a long time before turning off. I don’t think I did anything wrong but didn’t want to have to explain it to the cop.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I think some people really do let it run their lives. When formerly nice, sensitive people are answering their phones or texting while at dinner with old friends and see nothing wrong with it, and furthermore are angry when confronted about it, you can pretty much determine that the device is running them, not vice versa.</p>
<p>The son of a friend of mine was seriously injured when he was rearended by a person that was texting a passenger in the back seat of their own car.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>YES! He was steering his car with his knees.</p>
<p>^^^^OMG. As a long time flautist, I am speechless.</p>
<p>A friend of mine says “You can’t cure stupid.”</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Or just sending one text back that you’re not going to respond to their texts while they’re driving. It’d serve as a reminder plus have the practical effect of ‘no conversation’ - i.e. disconnecting the line.</p>
<p>It takes two to tango on these chained texts. It only takes one of the two to break it and exercise some responsibility.</p>
<p>Here’s a timely report - </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>[California</a> ban on driver cellphone use is saving lives, study says - latimes.com](<a href=“http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/california-politics/2012/03/driver-cellphone-ban-saving-lives.html]California”>California ban on driver cellphone use is saving lives, study says)</p>
<p>GladGradDad – yep. Laws – and particularly, enforcing them – works. People do not like paying those $200 fines.</p>
<p>Saw someone shaving AND reading the newspaper on the DC Beltway a couple of years ago. Paper was folded neatly over the steering column, was using an electric razor. That’s bad even for around here.</p>
<p>Heck, I find the GPS a distraction!!</p>
<p>
Wasn’t there a commercial several years back for an electric shaver where the man was using it in his car? Nothing like encouraging distracted driving.</p>
<p>It was about 10 years ago and so now it seems almost surreal, but I once saw a driver and her passenger “talking” via sign language on the Kenneday expressway in Chicago.</p>
<p>Think about it - when she was signing, both hands were off the steering wheel and when her friend was signing, she had the wheel but was looking at her friend.</p>
<p>I laughed at the poster up top who said he can’t drive with the radio on because it’s too distracting. And texting and driving is the problem! I see, daily, people do dangerous and stupid things on the road: Space off, eat, try to slam on the brakes during a yellow light because of red light cameras that send exorbitantly high tickets to “violators” (more like victims, really), drive absurdly slow on the freeway and causing dozens of near-misses with people who are going, y’know, the speed limit, and the like. Thing is, none of those things involved a cell phone. </p>
<p>Anti-distracted driving proponents have already gone the way of MADD, which has gone from an anti-drunk driving alliance to a neo-Prohibitionist organization that’s practically irrelevant in the national discourse today. Problems? Throw laws and money at them until they go away.</p>
<p>I once was on the highway and another driver had his leg hanging out of the window. They should outlaw that.</p>
<p>red-light cameras definitely need to go. hate em with a passion. the other day the light turned yellow and i quickly assessed my position and am like ‘i can make it’. well, the guy in front of me thought the same thing at first, but at the last possible second decided to slam on his brakes, which then forced me to slam on my brakes, too. And so the guy in front of me ended up stopping with his whole car in front of the bold line where you’re supposed to stop at red lights and i’m just thinking ‘wth, i almost got into an accident because the guy in front of me unnecessarily and unsafely slammed to a screeching halt because of the stupid red light cameras’</p>
<p>Massachusetts does ban ALL cell phones use by teens. Currently these are the MA laws:</p>
<p>1)Text messaging banned for all drivers, as well as other Internet-related activities. Fines: $100 (first offense), then $250, then $500.</p>
<p>2)Cell phone use prohibited for drivers under 18, as well as use of other mobile electronics. Fines as above, plus graduated license suspensions.</p>
<p>3)School bus operators and other public transit drivers barred from using cell phones while driving. Fine: $500. </p>
<p>They are working to make cell phone use even more retricted. Some asked what does making it illegal do? If a police officer sees a teen using a cell phone, he can pull the teen over & fine him $100 plus 60-day license suspension and youth traffic school (first offense), then $250 with six-month suspension and then $500 with a one-year suspension.</p>
<p>While I feel for her family, I doubt that a girl driving 80+ mph while texting profusely would abide by a law should there be one.</p>
<p>Here’s another family that lost a child and is doing something about it. Someone from their organization came to our high school and had kids sign pledges not to text and drive. </p>
<p>[Remember</a> Alex Brown Foundation](<a href=“http://rememberalexbrownfoundation.org/]Remember”>http://rememberalexbrownfoundation.org/)</p>
<p>I’m a teenager and I can honestly say that people that drive and text or talk on the phone really freak me out. Whenever I’m in a car and the driver reaches for their phone, my stomach just kindof turns inside out and I mentally prepare myself for death. A bit sinister, yes, but I’ve lost so many friends to reckless driving, preparing myself seems normal.</p>
<p>When it’s one of my friends driving, I take their phones and answer for them or act as a headset by holding the phone to their ear so they can keep their hands on the wheel.</p>
<p>
True - unless she had already received a couple of expensive tickets for doing so. That might convince the person to not text even if they think they’re the best driver in the world, outstanding at multi-tasking, and texting has no negative impact on their ability to drive.</p>
<p>The same idea works regarding speeding. I think a lot of us would admit we’d speed more if we had no concern that we’d receive a ticket. It’s the fear of tickets, with the cost of them, the higher insurance costs, and even possible loss of the license, that’s slowing many of us down regardless of how competent we think we are at driving at the higher speeds. And personally I think texting is far more dangerous than most speeding since you still have your eyes on the road and are paying attention while speeding as opposed to when texting.</p>