This was great news when I read it. He got off easy, but at least he is going to be a felon! At least this has set a precedence in Massachusetts and hopefully other states will follow making this a serious crime. I hope the family of the guy that was killed takes him to civil court next. It is funny when you read the comments on the article how most there are defending him. I wonder if they would be defending him had he killed children or a pregnant woman, and not a 55 year old man?
They're defending him because they do it themselves, and don't want to stop. They don't want to be condemned for it.
There should be a federal law enacted that prevents texting while driving if the states can't pass any laws themselves. Texting, talking on cell phones only are creating more problems while being used improperly while driving and more severe penalties should be passed to prevent more "accidents" like this from happening to anyone at any age.
Texting has been shown to be as bad as drunk driving, and drunk driving is a choice people make before they start drinking. The same for driving and texting. The laws should be about equal for both offenses. Some new cars allow a hands free connection with the drivers phone for talking only.
Everytime i see anyone texting on the road this pops up in my mind. I really do hope that they outlaw texting and driving on federal level or at least have restrictions against it.
NTSB recommends banning texting, cell phones while driving And....in order to get the NTSB to come in on this, it took a school bus full of children involved in a wreck due to texting. I just don't get why children have to be killed in order to get the public's attention. The same thing happened to drunk driving here in the US. It took the guy in KY that killed 17 kids on the school bus in 1988 to make DUI a serious offense. It always seems like if adults are killed, oh well, but when children are killed, OMG, those poor, poor children and so on. As I have said before, it's going to take a school bus full of children, not just one like in this case, to be killed by a texting driver to make a national outcry.
There driving is erratic, there elbows are steering or in some cases they are using there knees and their faces are pointed at there laps or in extreme cases no body parts are touching the steering wheel at all.
If you think texting with one hand on the steering wheel or just the knees is bad, check this out. This video was taken in Pakistan. You may notice no one seems to honor the lane markings. Over there, those are just suggestions. http://youtu.be/So2rZOeRLvU
Driving in Alberta, I observe that there are 'Distracted Driving Laws In Effect' signs along the highways. The greater challenge lies in enforcing them with limited manpower and an overwhelmed court system. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
For the most part these laws are enforced after someone has already died. And most people drive under the assumption that they will not be in a wreck. Otherwise we'd not drive. So the ones texting assume as long as no one can see them texting they cannot be pulled over and inconvenienced. So unless they get into that accident that they assume will never happen, they are safe and will continue to text while driving. I am also willing to bet that, even those of us who feel strongly that it is wrong to text and drive, we text and drive from time to time, thinking oh it will just be a quick response to tell them I am driving so leave me alone.
Those same driving texters probably don't wear seatbelts either. But, with a well done TV educational program the numbers can be brought down. Here in Washington I have to listen to a Canadian radio station to hear the music I like and they frequently have seatbelt crack down announcements. Don't know how much that helps if no one ever gets a no seatbelt ticket and here in Washington we have Clickit or Ticket and NO DRUGGING and DRIVING signs all over the place. Still I've never met anyone who's admitted to getting a no seatbelt ticket.
Speaking of IRONY I'm not getting much of a response to my "Photos of Irony" topic. http://www.sciforums.com/showthread.php?p=2946140#post2946140