And while you're at it...

Kevin started a very interesting thread about seat belt use. I want to tack on an addendum to the positive safety-mindedness being expressed there.

HANG UP AND DRIVE!!

Too many people are yakking on cell phones while they're driving. There's nothing that other person is telling you that's more important than your job at the moment - operating your vehicle. Whatever they need from you, whatever you need from them, IT CAN %$#@%$& WAIT until you're not going to kill someone with your #%$#%^&$ car. And don't tell me you do it all the time and you know what you're doing. No you don't, and it's just a matter of time before you do kill someone. Studies have shown that cell-phone driving is as bad as, or worse than, drunk driving. (I'll look for a link and post whatever I can find.) I personally feel that if you cause an accident while talking on a cell phone, your ass should be dragged off to prison, just like for drunk driving. So everyone, please, we've established that this community as a whole is intelligent enough to wear and insist that others wear seat belts, so let's take it one step further and agree to hang up and drive.

OK?

Grrrr! Doesn't that just make you want to smack her?? As my Irish ex-mother-in-law would say, "Ahhh, fer fuck's sake, ye're pure idjit."

Headsets are a step in the right direction, but there have been recent reports (again, gotta go find a linkie) that they don't reduce the danger all that much. It's the distraction of TALKING, not the phone itself, that causes the trouble. Your attention isn't on the road and your surroundings if it's on a telephone conversation. Period. Hang up and drive. Period.

Kate Thornton said:

The No Talking While Driving law goes into effect here in CA on June first. Man, I can't wait!

And the kids who TEXT while driving - well, I don't even wanna go there!

Click to expand...

This is the kind of law that should be nationwide. No use of phones at all, no talking, no headsets, no texting - Lord help us all - no cell phones, period. Turned off and stuffed in the bottom or your purse or briefcase, or shut in the glove box. Srsly.

Jersey Chick said:

Yeah - but then what's next? No talking with passengers? Same thing, in essence.

They can't make up their minds where the danger lies. Is it in the device? The conversation? The person you're talking to? There will always be idiots behind the wheel, unfortunately.

Click to expand...

If you're talking to someone in your car, (and pay attention next time you do, you'll see it's true) if something happens outside the car, you instinctively pause in your conversation and your attention goes to that other stimulus, and then you resume talking once the other stimulus is removed. This can all happen within fractions of a second. What the cell phone conversation does is take your full attention away from those outside stimuli. Your brain needs to focus on listening to this disembodied voice coming in from a tiny device, and cannot process all the other external information it's receiving at the same time. So it's not really the same when you're talking to a companion in the car with you.

And someone once gave me a terrific quote - The most dangerous part of a car is the nut that holds the wheel.

Jersey Chick said:

Umm... I meant the other morons, of course.


now, if you'll excuse me, I've got this size five Chuck Taylor wedged pretty firmly in my mouth and I need to take it out.

Click to expand...

Size five?? What are you, like three feet tall??