Modern Vespa

Now it comes out that studies showing how dangerous cell phone use is were covered up. I don't know about you guys but I live in a city where 90% of the women and 60% of the men are on the phone while driving and I think it is the biggest danger there is to motorcycle riders. I hope their use in vehicles is outlawed totally:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/21/technology/21distracted.html?_r=1&hp

"We're looking at a problem that could be as bad as drunk driving, and the government has covered it up," said Clarence Ditlow, director of the Center for Auto Safety.

The highway safety researchers estimated that cellphone use by drivers caused around 955 fatalities and 240,000 accidents over all in 2002.

Yeah now if they could only tax the issue to death or throw in increasing penalties for repeat offenders then you would see action. Then again between the cheeseburger, cellphone, coffee, and kid screaming in the back at what point is too much to handle while driving?

Did you see the "Mythbusters" episode on the Discovery Channel where they did some road course with an instructor/trainer with them and monitored a cell phone user and a drunk driver? The cell phone user actually did just as badly as the completely intoxicated driver when it came to reacting and doing slaloms and such. The only difference was that the cell phone user was better at 'faking' going down a straight road, but as soon as something unexpected happened(like having to stop at a stop sign), they were basically the same as intoxicated.

Some states already have laws where hands free setups MUST be used, but unfortunately, they spend more time enforcing seat belt laws. The cell phone laws in most states don't allow for you to be pulled over specifically for that offense, but you can be ticketed on top of a pullover for something else. If they changed that one caveat, then officers could pull you over when they spotted people gabbing. Within a month of starting that, word would spread and at least folks would get hands free sets...and cops wouldn't have to worry about making quota for a long, long time.

Its gotten so bad here in Knoxville, that when i'm out I like to play a little head in my game which is how many people in a row are talking on a phone and driving? They have to be in a row, with no non-talkers between them. So far at one one red light I've gotten up to 14! All front to back of each other yappin!

The most dangerous game. The Lehigh Valley isn't terrible with cell phone drivers, but you do get some yahoo's out here. No, the biggest problem Pennsylvania has are the extremely white haired amongst us. You want to talk about a danger to themselves and everyone else around them... I always love passing a geriatric who can't see above the wheel of her giant Uncle Buck car.

Ditto for Austin Jerry. I saw someone awhile back just stopped at blinking red light just talkin away .Oblivious of others. I was in a cage, I pulled up, saw they we're out to lunch, and proceded through intersection, with them still sitting there. Might have been stalled but doubt it. Never in Texas will it be outlawed, is my prediction. I hope I'm wrong. The rise in Organic food awareness shocked me. So I guess anything is possible.

The problem is just as bad over here in the UK, and it is already illegal to use your phone - not just a fine, but penalty points are also part of the package. Policemen can even use their discretion and stop drivers who use hands free kits, if they think it is enough of a distraction.

Still, I reckon that 1 in every 10 cars that I see in the morning ar on the phone. Shocking! Makes me want to wear my helmet cam every day and send off the footage to the police on a weekly basis...

I see a lot of it here too in the Podunk. Even scarier than that I have seen an increase in texting while driving especially among younger more inexpierienced drivers.

I know - it's unbelievable. We suffer from texters also - on 50cc/125cc scooters! If you are familiar with the word 'Chav', then you already know what I mean!

Wasn't but i googled it. LOL yep!

The study JerryW was referring to also notes that handsfree units are just as bad. A distraction is still a distraction. I won't drive and talk on a cell phone anymore. I used to think that the hands free units were "safer", but one time I was so distracted I took the wrong entrance on the interstate and drove over 50 miles away from where I thought I was headed despite having driven the route over 100 times. That was it. Phone goes in silent mode or I hand it to my wife to answer.

I think it would be a fine revenue raiser for most places to slap a $2000 fine on just talking while driving ( double it for texting). And a minimum of a year in jail if the records show you were on the phone at the time of an accident.
You would then begin to see some curtailment in use, but not until the fines are draconian, about the same as for drunk driving. As it should be.

Change starts with YOU however: personally I always pull over (if I even answer a call and I usually don't) while driving, and I will not talk to someone who I know is driving as well. I tell them why too. Business calls included.

Its a start, but there is a long way to go. Many people just do not behave
responsibly.

It's not just cagers that are guilty of this.

I was following a dude on a small scoot one day, He was swerving all over the place, it looked like he was trying to do up his helmet strap, all the time doing about 60 kph. I just hung back, I couldn't quite figure out what he was doing. I finally pulled up next to him at a light so I could pass him when the light changed. He had his phone wedged up under the side of his helmet, using his left hand to hold it in place while driving.

Worst cell phone story I ever read about is when I lived in CA. A guy is waiting to turn right, car ahead doesn't move. He honks, she finally goes around the corner and stops. He stops to see what she wants.

She says, "Can't you show a little courtesy? I was on the phone!"

Two things to add to this discussion:

A friend of ours lost her 19yo son last year. He was driving home from work late one evening down a curvy road and texting at the same time. I have told my children if I EVER catch them reading or sending texts while driving I'LL kill them to remove the element of uncertainty and the chance of injuring someone else.

Yesterday I was stuck in road construction traffic and letting some cars out of the other entrance to our subdivision. They were cutting out and couldn't see the oncoming traffic, so I would wave them on and stop them. A guy who I went to school with was gabbing on his phone, saw me wave the car in front of him out, and then blasted out RIGHT IN FRONT OF A TRUCK. I was waving a stop hand, and honking that wimpy little horn and he never looked up. He was okay, thanks largely to good brakes on the truck, but it scared me to death. I must confess, I am a former cell phone talker, but not so much any more.

In California, we passed a law a year ago that banned the use of cell phone use without the use of a hands free device. You can be pulled over and ticketed for this offense. The fine is small (something like $25), but by the time you add the various fees for the county and state, it adds up to well over $100.

Unfortunately, I see just as many people NOT using hands free devices as I did before the law passed. I'd love to see the statistics to see if this law actually made us safer or if we've just created the illusion that the government is making us safer.

I fear it's the later.

$100 is a slap on the wrist and people will just chance it. You have to make it really hurt to even start to deter people. A good friend recently got a DWI ( which he deserved) and so far it has cost him $10,000. Most of that was fighting to keep his license, which he nearly lost for a year. At any rate, that woke me up to the perils of even having two glasses of wine with a restaurant meal. It gets your attention!
Personally, I wish cars had some sort of cellular disarming device built in.
Of course, people would find a way around that too......

It has been illegal here in the last couple of years to use a mobile whilst driving but it doesn't seem to make any difference - they still do it.

I personally think the car should be taken from them and crushed (like if you are found driving without insurance) - that should make them think twice.

I think RobInDenver hit the nail on the head there... the results to concentration and car control are as bad as being drunk, so why aren't the penalties?

Same reason that some doorknob in Detroit can get liquored up, plow into the back of a van, kill one guy, put a couple of others in critical condition, drive away from it, get picked up later, and get charged with INVOLUNTARY manslaughter.

Yeah, sure, a bunch of people held him down, poured alcohol down his throat, and then made him drive at gunpoint. There wasn't anything involuntary about it. Frickin' morons.

Stupid people tick me off.

-nub

Wow. That is outrageous!

In the UK they'd forensically sweep the doorknob's car to prove categorically that it was their face that smashed into the airbag, thus driving the car. They'd look for every excuse in the book to nail the doorknob's ass to the wall.

Our defence lawers are nothing on the scale of what you have over in the US. I'm no expert myself, but I think that our police force are very good at covering their backs with evidence and pushing for maximum convictions when it comes to deaths. Rightly so.

"Play a little head in my game?" What?


Luthor, put down the phone when you're typing and concentrate! You're losing it buddy!

In my opinion this type of ban does not go far enough. It is not the holding of the phone to ones ear that is the distraction...it is the conversation you are having that is the distraction.

Now the hands free units may be a bit safer since they may make it easier to make calls and don't take your eyes from the road as much like some cell phones do but only a small benefit IMHO

Couldn't agree with you more.

I agree to an extent, but this is the same as telling drivers that they cannot talk to their passengers - it just can't be policed. I for one agree with you in principle, because if I'm chatting to a passenger while in the car, I'll miss the exit every time... same would be apparent while using the hands free... when you are in conversation, other actions tend to go on autopilot.

At least with hands free, their hands are in the right position to react if necessary, with a phone up to their ear, this is just not possible. I think the benefits to hands free are larger than you think, especially voice activated units.

Now we just need to get their brains back on the road and get them to concentrate on the job in hand!

Yes I may have underestimated the hands free benefits a bit...good point.

Conversing hands-free on a phone is a far cry from chatting to a passenger. If something on the road requires more concentration, drivers tend to stop talking - a passenger will recognise this and keep quiet in the main, the other end of a phone converastion won't and will probably start jabbering again. The two scenarios are completely different (as research has borne out).

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/personal_tech/article5508887.ece

This study reminds me of the study that researched the effects of beer drinking on the waistline...The $6000 study concluded that: drinking beer can give you a beer gut...I S%!T you not.....

Interesting article jim. Especially about the lack of side to side eye movements while talking on the phone.

Yeah a passenger does have a vested interest to shut up in and emergency situation and that does help the driver to quickly disengage the conversaton and focus. But I would think that ones ability to recognize an emergency situation whether talking on the phone or to a passenger would still be impaired....

The talking isn't the problem - the listening and 'imagination' of the other end is. This is why Police motorcycle riders have a huge amount of training in using their radios while on the move. They have to get to the stage where they *don't* think of the other end.

I just had this link sent to me by the company safety officer.
It's rather interesting.
It's an online skills test to show you how much slower your reaction time is while texting. I really stink at it.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/07/19/technology/20090719-driving-game.html?nl=technology&emc=techupdateemb2

-nub