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[Para Bellum]

You Guy's act like you have a choice of how you want to die.

I hear what you're saying, but can I try to avoid certain ways of dying?   

[ultrarider123]

You Guy's act like you have a choice of how you want to die.        Live  Your  Life!   

I do. Every day is a blessing to be saved, wake up with Vickie, have a job, great kids and grandkids and get to enjoy riding as much as possible. There will come a time that I will not be able to ride.  I'll cross that bridge when the good Lord decides.
But the cell phone/texting while driving folks aren't helping the enjoyable riding cause...

[Twolanerider]

You Guy's act like you have a choice of how you want to die.        Live  Your  Life!   

Absolute control?  Of course not.  Discretion at the margins and choices?  You're f-n-A right I do. 

Asked once "what would you like your last three words to be?"  My choice would be "that was fun!"  Randomness might intrude on how that fun plays out.  But I've got a say too.  Anything other is simple fatalism and that, if nothing else, is absolutely boring.

[Road Dad]

It is not illegal to use your cellphone while driving in Chicago as long as you use a handsfree device of some sort.

More unenforced or unenforceable laws aren't the answer.  It's been illegal to use a cell phone while driving around Chicago for a long time, and yet any time I drive one of the major highways and toll roads in the area I estimate a full 50% of the people I pass or that pass me are on the phone.  And that doesn't include the ones that hide the phone in their laps.

Twolane  and Haird are on the right track, IMHO.  I've been suggesting for years that all vehicles be required to include cell phone jamming technology that engages any time the vehicle is moving.  The chance of ever seeing such a thing is less than slim however, considering the political climate.  Perhaps if enough legislators lose a close family member to the dimwits using mobile devices while driving they will take it seriously, but right now we are all at the mercy of the "the rules are for everyone else but me" crowd. 

Jerry

[FLSTFI Dave]

Drinking and driving use to be the biggest Killer on our roads.  Now its the cell phone, especially texting and driving.

Treat it like drinking and driving, huge fines, and license suspension, first offense and much works on second offense just like drinking and driving.  I think that could help.

[Road Dad]

Probably to a degree but there are still millions of idiots out there that drink and drive. I am in favour of huge fines starting at $5K and up.  Even the penalty for a first time DUI is way too lenient, mandatory jail time would be a good start. (For a DUI)  Fines and confiscation of equipment (Phones and cars)

Drinking and driving use to be the biggest Killer on our roads.  Now its the cell phone, especially texting and driving.

Treat it like drinking and driving, huge fines, and license suspension, first offense and much works on second offense just like drinking and driving.  I think that could help.

[bigchuck]

You Guy's act like you have a choice of how you want to die.        Live  Your  Life!   

Amen

[VaEagle]

Unfortunately trying to get stiffer fines for driving while distracted probably won't work since most people drive and think the other drivers are to blame and they are somehow endowed with a superpower to drive and chat or text and it doesn't affect them...
Until society is willing to give up the "convenience"  of being constantly in contact which I doubt....us older folks remember having to stop and find a payphone to make a call when away from home, somehow we survived the olden days. We will have to pay the price of higher accident rates.
Drunk driving rates didn't see a decline until organizations like MADD were formed and people finally got a moral compass and were educated that it was considered morally wrong to drink and drive. (Not because of increased laws, there are still many loopholes.)
Probably the only way to "put the genie back in the bottle" as far as distracted driving is to make the phone companies install a program or hardware to shut off phones once they are moving above a certain speed such as a walking pace. That way people would have to pull over to use their phones. Even then I'm sure somebody would sell a device to defeat that block.

There is a car commercial out now that talks about the average attention span is 8 seconds and this new car has things like lane departure warnings and automatic braking if too close to another vehicle........Isn't that letting people distract themselves since they will now rely on the sensors to warn them of a pending accident instead of learning to focus on the skill of driving? How will that affect liability? (I wasn't responsible, the sensor failed etc..)

[110tHunDer]

...

This should also apply to law enforcement...at least he's on an HD....

I see cops holding cell phones up to their ears all the time around here.  Total BS. 

[BigLew]

I always assume EVERYONEon the road is trying to kill me...and try to act accordingly.

TramaSlave and 66 you are both correct. I don't care how bad their driving becomes, I'm going to ride.

BigLew

[BigLew]

One other thing while I'm at it. I really need my phone and I hate government intervention to make people do things that common sense dictate we should do but most people just will not do that. Phones should not work above a certain speed and it should not be hard to make that work. They are a horrible distraction just answering and talking, that whole texting and using a smart phone to search is crazy. But we have proved once again that maybe we are too stupid and selfish to do the right thing. Maybe we should take the same approach that the GUN CRAZIES do. Someone gets killed with a gun and its the GUNS FAULT. Ban them all!! So Lets go after the phone companies, Lets get a group and some lawyers to sue the phone companies. Who is with me??

BigLew

[HUBBARD]

I'm in, BigLew!  Class action.  Me?  I'm gonna' live 'till I die.  The Good Book says it's appointed unto us once to die, and we don't know when that is.  However, it goes on to say that a man can shorten his days.  God knows, I've flirted with that declaration, but obviously it just wasn't my time.  All I know is, I'm still crazy as hell, concerning certain things, but to a lesser degree than I once was.  As Pacino said in "Heat", "you can get killed walkn' your doggie!"  Not to be morbid, but I just hope when I do go......it's quick.  I don't want to be a burden to my family, or anybody, for that matter.  It's 70 degrees here!  I'm gonna' go twist Ol' Maybelle up!  'Sposed to snow this weekend!  Later--HUBBARD     

[BigLew]

I'm in, BigLew!  Class action.  Me?  I'm gonna' live 'till I die.  The Good Book says it's appointed unto us once to die, and we don't know when that is.  However, it goes on to say that a man can shorten his days.  God knows, I've flirted with that declaration, but obviously it just wasn't my time.  All I know is, I'm still crazy as hell, concerning certain things, but to a lesser degree than I once was.  As Pacino said in "Heat", "you can get killed walkn' your doggie!"  Not to be morbid, but I just hope when I do go......it's quick.  I don't want to be a burden to my family, or anybody, for that matter.  It's 70 degrees here!  I'm gonna' go twist Ol' Maybelle up!  'Sposed to snow this weekend!  Later--HUBBARD     

Carl I thought you had gone into hibernation. I took a 3.5 hr lunch so I could ride up tward Pilot Mt. It would be good for you to read that good Old Book some more. It would indeed do my heart good to see you on the other side.

BigLew

[FLSTFI Dave]

Probably to a degree but there are still millions of idiots out there that drink and drive. I am in favour of huge fines starting at $5K and up.  Even the penalty for a first time DUI is way too lenient, mandatory jail time would be a good start. (For a DUI)  Fines and confiscation of equipment (Phones and cars)

Drinking and driving has gone way down, but it still has a long way to go.  TN there is mandatory Jail time for first offense, community service and 10K in costs for the average first DUI, and thats not counting the crazy high insurance rates after that. 

[TraumaSlave]

Drinking and driving has gone way down, but it still has a long way to go.  TN there is mandatory Jail time for first offense, community service and 10K in costs for the average first DUI, and thats not counting the crazy high insurance rates after that.

If it's mandatory time, the judges don't enforce it. That, and the fines don't mean squat to a broke drunk. I've seen far too many repeat offenders in the ER. Slot of them don't even have a license. Didn't you know it's the state past time in eastern Tn to drink and drive the back roads?