Can’t you pull over and stop for your text message? Don’t try to tell me that the emergency is so dire that there isn’t time for that. Fire equipment and ambulances don’t go charging through red lights at high speed having discovered that getting there is more important than getting there a minute earlier.
The perp was 17 so I’m imagining that the text message was not NORAD asking if we should launch the nukes and an emergency would be more of a cell phone issue rather than text message. But let’s say it was a business message - at least the frozen hamburger patties got routed to El Paso rather than Fargo (although it did cost someone their life).
But to answer your question, same penalty.
Yes. Justice doesn’t stop because someone is a high ranking official. Well, it does, but it shouldn’t.
And I did interpret the Pit thread as saying the driving suspension would ruin the killer’s life, sorry if I was wrong. But since I’ve heard that from other people before, and since some people are saying it now, it does seem like I’m hitting on a popular truth. And I also think he should have a felony on his record. He KILLED someone.
I wonder how many people are squeamish about being harsh due to the relative ages of the victims. If the ages were reversed, would your opinions change?
Yes, I, at least, would, and it’s exactly what I stated in the relevant Pit thread. I don’t necessarily want the the guy who killed the bicyclist to get 20 years in a high security prison, but I would want everybody who’s driving recklessy (or endanger other people’s lives in other ways) to get more than a slap on the wrist, whether or not it resulted in serious harm.
Business reasons isn’t a better excuse for putting other people’s life at stakes than social life reasons.
And concerning emergency reasons, in which circumstances would you envision sending a text message to an emergency service?
kanicbird, since WHEN is a freaking text message an emergency? And even if it is, you can, oh, I dunno, pull over maybe? Yeah, I know, it’s a little wacky, but it just might work.
Hi!
This is my first time posting in a long time, as I’ve been lurking for a few years.
I don’t really believe having driving privileges taken away is really that bad.
Consider my family, my father’s car broke down on the highway in the middle of winter, and my entire family (along with my baby sister) had to walk home. That was at least 18 years ago, and my father still vows never to buy a car.
I don’t have a car either. I use the bus to get around (the buses run here generally every half hour, and stop running at midnight) or walk. I even walk in winter.
If you’re able-bodied, it shouldn’t be a problem at all.
I don’t think my life is ruined 
This topic is interesting because my own mother hit me with her car when I was around 11. She was backing out and didn’t see me. My bike was completely ruined, sprained my ankle, and I still have heavy scarring on my elbows because of it. According to the OP, my mother would be either in jail or without a license. Thank heavens you don’t run the government.
I’m sorry but accidents happen. It’s apart of life and punitive laws won’t change it in the slightest. No way, no how.
Your punitive measures would only create blackmail situations in which victims would say “You better pay me lots of money or I am going to the cops!” After all, how much would you pay to keep your license?
- Honesty
I think how much losing your license affects you depends on where you live. For example, I chose the place where I live because it’s got a bus line within walking distance and isn’t far from a major bus route. I can use buses to get to work and church, go grocery shopping, etc. On the other hand, if I take the bus to my current job in bad weather, I have to leave for work about 45 minutes earlier and bus fare costs me about twice as much as the gas I’d use to get to work. If I take the bus to church, I have to walk or drive to that major bus route because my local bus doesn’t start service early enough on Sunday. I know all this from personal, practical experience.
On the other hand, when I first moved back to town, I lived with my parents in a small town in the next county which had two buses into town and two out of town, both at rush hour. One of the two bus routes was operated by the county they live in; the other by Port Authority, Pittsburgh’s mass transit company. Since then, Port Authority has cancelled their bus service. It was a mile and a half’s walk to the bus stop. I managed without a car, but it was inconvenient, especially when I was job hunting in February without a car. Pittsburgh has minimal taxi service.
A friend of mine recently moved up to a small town in the mountains east of here. He has no mass transit available to him, although there is a grocery store and a drug store within walking distance, and there may be a video rental place and a pizza place within walking distance as well.
I lived on Oahu for seven years, during which time I couldn’t drive, but that was no hassle at all because Oahu had a great, cheap mass transit system.
I’m not real sympathetic to people who drive while drunk or high, and sending a text message while driving strikes me as ridiculous. I’ve also seen an accident in which a kid who was high on alcohol, valium, and cocaine crossed the center lane of a two-lane road in broad daylight and plowed into a minivan containing a family of five. I was subpoeanaed to testify at his trial. It’s not something I care to see or have to do again. Driving is a privilege, and, if it’s vital to your job or your life, you don’t do stupid things which will endanger that privilege.
As I was typing this, it occurred to me there’s another factor which would affect how necessary it is for you to drive: the nature of your job. I’m a IT tech. I show up at the office, work my stint, and go home. Our sales reps, however, do have to spend quite a bit of time driving around visiting our clients and rounding up new business. Needless to say, they depend on their license a lot more than I do. Then there’s our driver who picks up and delivers supplies and completed orders. If I lost my license, it would be inconvenient, but it would still be manageable, and I wouldn’t even have to tell my employer about it, at least, not as far as it would affect my job performance. On the other hand, our driver would be a lot worse off.
CJ
There is a difference between an understandable accident and reckless endangerment.
Backing up and hitting something that’s in your blind spot=somewhat okay
Using a text messenger while driving or driving while eating or driving drunk=not okay
I think too many people are thinking of this kid’s slaughter as an “accident” when in fact it was not. It was recklessness, and that’s what should be punished.
It might make people think twice about their driving habits.
“Habit” is precisely the word to describe eating, drinking, text messaging, etc, while driving. If people realized how dangerous it is to do those things (just as dangerous as drunk driving, someone said in the original Pit thread) then they will plan their morning so they have time to eat breakfast and put on their make-up in safer circumstances, or develop the habit of letting their voice mail pick up phone calls until they can safely park.
On the subject of people who need to drive, because of their job or because they live in Miami: those people should be extra careful not to text message while driving. I’m betting commercial airline pilots are extra careful not to do anything which will put their passengers (or job) in danger; why can we not expect the same from people who must pilot massive hunks of steel through our neighbourhoods at high speeds?
Maybe, just maybe, if there WERE stricter driving regulations, then more public transportation would become available? Because there would be more of a need for it.
Shh, don’t say this! You have stumbled upon my sekrit plan for improving the bus schedules. Right now it’s just killers and drunks, but soon it will be everyone! BUS POWER.
(In case you couldn’t tell, I was being sarcastic. Insert wink emoticon here.)
I don’t think driving while eating falls into the same category at all. It depends on the circumstances, but I don’t see a problem with reaching into a bag of fries with one hand while your other is on the wheel and your eyes are on the road. But I don’t see how anyone could think text messaging, which takes your eyes and your attention away from the road, could possibly be safe.
In many disaster situations cell phone systems are overlaoded and people can’t make calls, land lines are also often overwhelmed or destroyed. Usually txt mgs is the only practical method of getting a message through.
My point however is we assuming facts not in evidence, namely what type of text message he was sending.
If you think that a social txt mgs is equally bad as a business txt mgs then why did you mention it in at all?
Let’s see. It’s 18 degrees F outside. My ranch is 18 miles from town, which is where my store is located. So, just 'cause I’m able-bodied, walking home that 18 miles is no problem, right? Not being able to deliver hay won’t affect my ranch, right?
I’m not arguing against taking away someone’s license for killing someone when they drive, but perhaps people like Jotun could broaden their minds a bit and realize the busses don’t run everywhere in the country (it’s 50 miles from my house to the nearest bus line) and you can’t transport livestock in a taxicab (although it’s an interesting mental picture).
Would it be possible for me to just sell the ranch and move to town? Sure. But that’s not a casual lifestyle change!
Ok… :rolleyes: I’ll support clemency in case of earthquake or tsunami…
Which is completely unimportant since (barring tsunamis) there are essentially no instances when you need to send a text message while driving.
I didn’t mention it, you were responding to another poster. I answered back because I was irritated by your conception that “business” is somehow important enough to warrant putting other people’s lives at stakes.
And there’s something preventing you from pulling over?
:rolleyes:
Understood InvisibleWombat, I’m not saying it wouldn’t suck. However, I don’t think it would “ruin your life”. I do understand that buses don’t run everywhere, as well. I guess if you live in the middle of nowhere, it should give you more of an incentive not to lose your license by running someone down while text messaging. 
What is truly ridiculous is the fact that this is even being discussed. The killer is lucky that he is not going to prison for vehicular homicide. Not driving will ruin his life?! A car isn’t much help in prison and being Mrs. Bubba for 3-5 years will certainly put a hurting on his life.
As far as I’m concerned, he’d better thank his lucky stars that they are considering just revoking his license for a while.
-Saint Cad
PS: Does he get his text messaging access revoked as well?