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pecan 3.14159265

October 2, 2009 6:11 PM

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I think every state should set its own laws because every state has its own laws regarding speeding, DUIs/DWIs, license plates, parking, etc. So why not texting while driving? If this was a federal mandate, it would still have to be adapted to every state's current texting laws, if they have them, and every state would have to re-examine its current rules anyway. So why not cut to the chase and let every state adapt the texting ban to its current set of punishments.

7 replies

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hi

October 2, 2009 7:43 PM

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@pecan 3.14159265: We finally agree on something. States should set the law. My reason is because the states are supposed to set the laws. States gave the federal government it's powers, not the other way around.

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October 2, 2009 7:43 PM

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@pecan 3.14159265: Though the minimum age for alcohol purchase is de facto federal, because it's tied to highway funding. I believe \"Click It or Ticket\" and .08 as a limit may be as well. So the state has a right to set a different law--if it's willing to forgo millions to do it. I could see distracted driving enforcement falling into that same category.

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Trai_Dep

October 2, 2009 8:31 PM

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@floraposte: Versus the (You've Got to) Lick It Before We Kick It law should be decided on an ad hoc basis, couple by couple, with females getting 1.75 votes to every 1.0 male vote.

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October 2, 2009 6:27 PM

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@pecan 3.14159265:
I'd agree IF this applied to the general public, but as it's only in regards to Federal Employees, then I have to disagree and say that the Federal government should standardize the rules that apply to its employees.

I mean, I for one would be pissed if I were a FBI agent investigating a national crime, and was fired because rather than focusing on my job I had to worry about which state I was in and if I could SMS/MMS.

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h3llc4t, breaker of office dress codes

October 2, 2009 6:47 PM

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@2 replies by: If you were investigating a national crime, would you really be doing it via text while driving?

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pecan 3.14159265

October 2, 2009 6:52 PM

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@h3llc4t has a slow work day: On Criminal Minds, they get information and addresses via text all the time.

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October 2, 2009 6:36 PM

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@2 replies by: Oops, guess it was unclear. The poll is meant to ask how, if at all, the general population should be banned from texting while driving. Federal employees should obviously be covered by a federal regulation.

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October 2, 2009 6:42 PM

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@Alex Chasick:
Ahh yes. When placed ajacent to the context of the article confusion does ensue. :-p
In that case my vote would have been different.

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October 2, 2009 6:18 PM

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@pecan 3.14159265: That makes sense. Also stops people from making lame arguments against it just because it the federal government doing something.

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October 2, 2009 6:14 PM

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I'm amazed at the number of people I see on other sites defending the practice. Texting while driving has to rank near the top of any list of stupidest things people do.

4 replies

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pecan 3.14159265

October 2, 2009 6:54 PM

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@MinorAnnoyance: I don't see the logic in being against a ban on texting while driving. This is something that affects everyone. Either you're a driver, a passenger, or a pedestrian who can be affected by this. Texting while driving doesn't benefit anyone, and is an action that can potentially harm a ton of people.

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redskull

October 2, 2009 6:40 PM

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@MinorAnnoyance: It still boggles my mind that we even have need an anti-texting law. How anyone could think it's OK to type on a tiny keyboard while driving down the road is beyond comprehension.

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October 2, 2009 9:45 PM

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@redskull: There is always T9 and the fact that its easy to memorize the keys. All you have to do is check the message for errors and send it.

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FigNinja

October 2, 2009 10:26 PM

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@chapoec: That's still taking way too much attention from the ton of metal and glass that's hurtling along the highway under your control inches only a few feet away from other people.

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Kuchen

October 2, 2009 6:21 PM

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@MinorAnnoyance: Agreed. Indiana recently passed a law making it illegal for drivers under 18 to text while driving. Why just the teenagers? Isn't it just as dangerous for other drivers? I believe this kind of law is also being considered in Minnesota.

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October 2, 2009 6:16 PM

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yes texting should be banned while driving in all places.

But it is not as distracting in a restaurant or a movie..
altho it should be banned in those places as well

3 replies

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October 2, 2009 8:07 PM

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@maruawe42: Yes it IS distracting in a movie. The little screen is bright and the *clickclickclickclick* makes me want to shove the phone up the person's ass.

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Trai_Dep

October 2, 2009 8:34 PM

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@HogwartsAlum: But hopefully, only at a PG-13 or higher theater seating, because otherwise your retribution may be contain scenes too graphic for immature audiences.

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October 2, 2009 8:52 PM

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@Trai_Dep: Are you kidding? People are bringing more and more small children to R-rated movies every day. There were young kids behind me at \"Watchmen.\"

Maybe I should shove their kids up their ass. ;)

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tbax929

October 2, 2009 8:09 PM

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+1. It's so friggin' annoying in theaters. We're at a point where we don't go to see anything remotely popular, at least not until it's been out for a while. The lack of movie etiquette is astonishing to me.

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October 2, 2009 6:17 PM

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I text only when I'm in stop and go traffic. If the car is going faster than 10MPH.

6 replies

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October 2, 2009 7:25 PM

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@MercuryPDX: You can still do plenty of damage if you hit something at 10 MPH while not paying attention. Nothing is important enough to text that one can't wait another few minutes until the car is stopped.

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gStein_*|bringing starpipe back|*

October 2, 2009 6:39 PM

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@MercuryPDX: i'll text when i'm stopped, and that's it.
but i've noticed that some people (like the woman in front of me today) will get too involved in their texting, and not notice the light turn green.
(waited about 10 seconds, honked at her, she flipped me the bird.)

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Orv

October 2, 2009 6:47 PM

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@gStein: Worst part is, where I live, honking your horn in that situation is actually illegal.

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October 2, 2009 7:00 PM

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@Orv: Seriously?
Sounds like someone had a little bit of a power-trip when deciding to make using a common feature on your vehicle illegal.

If you don't mind, whereabouts do you live?
(I try to avoid areas like that like the plague.)

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October 3, 2009 4:08 AM

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@2 replies by: I've heard of ticketing for this in Tucson as well. I haven't seen it, but a friend of mine did. OMGSNOPES!

I've been very careful with horn use ever since.

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GitEmSteveDave_@Gmail.comNeedsAWaveInvite

October 2, 2009 7:29 PM

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@2 replies by: In most states it's not illegal to drive in a puddle to splash people on the sidewalk. Just a weird fact.

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Orv

October 2, 2009 7:08 PM

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@2 replies by: Washington state. The law is that you can only use your horn in an emergency situation. I've never heard of it being enforced, though. Many other places (most hilariously, New York City) have similar laws aimed at reducing noise.

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Oranges w/ Cheese hates what Christmas has become

October 2, 2009 6:27 PM

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@MercuryPDX: Same. I'll only text on my phone if I am stopped, at a light or in a parking lot.

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h3llc4t, breaker of office dress codes

October 2, 2009 6:49 PM

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@Oranges w/ Cheese ontopofBrocolli: I do that. Stop and go traffic is too dangerous for me to text during. I get distracted and would probably end up rear-ending someone at a very slow speed.

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October 2, 2009 6:19 PM

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@MercuryPDX: (Whoopsie submit!) If the car is going faster than 10MPH... the phone is put away.

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shanchan

October 2, 2009 6:27 PM

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What affect does this have on liability if a Federal employee causes an accident by texting while driving? Would it make it difficult for a victim of such an accident to recover medical expenses/etc if the worker is violating a work rule?

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GitEmSteveDave_@Gmail.comNeedsAWaveInvite

October 2, 2009 6:31 PM

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I'm a pretty good driver, and drive an average of two hours everyday, give or take. However, yesterday, I was listening, occasionally glancing at my iPod Touch in it's modified cellphone holder level with the dashboard, while listening to \"Glee\"(Yes, I have been known to strip the audio track from a show/movie, and listen to it if the player didn't have video, and use my imagination/memory to picture it in my mind).

I was so distracted by just doing that extra glancing slightly to the right of my line of sight, that I passed a State Trooper driving in an unmarked car(Crown Vic), and ended up getting pulled over. I usually spot them 1/2 mile away by their grill pattern from behind me or the car shape from the front. Long story short, I did my usual announcing every move before I made it, and even though I didn't have current proof of insurance(I received a letter stamped \"ID cards enclosed\" from Geico a day or two after I paid my policy online, and didn't open it, but threw it in the car, which was lucky. The letter was postmarked 9/3/09, and the card inside expired 9/9/09. Since he saw me open it, and saw the postmark date, he told me to print/get a new card, and keep that with me, and let me go with a warning.), he let me go. But I KNOW it happened because I was trying to multitask, which humans CAN NOT do.

2 replies

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tbax929

October 2, 2009 8:12 PM

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@GitEmSteveDave_@Gmail.comNeedsAWaveInvite:
LOL. You lost me at hello. What are you talking about?!?

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GitEmSteveDave_@Gmail.comNeedsAWaveInvite

October 2, 2009 8:28 PM

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@tbax929 is back from the beach: That I usually listen to my iPod while driving. But because I was playing a video and occasionally shifting my gaze from the road, I passed a State Trooper in an obvious unmarked car that I didn't even realize I passed. Texting is even worse because you have to press buttons as well.

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October 2, 2009 6:31 PM

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Talking not hands-free or texting is illegal in California while driving, yet I see cops on the phone while driving all the time. I call BS.

1 replies

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tbax929

October 2, 2009 8:12 PM

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@AgentTuttle:
They are cops and are, therefore, above the law.

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October 2, 2009 6:35 PM

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I'm against unnecessary laws. Unsafe driving is ALREADY illegal. Just give out the tickets. We don't need an additional law for every thing that becomes hazardous.

5 replies

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morlo

October 2, 2009 7:06 PM

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@keith4298: Yes, when they criminalize sex while driving I will be forced to install a car bomb.

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Orv

October 2, 2009 6:46 PM

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@keith4298: I agree. It astounds me that we need a separate law for this. What's next, a law against sleeping while driving? A law against reading the paper while driving? There are so many stupid things people with no common sense can try that it's silly to try to ban each one individually.

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October 2, 2009 7:09 PM

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@Orv:
That's the only thing keeping me on the fence regarding the issue of officially banning it. Creating a law to cover a technology trend is, imo, asking for trouble.
Laws created are not very easy to repeal, and who's to say that 20 years from now anyone will even be texting anymore?

\"Your honor, my client wasn't texting. She was emailing and twittering.\"

Makes me wonder if there are any stale laws on the books out there about using a pager while driving.

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pecan 3.14159265

October 2, 2009 6:41 PM

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@keith4298: But \"unsafe driving\" is the umbrella for a huge list of things like speeding to the point of reckless driving, DWIs/DUIs, etc. So the current rules would have to be amended anyway to reflect a ban in texting - adding texting to the current rules or establishing the rule separately from the current one is pretty much the same thing, IMO.

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tbax929

October 2, 2009 8:14 PM

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@pecan 3.14159265:
Agreed. In my job I review MVRs all the time. The more detail on them the better. \"Unsafe driving\" tells me very little about an offense. Driving While Texting on an MVR would be fairly clear.

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October 2, 2009 6:41 PM

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@pecan 3.14159265: I agree (despite being a dirty, dirty socialist who think the federal government should be involved in everything), pretty much for the reasons you state here. For consistency's sake, it makes more sense for each state to set their own laws regarding texting while driving, particularly as that precedent has already been set with current laws about talking on your cell while driving.

Incidentally, my state (Maine) recently instituted a \"Driving While Distracted\" law; it doesn't come right out and ban texting, speaking on the phone or putting on nail polish while you're cruising down the highway, but if you get pulled over for a violation or have an accident while doing any of these things, you'll wind up getting additional charges based on this law. I think that's a pretty reasonable way of handling it, myself, although I still try to refrain from using my cell while I'm on the road, particularly if there are cops around. Just because you can doesn't mean you should

In the case of federal employees, I think it's entirely acceptable for their employer (i.e. the gub'mint) to institute policies that disallow texting while behind the wheel when they're on company time. A number of federal positions entail access to a government-owned vehicle, and I'd say that an employee using that vehicle has no business putting both themselves and a car that's not their own in danger because they just have to fire off a text while driving. If it's that critical, pull over and send it. I don't really see this as being any different from, say, a trucking company instituting a policy that their drivers may not text or talk on the phone while driving company-owned vehicles.

1 replies

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October 2, 2009 8:04 PM

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@FaustianSlip: That's a good idea, Driving while Distracted. That pretty much covers everything.

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Colonel Jack O'Neill

October 2, 2009 6:47 PM

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I see on a lot of other sites that people are against banning it.
But if these same people who don't like the ban, if someone was doing it and that person got in an accident and they got seriously hurt, or if a texter get in an accident with a family member or loved one, and they got hurt badly or even died, they then would want it banned then.

2 replies

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morlo

October 2, 2009 7:11 PM

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@Colonel Jack O'Neill: If a teenager, senior, or woman was driving, they would want those banned too. (Luckily we're getting there in terms of teens and seniors, but too many women vote--tyranny of the majority)

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October 2, 2009 7:24 PM

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@morlo:
On a point-specific-law side-jaunt...
Can I propose we amend the written English language to make it required that the 'y' in 'tyranny' be bolded when used while speaking about gender?
O_o

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michigan2cv

October 2, 2009 7:02 PM

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It's too dangerous to text while holding a cup of coffee and the morning paper.

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October 2, 2009 7:06 PM

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Texting while driving is illegal in my state (MD) as of yesterday. I am all for this. I don't do it myself, but having a friend who rear-ended someone at a light while texting and having nearly been hit on the Beltway by an idiot who was driving with his elbows while typing on his Blackberry, it's long overdue. I think it's even worse than talking on the phone, because you're just as distracted but at least while talking you are looking at the road and not down at the phone.

2 replies

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October 2, 2009 9:49 PM

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@yevarechecha: Yes texting on a blackberry is very dangerous. Too many keys. If you are going to text while driving use a regular phone that has T9 activated. Once you remember the keys there is no need to look down while typing. You only look at the phone just before sending message to check for errors.

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tbax929

October 2, 2009 8:16 PM

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@yevarechecha:
He was driving with elbows while typing on a Blackberry? They should just impounded his car afterward. He's too stupid to have one.

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AD8BC

October 2, 2009 7:23 PM

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Only text I enter is the password to unlock my Blackberry. Texting is turned off on my company phone though so I never really \"text\". I can send and receive email but I don't like doing that while driving.

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thrlsekr

October 2, 2009 7:25 PM

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Let's get phones totally out of the driving experience!

Can't say how many times I have had to react to a driver on the phone or be behind one on the interstate in the left hand lane with no clue of the results of their actions!

2 replies

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tbax929

October 2, 2009 8:17 PM

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@thrlsekr:
Agreed. I can usually tell someone is on the phone just because of the way they're driving. We all survived many years of not having them available; that call can't wait until you get home? Really?

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October 2, 2009 9:32 PM

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@tbax929 is back from the beach:
I agree in terms of handset use, but since there are factory-installed, auto-answering, hands-free units that use bluetooth & the sterio to allow the driver to answer calls while never removing their eyes from the road or hands from the wheel. (Not saying they're safe, just saying they're safer than having a handset glued to your ear while only having one hand on the wheel.)

They just need to add an enabled-by-default feature that before activating the microphone, it informs the other party that the user is driving and the call-time is limited. Then auto-hangs up after a warning that the allowed call-time expired.
(Just an idea. :-p)

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sgtcody

October 2, 2009 7:36 PM

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Only the states can know what's best for their citizens. The federal government has no business meddling in local law enforcement matters.
That said I would support such a law at state/city level.

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Trai_Dep

October 2, 2009 8:27 PM

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If only the whole Text-Driving issue were decided at the state level. That way, the magic of the marketplace would allow states to develop the best, safest and most cost-effective policies and drivers across the US could choose which state has the best policies that best suit him/her then conform to that other state's laws when driving in his/her own state.
(Hey, if it'll \"work\" for health insurance, it's gotta work for this, right?)

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Trai_Dep

October 2, 2009 8:36 PM

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I never text while driving. It interferes with my newspaper reading too much.

2 replies

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October 2, 2009 11:56 PM

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Darn, you too?

Seriously, I use to read the morning paper on my long communte.

I drove into the back of the 18 wheeler.

Fortunately he was not stopped and I was coasting in traffic.

Stopped my bad habit.

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October 2, 2009 9:36 PM

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@Trai_Dep: I know, dosen't it?
And I always end up getting the phone all covered in flower. Sometimes the phone even falls in the cake batter!

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October 3, 2009 4:52 AM

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Great. Now how about an executive order banning extraordinary rendition?

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mrearly2

October 3, 2009 5:16 PM

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Technically, under Constitutional law, the Federal government has no jurisdiction over state Citizens. In Law, they can only legislate for those residing in Federal Zones (such as Washington, D.C. and other federally-held properties) and employees of the Federal government corporation.
In reality, though, we are not ruled by law (but by an Admiralty jurisdiction, as evidenced by the countless Public Policy Statutes which we must observe, not as freemen, but as subjects of the Feds).
The enaction of yet another rule against us is (as always) justified by the \"it's meant to keep you safe\" propaganda. All the Public Policy Statues are intended only for revenue, and control of the little people.
Because most peoples' thought processes are skewed, I must state that I am in no way condoning the irresponsible practice of texting whilst driving.

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John Rob

December 5, 2009 9:34 AM

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When distracted I do not complete any work. I concentrate fully on the work I do, I use http://www.drivesafe.ly/ mobile application to refrain from texting and from reading my incoming text messages.

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