Phone or text while driving

What about we allow new drivers (teens) to do those things if they drive safely for a few years.
Once they prove they can handle the concentration and navigation, let them have phones and texting machines.

By then, they're not teens anymore (kids) but adults.

TheNextPrez2012 wrote:What about we allow new drivers (teens) to do those things if they drive safely for a few years.
Once they prove they can handle the concentration and navigation, let them have phones and texting machines.

No one should be allowed to text while driving, no matter how old they are! It is just not possible to safely operate a car or any vehicle while texting.

Right on. I hate when I see people texting. Minnesota has a law on it. People still do it but then again, people still drive drunk. But with the law, it makes it easier to lump more charges onto them if they cause an accident.

People will probably assume I'm being hypocritical on having texting laws as being big gov't. Au contraire. It's a state law, not a overreaching federal law. But at the same time, if the feds want to ban truckers from texting while driving, that's within their rights since truckers have to follow certain federal mandates as they travel from state to state.

I don't think that yet another law is necessary. All one needs do is enforce existing law. If a person crashes as a result of texting then they get hit for not just failure to control, but negligent or unsafe operation as well. Every state in the union has such laws pertaining to motorists. At the most, I would support stiffening penalties for driving while texting.

Creating a law making texting illegal will not stop in the slightest, just as laws against DWI do not stop drinking and driving. Stiffening the penalties (as was done for DWI), would likely have a better impact on the behavior.

TheNextPrez2012 wrote:What about we allow new drivers (teens) to do those things if they drive safely for a few years.
Once they prove they can handle the concentration and navigation, let them have phones and texting machines.

No, it should be a crime to talk on a hand-held phone while driving (Bluetooth is probably OK), let alone text while driving. For anyone.

Next time you see someone do something incredibly stupid and dangerous on the road--be it driving half the speed limit, or drifting into the adjacent lane, or even driving half in one lane and half in the other, or breezing through a red light, or turning the wrong way onto a one-way street, or all of the above--have yourself a look, if you can. Nine times out of ten, the idiot is on the phone and is blissfully unaware of the rape of traffic laws he is committing.

Talking on the phone has the same effect on your driving concentration as two drinks. Texting, probably much more.

The law should come down on these people like a ton of bricks.

Yep, I'm all for banning it via state laws.

Back in my trucking days, I couldn't count the number of times I saw boneheaded maneuvers by drivers of autos and found out soon after that they had a phone glued to their head.

George Carlin once said that prostitution should be legal because in his words, "selling is legal and sex is legal. Why isn't selling sex legal?"
The same can be said of this "don't use the phone and drive at the same time" baloney. Both parts of this are legal yet folks want to make it illegal to do just because some folks can't do it.

TheNextPrez2012 wrote:George Carlin once said that prostitution should be legal because in his words, "selling is legal and sex is legal. Why isn't selling sex legal?"
The same can be said of this "don't use the phone and drive at the same time" baloney. Both parts of this are legal yet folks want to make it illegal to do just because some folks can't do it.

But nobody is forcing me to have sex. I have to drive on public roads with inattentive people. Big difference in safety issues.

TexasBlue wrote:But nobody is forcing me to have sex.

Shall we take that as read that you prefer to be dominant than submissive

TheNextPrez2012 wrote:George Carlin once said that prostitution should be legal because in his words, "selling is legal and sex is legal. Why isn't selling sex legal?"
The same can be said of this "don't use the phone and drive at the same time" baloney. Both parts of this are legal yet folks want to make it illegal to do just because some folks can't do it.

It's legal for me to aim a loaded gun at your head.

It's legal for me to fire a gun.

Should I be allowed to aim a gun at your head and fire it?

kronos wrote:It's legal for me to aim a loaded gun at your head

Probably not, that is threatening behaviour which could see you arrested but I agree with your wider point.

The_Amber_Spyglass wrote:

kronos wrote:It's legal for me to aim a loaded gun at your head

Probably not, that is threatening behaviour

I anticipated this.

He doesn't see me. I'm hiding. He has no idea that the space between his eyes is in the crosshairs of my loaded rifle.

What's that you say? It's illegal to discharge a firearm within city limits? Ah, but we're out in the countryside!

I assure you, I have taken the utmost care to ensure that the "act" of murder I am about to commit is really a combination of separate acts, each of which is perfectly legal on its own.

Well, no if the person doesn't know and nobody can see it then technically not breaking the law. The only technicality would be public affray and aggressive behaviour but that wouldn't be the case if the person is hiding.