Two RVs hit head on - Hwy 49 in California

irishtom29 wrote:
We need a law against saying "just sayin'". ;-)

To not make a law against driving while texting or talking on the phone means it's OK to do so. Do sensible people really think those things are OK?

Who said that? The discussion was about a law requiring cell phone companies to disable cell phones when the GPS showed the speed meant it was in a car. Meaning no more cell phone use by passengers in cars, busses, trains, etc. I just love how these discussions always take on a life of their own.

irishtom29 wrote:
We need a law against saying "just sayin'". ;-)

To not make a law against driving while texting or talking on the phone means it's OK to do so. Do sensible people really think those things are OK?

Texting and talking on a cell phone would still fall under the existing broader distracted driving laws in most jurisdictions. The safety advantage of a specific law though, assuming it's aggressively enforced, is that it allows LEOs to preemptively stop the texting/talking activity and cite the driver before an accident occurs if they observe it and the law makes it a primary offense. Lacking that, the only option generally is to include the distracted driving charge along with any other charges following an accident. Prevention is obviously preferable...

We need a law against saying "just sayin'". ;-)

To not make a law against driving while texting or talking on the phone means it's OK to do so. Do sensible people really think those things are OK?

There are YouTube videos of cell phone enforcement in Europe. Apparently, over there it is illegal to even touch a cell phone while driving and at least some officers aggressively enforce the law.

Remember, your right to talk/text on a cell phone stops at the double yellow line. What others say is true of course, more laws with no enforcement accomplishes nothing.

Maybe instead of passing more laws, we should simply require everyone to pass a "common sense" test. Too many feel 'entitled' these days, disrespect the police and thumb their noses at 'rules'....just sayin....Dennis

I drove a semi coast to coast for a few years. I've seen head ons with all kinds of vehicles. Semis would have fared no better, and quite possibly worse.
Even modern cars and SUVs do poorly on a head on corner to corner, like this. In any vehicle, an corner impact head on at highway speed is going to cause major injuries. It is just really lucky everyone is expected to survive.

Some laws are written and passed more as a result of public pressure and political expediency without much thought given to the law's enforceability in the real world, and some "texting while driving" laws fall into that category. It's not uncommon for texting while driving laws to not specifically prohibit a driver from holding a device, looking at a device, or even using the GPS or other functions of the device, thus making it difficult for an officer to base a traffic stop (let alone a citation) on simply seeing a driver looking at or even operating a handheld device even if it's considered a primary violation in that jurisdiction. Where those legal exceptions exist, the officer has to somehow be able to prove they were texting at the time. In the real world, those laws with problematic proactive enforceability issues are more typically enforced after the fact (crash investigation, etc) if it can be proved that the driver was in fact texting at the time.

Of course, some jurisdictions already had blanket "distracted driving" laws dating back long before the existence of cell phones, which render specific texting-while-driving prohibition needless. However, depending on the judge, the officer typically needs specific behavioral indicators (swerving, crash, etc) or other incriminating evidence of distraction to gain a conviction.

I ran across a little more on this accident today, it makes you think about just how fast lives can be changed. It sounds like everyone involved is lucky to be alive, and hope they all are on a path to full recovery.

msmith1199 wrote:

Effy wrote:

msmith1199 wrote:

hohenwald48 wrote:

msmith1199 wrote:
Maybe we should make it illegal for the driver in a vehicle to talk to passengers as studies have also shown that is distracted driving and can be just as distracting as a cell phone. And kids should be banned from cars too because they are more distracting than cell phones. Where does it end?

My only comment to this is :R. I suspect your comments are tongue in cheek.

isn't always the answer. It's already illegal in most every state to use a cell phone while driving yet people still do it. Laws don't
Actually, no they aren't. There are people who would suggest laws like this. It's just that I'm a retired cop and even I think we have too many laws and more laws to solve every single problem in society always solve the problems they are intended to solve.

When the laws aren't enforced they don't solve the problem. I see at least 50 people every day driving while texting. Easily. Many drive right by cops who do nothing. So you might as well have no law. If they started enforcing it maybe it would make a difference. So it's a good law, but it might as well not exist.

You must have good eye sight. I see people using their phones while driving too, but can't say I've ever seen anybody drive right by a cop who saw them and did nothing. In fact I have seen police pulling people over with their cell phone in their ear.

I do have good eyesight but that's beside the point. It's hard to miss. Come to NC some time. Favorite past time is to text while driving and run red lights.

Effy wrote:

msmith1199 wrote:

hohenwald48 wrote:

msmith1199 wrote:
Maybe we should make it illegal for the driver in a vehicle to talk to passengers as studies have also shown that is distracted driving and can be just as distracting as a cell phone. And kids should be banned from cars too because they are more distracting than cell phones. Where does it end?

My only comment to this is :R. I suspect your comments are tongue in cheek.

isn't always the answer. It's already illegal in most every state to use a cell phone while driving yet people still do it. Laws don't
Actually, no they aren't. There are people who would suggest laws like this. It's just that I'm a retired cop and even I think we have too many laws and more laws to solve every single problem in society always solve the problems they are intended to solve.

When the laws aren't enforced they don't solve the problem. I see at least 50 people every day driving while texting. Easily. Many drive right by cops who do nothing. So you might as well have no law. If they started enforcing it maybe it would make a difference. So it's a good law, but it might as well not exist.

You must have good eye sight. I see people using their phones while driving too, but can't say I've ever seen anybody drive right by a cop who saw them and did nothing. In fact I have seen police pulling people over with their cell phone in their ear.