Here's a one of the lucky idiots.
Posted on 03/31/2017 10:55:53 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd
I had a young girl come within a foot of hitting me when she crested a blind hill texting. Texting has come to being a more frequent cause of wrecks than inebriation.
Here's a one of the lucky idiots.
I may be in the minority, but I generally don't think more laws are needed for every specific thing.
There are already other laws such as reckless driving and manslaughter that could be leveled against someone who does things like this. No need to add another law.
Manslaughter is a 2nd degree felony and reckless driving can become a felony if someone is injured or killed. He broke at least 3 laws even before he hit the bus. Would one more have stopped him?
I do see a need for harsh sentencing where called for, such as in this instance. And he will probably receive it.
My only son was killed on Christmas night by a Muslim driving while texting. They did not prosecute.
Not justifying DWT; however, the illegality of texting discourages people from using the phone above the steering wheel where navigation is not completely compromised.
I understand. I am just stating the law in Texas as I understand it.
Some cell phones should be made to switch off when inside of a moving vehicle. This should not be a difficult engineering task to achieve. The operating controls will be taken out of user hands for this particular issue. There are too many cheaters who end up killing or maiming innocent people.
The texter’s life is either ruined or negatively altered for good as well. Sometimes you only get one chance to do the right thing, then fate and safety take over.
“There is a push to punish texting with the same severity as DWI, and I’m OK with that.”
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Ditto that. Until people spend some time in jail, they’ll keep on texting and/or playing with other iToys and ignore any tickets.
Up until last November, all I had was a flip phone. New iPhone does all kinds of things, but I won’t use it while I’m driving. I’ve had too many close calls with idiots on the phone.
BS. Cell phone use saves lives. Think about ease of 3rd parties calling EMS if there is an accident. Think about GPS on cell phones and its use as a navigation aid.
A penalty for distracted driving is fine though.
I’m so sorry for your loss.
I see this all the time coming home from work - off onto the shoulder and they jerk it back on, then over the double-yellow and they jerk it back in.
It's maddening. And it's a wonder they don't wreck more often.
"...DWT will kill as many as DWI..." (paraphrased)
More of this goes on than we realize.
As much as I hate government regulation, we need cars and phone companies to cooperate and provide the ability to shut down phones so that texting won’t work while the car is moving and for voice, the phone can only work using bluetooth hands free operation.
I avoid two lane highways as much as I can for this reason, even if it means paying to go on a toll road.
Why on earth was there no prosecution?!
Lots dead too. I recall reading a reports where thousands of deaths have been attributed to cell use, in regards to pedestrians and drivers.
And on the thing about 3rd parties calling 911, they also jam the system. When an incident occurs on busy highways, many dozens will call and keep calling. They can’t figure out everyone has a cell and everyone who got there first already called.
In addition, if the vehicle disabled the phone text mode while moving, one could simply pull off and stop to text. Not a real big deal.
My first guess was illegal invader. This happens a lot in the DFW area.
>>There are already other laws such as reckless driving and manslaughter that could be leveled against someone who does things like this. No need to add another law.
A legitimate purpose of the law is to protect the innocent. A person who is texting in a 4000 pound machine going 60 MPH is a threat to all.
Not even the most rabid libertarian thinks that laws should only prosecute after you kill someone.
The “would one more have stopped him” defense is not the question. The question, “would one more decrease the opportunities for damage by convincing a number of people to not text and drive”?
Life is not absolutely safe, but it can be made safer.
Texting is what caused me to stop bicycle commuting in Seattle.
Since I moved to rural KY six years ago, I’ve seen four people right in front of me drive their cars off the road, either resulting in damage, or they were lucky that there was a LOT of room for error.
Those youtube crash videos show a LOT of daylight hour head on crashes just like the one with this bus. And all of them are either a driver falling asleep (in the middle of the day) or texting.
It’s LITERALLY worse than drunk driving, unless you are “almost passed out” drunk. The reason: You lose track of time. You think you are looking down for just a second or two, and the next thing you know, you’ve gone ten seconds. This is why the new horizontal slots in the centerline of two lane roads save a LOT of lives.
It is also time to treat texting like we treat DUI.
My money was on texting. This is a classic texting type of wreck. I’ve seen way too many of them on youtube dashcam videos.
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