some bitch in a red ford ranger almost killed me on the highway (i’m not going to get more detailed than that because it still urks me) and when i pass her she’s still talking on the cell phone, even after she avoided colliding into me and another car by mere 8 inches doing 75 mph i might add.
This is the third time a cell phone has been involved in a near auto collision with me.
Personally i believe these gabbers ought to be pulled over have their keys tooken away, stripped naked, have their cell phone shoved up their brownie hole and forced to walk to their destination.
Of course this is a biased opinion what do the void people think? (thats everyone out there in e-topia.
It’s another unwelcome hazard on the roads that is completely avoidable just like falling asleep at the wheel.
As a motorbike and bicycle rider its bad enough when people fail to see me without further additions to the long list of excuses.
It is illegal to drive and use a hand helds round here and a few have been prosecuted but the law is hardly enforced in this respect.
I think it will be the same old story, until someone famous dies as a result or there is a disaster caused by such behaviour it will be a low priority for traffic police.
This is a pet peeve of mine. I can’t wait for the laws to catch up with the technology. I saw a study that was conducted (reported in the AAA magazine) that showed that driving while talking a cellphone increases your risk of an accident to almost the same as driving when legally drunk.
The vote is is. The ayes carry.
RESOLVED: People who regard driving any type of vehicle as their secondary function in said vehicle should be reminded that telephone calls can be redialed later (or while stopped) but people killed or maimed in avoidable accidents cannot be restored.
IMHO: I have a cell phone. I can use it hands-free. But when I need to make a call, or I receive a call, I stop the car. There’s no law here that says I have to. But if I don’t, the call will be directing me to the scene of my accident, no matter what is being said.
Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s that clear-cut. There is no specific law in England against it and the people who have been prosecuted have been done for driving without due care and attention, dangerous driving, etc.
The sooner they make it a specific offence, preferably carrying a mandatory ban, the better.
Holding a cell phone and talking into it while driving is now illegal in Norway. You can still use the cell phone, but it has to be mounted to the dashboard or some other suitable place. Most people responded to the ban by buying a hands-free kit and continuing to use their phones. (This is Scandinavia, after all, where the cell phone is king.) I’m not sure how much this is helping; after all, people are still making calls from the car, they’ve just got both hands on the wheel now.
And not everyone is paying attention to the law; there’s always somebody who decides the law is for other people. One day on a long drive I started amusing myself by seeing how many Mercedes drivers were holding cell phones to their ears. I stopped when it started getting too depressing.
One fascinating side effect is that a significant number of people are continuing to use their hands-free kits when they get out of their cars. Walk around the streets of Oslo and try to distinguish the local crazies who like to talk to themselves from the yuppies and the trendies with their cell phones. Is that a Nokia in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?
I do know someone who rear ended a car while she
was talking on her cell phone. The skid marks
proved she had enough time to stop if she had
been watching what she was doing. Fortunately,
nobody was hurt.
She went out the next day and bought a hands
free unit.
Hang up and drive.
I’ve been conducting a private experiment. Everytime I come to a dual turn intersection, I take the right lane and look at the cars to the left of me. I take note of whether anyone in the nearest three cars is using a cell phone. There’s a couple of intersections that I frequent on a nearly daily basis where I can usually expect to find one of these three engaged in a telephone conversation. I then observe the lane discipline of these drivers. Funny thing is, I’ve yet to see anyone talking on a cell phone stay in his or her lane as they make the turn. The correlation between cell phone usage and accident causing behavior seems to be about 100%. I’ve seen dozens of accidents at these intersections. I usually give the cell phone drivers a wide berth and they usually end up needing it.
I was riding with a guy the other day and he was driving and talking on his cell phone quite a bit. He was bragging about how much business he got done driving to and from work. He asked if I had discovered this timesaving technique. I explained to him that I thought that humans are incabable of effectively multiplexing between their phones and their driving. I described my little private experiment and the results I had to date. Of course, he took this personally and got told me how he agreed that most people were not capable of doing the two things at once, but that he had lots of practice and that it would never be an issue for him. Two minutes later he plowed into the side of the car next to him as we made a left turn and he failed to stay in his lane. Of course, when I heard him talking about the incident later that day the facts had become somewhat distorted. His version of the story had the lady in the right lane swerving into him…
TomH wrote:
I took my British driving test about 3-4 years ago and they made a huge point about hand held cell phone usage and driving. I never did see any specific wording in the written materials, but they clearly said it was against the law and they even had a poster at the testing office that made this claim. Most people in the UK don’t talk and drive because they are afraid of getting ticketed, so it might as well be an official law.
I had read a study on driving with cell phones just recently. It had actually stated that the ratio of people who get into accidents with cell phones and without is only really increasing due to the amount of cell phones that are being used.
I do agree that having a cell phone up to your ear can be a hazard as you only have one free hand to do your vehicular activities. But if you were to have a head set to talk into so you have hands free talking it’s really not much different than having someone talking right next to you, except only a little bit more safe due to the fact there’s no one next to you to look at when they say something rather facinating. Anyway, that’s just my two cents. I myself work for AT&T wireless so cell phones are part of my career. 
Well, I’ll tell you what I think. I think that this thread belongs in another forum. Since you saw fit to use profanity and an unfortunate form of punishment that I’m confident would pose 8th Amendment problems, I’m sending it to the Pit.
Drivers on cell phones…
Diners on cell phones…
Theater patrons on cell phones…
People just walking around on cell phones…
How pathetic do you have to be to have to stay that “in touch”?!?!? I’d not care if cell-phoners didn’t TALK SO DOGGONE LOUD all the time, sharing intimate details of their lives in less-than intimate volumes and venues.
pardon the geezing, but I long fo rthe good ol’ days when one stepped into a phone booth and closed a door to talk on the phone. Yes, we own a cell phone, but we’ve cancelled our service - it’s more of an intrusion than a convenience.
sheesh - I’m turning into my mother… 
I used to drive 120,000+ miles in an average year in the big truck. I’d see these halfwits running their mouths into a cell phone and I’d get super cautious because there’s a real good chance the idiot is a shitty driver as well as well as being slightly brain damaged.
The use of a cell phone by the driver of a moving vehicle is irresponsible to the point of being criminal and should be prosecuted as such.
Let all these Darwin award wannabes take themselves out of the gene pool, as long as they don’t take me or anyone else with them I don’t see a problem.
Okay, I’m going to take the opposing side here. Just why is talking on the phone so much more dangerous than say, talking to your passenger? It seems to me speaking with a passenger should be far more dangerous, especially if you, like me, prefer to make eye contact when conversing. At least when I’m on the phone I need not take my eyes off the road. And don’t give any bullshit about driving with one hand. Many people drive with one hand.
It’s not just the fact that you’re driving one handed (I do that most of the time anyway out of habit), but when I used to talk on a cell while driving I found other problems. I caught myself slowing down to 30 in a 50 once because I was preoccupied with my call. I didn’t even realize I was slowing until someone zoomed past me. That’s when I decided that it was clearly distracting to the point of dangerous, and if I get a call now I pull over to take it or call back.
Zette
(reformed asshole cell phone user)
Would you drive any better with that phone shoved up your ass? 
**UncleBeer **: The one advantage with talking to a passenger, rather than someone on the phone, is that the passenger is right there. They are also (at least if they’re worth a flying rip) watching the road along with you. Plus, at least in my own case, I find myself far more involved while talking on the phone, and I noticed myself drifting across lanes and the like. At that point, I decided that it wasn’t worth it for me to talk and drive. I use the cell, but only if I’m stopped.
That’s my take, anyway, and please note that I avoided the topic of driving with one hand entirely.
Waste
Flick Lives!
Driving a motor vehicle requires a lot of eye to hand coordination. I know I can’t concentrate fully on two unrelated activities and I don’t believe anyone else can either. One of them is going to get less attention. Unfortunatly, it is all too often the vehicle that gets shorted, as demonstrated in some above posts. At any speed, a car or truck is a potential killer.
Now, I really don’t give a rat’s ass if someone wants to commit suicide. Hell, I’ve played with the idea myself. But taking someone else that doesn’t want to go along for the trip is is definatly NOT cool.
It’s crazy enough out there without cell phones. My take on the matter.