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.
So, would you also propose turning drunks loose on the road. free to roam at will ?
As the guy mentioned, you should only punish someone who has actually harmed someone else. Not punish someone because you think he might harm someone else.
The DUI laws continuously punish people who not only have never done any harm to anyone else. But many times punish people who aren't even remotely intoxicated(they have lowered the legal levels of intoxication from .15% to .08% and are trying to go lower). There are even laws on the books that will punish people who have made a very conscious effort to prevent themselves from doing harm to others. For instance, lets say you are in your home. You get into a fight with your wife and you decide it is probably better to leave the house, but you have been drinking. Well. You have no where really to go, and you cannot legally drive since you have been drinking. Well its cold outside, so you decide to sit in the back seat of your car. So your wife calls the police, they show up, find you in the back seat of your car and you had been drinking. They find your keys on you, give you a breathalizer, and then they give you a DUI. Even though you were never in a million years going to drive your car under the circumstances, and you were sitting in front of your own home. Do you not see a problem here?
No one wants unsafe drivers on the road. Where we seem to disagree is the best way to deal with bad drivers.
You seem perfectly fine with "banning" drivers from using cell phones. You also seem perfectly fine with "banning" drivers who are using alcohol(I assume .08? Lower or higher?). What about banning people who havn't gotten enough sleep? What about banning people from putting on makeup? Eating? Drinking? Talking? How about banning radios? How about requiring cameras be put into all cars to "watch people" to make sure they aren't doing any of these "banned" things?
I am personally against the government doing practically anything preventative. Rather, the government should only punish people who have harmed others. The only exception being people who are incapable of understanding. Like the very young or the insane(no guns for crazy people, sorry).
I think they will settle for a law which permits hands-free devices, although the problem is that when they ring, people start rummaging through their purses to find the phone to answer it.
When my cell rings in the car my left thumb pushes a paddle on the left inside of the steering wheel and I'm talking, eyes never leaving the road....
Hmmmm funny image, men rummaging through their purses to find their cell phones...
Or are you saying only women talk on cell phones in the car?
If you're a conservative, you should oppose this outright. If you're a liberal, it depends on your definition of personal responsibility.
I look at it like this. The last statistics I saw said that driving while texting increased by over 50% this year. Yet, the number accidents didn't increase by the same percentage points. That tells me that a great number of people are able to text and drive. Sure, studies have been done that show that driving while texting or talking on a phone inhibits your driving. So does your stereo, so does talking to your passengers, so does driving with infants in the car, etc.
The question is, should a responsible driver, who is able to know when it is ok to text and drive, be punished for something that might happen?
My answer to that question is no.
If you are libertarian, you should probably support this proposal, as one of the few responsibilities of the government is to protect the citizens, and texting drivers are definelty a risk to the society. They infringe responsible non-texting drivers safety zone, and I think citizens deserve the right to drive without the fear of being killed by an idiot with an IPhone. It is irresponsible to allow people to put other people's lives in danger in this manner. Might as welll legalize DUI.
When my cell rings in the car my left thumb pushes a paddle on the left inside of the steering wheel and I'm talking, eyes never leaving the road....
Hmmmm funny image, men rummaging through their purses to find their cell phones...
Or are you saying only women talk on cell phones in the car?
So, you have a built-in bue-tooth phone? Maybe that kind of device should still be allowed )like I said im my earlier post). Men rummage though their jeans pockets, gun/man-purses, or whereever they keep their phones. Is it really that hard to picture?
Men rummage thought their jeans pockets, gun-purses, or whereever they keep their phones. Is it really that hard to picture?
Those men are idiots. They can just hit the answer button on the steering wheel, or press the command button (also located on the steering wheel) and say "Answer". If people weren't so lazy to sync their phones with their car....
What the hell do people talk about? My cell calls last about 35 seconds. I see people on the hwy yapping and 20 miles later they are still going at it.
"...how long before it becomes against the LAW to drive and cell or text?"
Finally? As your own article points out it is already illegal in most states. My problem isn't with banning of people yapping on the phone driving as they try to hold the steering wheel with one hand while trying to hold their phone with the other (and I sure as hell don't have a problem banning texting or surfing the web) but the ban on the use of hand free sets unless they are installed by the manufacturer or using the gps app on my iPhone, that to me is ridiculous.
The world seemed to work fine when there were payphones on every block for people to use.
Getting a BJ is already illegal, but. If someone cuts out all of the other distractions, and can text without causing an accident, why should they be fined or punished? They haven't hurt anyone.
Why? Because they are likely to kill someone in near future. Answering a text message takes your eyes off the road for 5 seconds (on average), and at 60 mph your car will travel 100 yards in that time bascially with a blind driver.
What the hell do people talk about? My cell calls last about 35 seconds. I see people on the hwy yapping and 20 miles later they are still going at it.
99% of the time it is women yapping to their friends.
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.
