Cell Phones Prove Deadly, Three Separate S.C. Crashes Leave 4 Dead (US 2005 losses soar over 42,000)

Fort Wayne ^ | 12/25/05 | Joshua StoweSouth

[Bryanw92]

Is that a trick question? Neither was an octogenarian.

[RandallFlagg]

They ought to pass a law increasing usage and purchase taxes and fees to help pay for all the medical costs associated with this tragedy.

Why not? They do it all the time with tobacco. Right ladies??

[TN4Liberty]

Cell phone users are as rude as some smokers. Just because you have a right to smoke or use a cell phone, does not give you a right to blow smoke in another's face, or assume you have the right to hold up traffic while you talk to someone on a cell phone.

Does it bother you if someone talks to a friend who is standing with them in the store, or is it only if they are doing so on the phone?

I understand complaining about cellphone users who drive distracted. But if a woman is looking at clothes and talking on the phone, I really don't see the problem. I just say "excuse me" and they move.

[ChefKeith]

Mom just sent me 2 of these and I proudly put them on the back window of the cars.

I think some people should just have a cell phone surgically implanted in their head...

[SheLion]

They ought to pass a law increasing usage and purchase taxes and fees to help pay for all the medical costs associated with this tragedy.

Why not? They do it all the time with tobacco. Right ladies??

Absolutely right, Randall!  Anything that can cause potential death and destruction should be put on the Tax Hit List!

They ought to pass a law increasing usage and purchase taxes and fees to help pay for all the medical costs associated with this tragedy.

Why not? They do it all the time with tobacco. Right ladies??

Absolutely right, Randall!  Anything that can cause potential death and destruction should be put on the Tax Hit List!

[sphinx]

As a pedestrian, I have almost been hit twice in the last three years by drivers using cellphones. Both times were in crosswalks, and both times I had the light.

The first time was a fellow yakking on his phone while looking to turn right on red (oblivious to the No Turn On Red sign at that intersection). Looking to his left, he spotted a break in the oncoming traffic and did a jackrabbit start to jump in. I was directly in front of his right side bumper, not two feet in front of him. I jumped clear in time and am fortunate I didn't have my kids with me. The driver zipped around the corner. Never saw me.

The second was a gal, jabbering away on her phone, who pulled clear through the crosswalk before stopping. I jumped back in time.

I'm beginning to think there ought to be some kind of cellphone interference device, activated when you turn on the ignition, built into every car.

[ThreePuttinDude]

I'm sot sure of the precise location, but it was either
in Tampa or Fort Myers, a youth was text messaging from
behind the wheel of his little Honda car and ran over a
cyclist, killing the later instantly.



No problem with cell phones there.......<.SARC>

[Dustbunny]

We don't own a cell phone, have never owned a cell phone and do not ever plan on acquiring a cell phone.

[b4its2late]

Not that it was serious, but I was behind a pickup that failed to stop and it rearended the car ahead of him and push it into a car ahead of that. He was answering his cell phone.

[albee]

"Is that a trick question? Neither was an octogenarian."

Yes....and you failed the course!

[ßuddaßudd]

Cell phones are dangerous to all commuters!

[mc6809e]

I continually see clots of traffic around/behind drivers blocking the fast lane, moving slower that traffic, while being distracted talking on cell phones. This both slows traffic and creates a clot of cars in close proximity to each other, making a crash more likely.

Oh, here we go. People are driving too close together to bully the slower driver to go faster but it's his own fault, right?

Whatever. The number one cause of accidents is impatience. Impatience to sober up. Impatience at intersections. And impatience with other drivers that don't know they're expect to be just as wreckless as you.

[gunnedah]

It is George Bushs fault!

[JABBERBONK]

Those of us who know how to drive are not distracted enough by our cell phones to be a threat. I had a trucking business in Florida for 15 years, the last 8 years we used cell phones for dispatching. Most professional truckers in the USA use cell phones on a regular basis, but the conversations are brief and to the point, not countless hours chatting about office politics, and recipes. The cell phone is no more a distraction that a CB radio while engaged, so the actual reason for the accidents is not cell phone use but drivers being more engrossed in their cell phone conversations than their driving

[xtargeter]

I've lived in Tucson for six years and had two wrecks. The first one was caused by a teen age girl talking on her cell phone when she rear-ended me while I was stopped for a red light. I got out and walked toward her car, and she got out, still talking and I heard her her say, "I've gotta go, I've been in a wreck." She got the ticket, but it still cost me a lot of time and trouble to get the truck repaired. She was really lucky as she drove a compact car that was totaled and came within a foot of having her face planted in my rear tire as she submarined under the bumper on my full sized pick-up.

The second time I was stopped, waiting to make a right turn. When I felt the bump, I looked up into my rear-view mirror and saw the female driver taking on her cell phone.

Not really statistically valid, but two accidents, both with women and cell phones involved.

[catpuppy]

Cars, buses, mortorcycles, trucks or pedestrians are involved in 100% of all highway accidents. We need to ban them all.

[Mr. Brightside]

How many deaths from coffee drinking drivers?

Or Big Mac eating drivers?

Or lip stick applying drivers?

[Rennes Templar]

When I got my cell 4 years ago, everyone started calling me on it when I could have easily spoke to them at home. Plus I hear they cause brain-tumors. So I cancelled it. And guess what? There is life without a cell phone!

[Ditter]

There you go, talking about that 'fast lane' again. The fast lane exists only in the minds of some drivers. The speed limit is the same in all the lanes. Merry Christmas!

[Ditter]

I had a teen age girl do the same thing to me and guess what, she didn't own a cell phone. She used mine to call home. It was her first car she had had it a week and it was smashed. My Tahoe ruined hers and I didn't have a scratch.