Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
IF you answer his calls ,or participate in his calls by talking with him while either of you are driving, then YOU are as guilty of breaking the law as he is. Tell him that. Then refuse his calls. Sometimes ya gotta 2 x 4 someone you like to save them from themselves
I'm calling BS on that. Name one place in this country where a person at the other end, not in a vehicle, is also guilty of breaking the law. In Alaska I can hold my phone up to my ear while driving and I'm not breaking the law. The person I'm talking to certainly is not breaking any law.
IF you answer his calls ,or participate in his calls by talking with him while either of you are driving, then YOU are as guilty of breaking the law as he is. Tell him that. Then refuse his calls. Sometimes ya gotta 2 x 4 someone you like to save them from themselves
Very valid point, Retired . . . probably more "ethical" than "legal" but valid nonetheless.
Regardless of the level of guilt, I know that if an accident occurred, either minor or major, while I was chatting with someone behind the wheel . . . I know I would feel guilty as hell.
If we get a call while in our SUV we don't have to touch our iphone, it comes on in our Toyota so it's not any different than turning on the radio or talking to someone in the car. We never text while driving or talk on our phones while holding it and driving.
No, it's not the same. Someone in your car is also watching the road. Listening to the radio is just listening, and not an active activity.
But having a conversation, back and forth, with someone over the phone, who isn't present, is not passive listening. It requires thought, some sort of focus on the conversation, and listening to content of words being said that you are expected to respond to....not at all like listening to the radio.
Using hands makes it worse. But it's the activity of trying to have a conversation while also trying to focus on driving that is the problem.
I see all the time people on a phone, swerving one way or the other, totally oblivious that's what they're doing.
If you drive and have a phone conversation at the same time, you can do neither well.
My son is on the road often and he's in sales. He does a lot of calling from his car. It would be unrealistic for me to expect him to call me from his couch when he has a busy life, three kids, and two dogs. I hardly take it as an affront because his calls don't come from an arm chair.
I'm sorry to hear your son has decided to try to multi-task while driving. It's very dangerous. He should be focused on the road, the stop lights, the signs, other drivers. Driving is serious business and nothing to fool around with.
Hopefully he'll get a line of work that doesn't require him to do that. And maybe one day he'll decide he's not too busy to call you from his home, where his family and his life are.
Sometimes what I think it is, is that some people cannot be alone. They don't like being alone with their thoughts. Some people are like that. So...enter filler people.
Very valid point, Retired . . . probably more "ethical" than "legal" but valid nonetheless.
Regardless of the level of guilt, I know that if an accident occurred, either minor or major, while I was chatting with someone behind the wheel . . . I know I would feel guilty as hell.
Yes, I would feel guilty.
He called again later. I answered again, saying "You're not driving, I hope." He wasn't....exactly. He was stopped to a dead stop in a backup due to an accident up ahead. He was stuck there for about an hour or more, as it turned out. So since he wasn't moving, I chatted with him a few minutes. Then he said, "Oh, it's starting to move a bit. Gotta go."
People today are terrified to be alone in silence with their own thoughts for five seconds. It's very sad.
This.
This is what I think all the phone calling from the car by my relative, and others, is about.
I had a friend call me once from a department store. A department store, mind you. To chat with me while he was shopping for a shirt or something. Telling me, "Hold on.." then talking to the store clerk. Then telling the clerk, "Wait a sec..." then finishing his thought to me. Strange.
It may also make people feel important.
That's their business....unless they're driving. Driving is serious. You have to focus and be ready to respond to anything. If you've ever been in an accident, you know what I'm talking about.
People in my area constantly complain about people running stop signs and such because they're on the phone. When you're engaged in a conversation with someone who is not there in the car with you, you are not fully engaged with your driving and all that's around you.
I'd like to do a test one day. A person having a conversation on the phone drives down a road, and another person drive down that same road not on the phone, and we compare what they saw along the way. I'd bet you good money that the one on the phone didn't notice nearly as much as the one not on the phone.
It does matter. It's up to the driver to determine if "now is a good time or not".
Yea, if you're dodging construction cones through a roundabout, that's probably not the time to talk on the phone, fiddle with the radio, etc. Long boring stretch of road, knock yourself out.
It matters with regard to law. In terms of distractions, there have always been distractions, whether flipping through the CD case looking for the one you want to hear, or even back when I was young, trying to rewind the cassette tape to the beginning of the song I wanted to hear, to looking for something to picking up the cigarette that came back in to trying to put catsup on your Big Mac to moms turning around to threaten the kids with turning this car around. I used to put mascara on at red lights. We have never been a nation of drivers who sit upright with hands at ten and two and never waiver from the task at hand.
Back in the 70's, people were on CB radios while driving, and those you had to hold a button in while you were talking.
I do not condone holding the phone while driving or looking for numbers or especially texting while driving, but me saying "call mom" and then talking to her as if she's next to me in the car, I don't see how it's more distracting than if she was in the car, certainly not more so than any of the other things we do.
I have one relative I don't really like to talk to but calls me a lot. I often take the opportunity to get two things done at once and cross an obligation off the list, by returning her call while I am driving somewhere. It is not about anything but feeling busy and time crunched and just trying to get as many things done in as short a period as I can. Even at home, I wouldn't be just sitting talking in the phone, I'd have the phone on speaker while I do laundry or something.
Lots of studies indicate the difference between hands free and holding the phone is negligible.
How is it any different than having a conversation with a passenger in the same car? If this was so dangerous, why have there been no laws against conversing in a car with more than 1 person?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
