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Detroit, 7:38 AM
Sun Nov 8
6 posts in the last 24 hours
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10/01/09
This something else isn't mechanical failure. It's incompetent driving, which is the real problem. Significantly reduce that and the "distracted" part gets a free ride to the landfill.
09/30/09
All cars should be Federally/UN/EU mandated to have no distractions; this means no radio, TV, cell phone, maps, prostitutes, gages, Big Gulps, blinking dash lights, passengers, nothing. There should only be a steering wheel with a seat and rudimentary controls to pilot the car. Everything within the car would be covered in flat black paint. All cars should have a special hood aiming device which the driver will utilize to aim said vehicle by using the roadway lines, any deviation from the roadway lines should result in fines or jail. Plus all drivers would be required to wear blinders and have their heads locked in a vice like contraption to keep them from wayward gazes.
09/30/09
09/30/09
seeing as how it is already illegal to hurt someone that same rule applies when behind the wheel.
WHAT YOU DO before you hurt someone however shouldn't be illegal.
09/30/09
09/30/09
Vail, CO
0800: Opening Remarks, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood
0900: Opening Prayer, Father Mulcahy
1000: Coffee Break
1030: Session 1: Statistical Analysis of Drivers Who Text
1045: Coffee Break
1100: Session 2: PSA Brainstroming
1130: Lunch
1230: Open Panel: What is Texting?
1245: Coffee Break
1300: Session 3: How to Force States to Adopt Texting Laws
1315: Closing Ceremony, President Obama via Satellite
Come join us next year in Tahiti where we'll be discussing the dangers of soda and driving!
09/30/09
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09/30/09
I normally stop at the farm house and grab a cold Beer from the fridge for that little drive across the marsh. Call it my few minutes of thinking about the day over a Beer. I'm on private property so technically I am ok (at least I tell myself that). I have never had a bad drive across with a cold beer in my hand. But if that damn cell phone rings, or I get a text, I have to stop because I can't drive on those roads and try to talk on the phone or read a text while keeping out of the ditch.
So Drinking and Driving is better then Texting while driving.
09/30/09
09/30/09
Same here. Someone we managed to survive...
09/30/09
9) Dancing truckers
8) Flaming supercars
7) Euro footballers on holiday
6) Self gratification
5) Journalists on road tests
4) Romanians who can't pee straight
3) Loose floor mats
2) Bees/Fingernails (tie)
1) Dieter
09/30/09
09/30/09
"Multi-tasking" while you're driving what is essentially a deadly weapon is just inexcusable. Nothing wrong with letting your calls go to voicemail.
09/30/09
@Jagvar: I actually really still carry one of these. I'll call you back when I'm damn good and ready. Kids these days... (make fun of me).
09/30/09
09/30/09
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09/30/09
09/30/09
You and Unregular are both wrong.
It's to protect the insurance industry from exposure to risk.
Follow the money folks. You think the insurance industry has a multi-million dollar lobbying behemoth in Washington to keep US safe?
It's to keep THEM safe.
If the roads can be made safer and insurance premiums don't go down (and you know they won't) the industry can make more profit.
09/30/09
09/30/09
That said, if they can actually make some kind of difference in this, it's money well spent. I get run out of my lane at least once each way on my commute by some numbskull, fuckwitted, shit for brains, cock suck that can't wait or pull over to type out a text on their fucking cell phone.
09/30/09
You see, you big law lovers... Running into someone using your car is allready Illegal.
Enforce what is there and you suddenly find out that 1/3rd of the laws are not needed (traffic laws anyway).
No need to make everything that has a chance of perhaps possiblly sometimes maybe causing or not causing an accident illegal and thus taxable.
(removed not nice statement about unregular in the intrests of having a conversation. I am trying to acutally take my anti-troll medicine believe it or not)
09/30/09
09/30/09
09/30/09
09/30/09
but now, with all those other laws, not only can you be fined for hitting something, but the seven things that you did before hand that possibly could have maybe perhaps had an effect in you hitting something.
Thats where I get torqued off.
Cop: Do you know why I pulled you over?
Zeeboid: Caus you need tax money?
Cop: You were doing 70 in a 55
Zeeboid: Gee officer, was anyone hurt?
Cop: No
Zeeboid: Did I damage something?
Cop: No
Zeeboid: So my speeding didn't affect anyone in any way/shape/form?
Cop: No, but the rules say I have to take money from you because what you did was socially unacceptable.
That answers the age old question:
If you fall in the forrest, and no one is around to be injured by it, can the government still profit from it?
The answer is Yes.
Why not tax people for having stairs?
According to the CDC in 2006, 21,647 people died from falls. Obviously having steps or more then one level in/around/by your house is dangerous... far more dangerous then texting while driving.
[webapp.cdc.gov]
For the love of God people, 14,179 people died of Suffocation!! the use of plastic bags shouldn't be stopped, but instead it should be taxed right!?
how does those deaths compair to cell phone use while driving (or simply "distracted driving")?
Lets see here.
2006 total motor vehicle deaths: 45,509
15% of that is: 6827
So, three times the number of people a year die from FALLS and twice by Suffocation then cell phone use while driving. obviously if there should be laws to protect motorists (IE: Tax people) agasint people who use cell phones while driving, don't you think we autt'a do SOMETHING about the far more dangerous activities like climbing stairs and using plastic bags?
But remember... much like Ciggerettes, we can't just make it ILLEGAL, the government has to have a way to profit off of it.
09/30/09
Second sentence is key...
09/30/09
The main problem was accurate reporting--police feel that cell phones are UNDERreported as elements of the accident due to embarassment. Nobody wants it on record that they were asking their BF what he wanted for dinner just before they put two kids in the hospital. So until it becomes legal to check the cell records of an at-fault person in a car accident (which I support), we'll never really know the impact.
09/30/09
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09/30/09
I couldn't care less. They make phone calls.
09/30/09
The reason I ask is that Verizon's smallest 2-phone plan is 700 minutes a month. The wife and I use no more than 40 minutes. The rest goes to waste. Surely there's a better way.
09/30/09
09/30/09
09/30/09
We now have Virgin Mobile, which is around 20 cents a minute, with a minimum top-up payment of $15 to $20 every three months.
09/30/09
09/30/09
10/01/09
10/01/09
07/10/09