Quote:
Originally Posted by chas3wba0
A penny for your thoughts on:
-the act itself
-the laws surrounding it
-exceptions to the rule
-people who do it
-etc.
Curiosity was triggered by: http://www.twitspotting.com/ |
The act itself is incredibly dumb. The few times I've had to briefly input something into my phone or the headunit while driving, I was VERY distracted, and did so only in very clear conditions or kept losing my concentration on the task b/c I would keep my eyes always glancing up to the road b/c I was driving.
The laws surrounding it are stupid, however. It falls under "distracted driving", which should be and is a moving violation and a citable offense, and worse if due to it you cause a crash.
The people who do it are stupid and should definitely have points taken off their license and after several offenses in a certain period (say 3 years), be sent back for re-licensing.
I liken it to carrying a distractedly carrying an unholstered gun around, except worse. The worse a bullet can do is get lucky and puch a hole smaller than half an inch into or through you. Sometimes it gets lucky and kills you.
A car is worse. A heavy-hitting slug leaving the muzzle of a 4" barreled firearm is preferrably packing around 400 ftlbs or more of energy. A car is a multi-ton (that is, greater than a single ton, aka > 2000 lbs, or 909kg) that, assuming distracted driving on the freeway, is going about 60mph (100kph).
That is also about 5 ft (width) of vehicle being driven by a distracted driver.
So, if I'm all for appropriate penalties (and I am) for those who carelessly or recklessly handle loaded firearms in public, then I'm absolutely all for serious penalties for those who recklessly and distractedly mishandle an automobile on public roads. Their numbers, the traffic density, and exponentially greater lethality (compared to firearms) make it a bigger threat.
With great power comes great responsibility and with responsibility comes accountability. If you're recklessly driving (and distracted driving IS reckless by definition), then you should be held appropriately accountable for doing so.
Edit: with the advent of headunits which can mirror the phone screen, there's less and less excuse for NOT doing hands-free phone operations. The headunit turns your phone into a dash-mounted part of your automobile that can, by mirroring onto a larger screen, be used with far less distraction (assuming you're not trying to text or browse facebook or instagram or whatnot) than before. That is, for music controls and whatnot.
I am VERY connected in my car, but I do NOT do email, texting (except if a text is sent, I can read it on the HU, then hit the dial button to get back to the person if I need to send a response, instead of trying to type a response), internet, etc., except streaming content through the HU's interface. And I don't get involved in it so much that I take my concentration off the road (I try not to... sometimes I do get distracted and usually then thank God that I didn't have to do any emergency maneuvers then, and resolve to not do that again).
Driving distracted is like driving while drowsy or actively nodding off (VERY scary if it's happened to you, btw), except you don't have the benefit of still facing towards the road when the "oh shit!" moment occurs.