I agree with OP. Even just talking on a hands free cell while driving reduces your attention level and reaction time to that of a drunk driver.

As with DUI, I hope they they only kill themselves and not some other driver and family.

I can see a time when accident investigation will routinely include cell phone records. Even if the person TWD is hit by another driver. It is reasonable to ask if they could have avoided the accident if they had not been distracted.

Still my fav bumper sticker:

"Would You Drive Any Better With that Phone Shoved Up Your A$$?"

Calif woman gets 6 years for fatal texting crash

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090404/ap_on_re_us/text_crash;_ylt=ArWtWWjZBwjveknOl7gIHJEDW7oF 

Don't need special new rules about TWD. It all falls under the umbrellla of Inattentive Driving.

^Exactly. Pull people over and give them tickets for driving like idiots. The reasons for their crappy driving shouldn't matter (drinking, texting, shaving their pubes -- whatever).

ScottHar

22. Author: Gene363

"Still my fav bumper sticker:

"Would You Drive Any Better With that Phone Shoved Up Your A$$?"

O.K. Where do I get one?

re 26

My wife found it in a Savannah water front gift shop.

^ I'll have to keep an eye out for it up here.

I hate it when people fail to drive defensively if I'm reading the newspaper, even when I'm driving slowly to help accomodate my reduced attention.

^ A reasonable request.

I TWT

I see this all the time and it absolutely unnerves me.First off I'd say 75% of the people behind the wheel out there couldn't drive an ice pick in a watermelon.They have no business making the roads far more dangerous for you and me by texting while driving.I have TEXT completely blocked to my phone...............therefore no temptation,however I do talk while driving.It's more than dangerous enough taking what I drive(Peterbilt usually loaded 80-140,000 lbs) into most metro areas as it is...................why make it even more dangerous.

8track is absolutely correct.........most states have an INATTENTIVE DRIVING LAW in their Vehicle Code.We just need more enforcement.

Cooper.................I do hope your joking.

Ron

#17 I can see where an exemption (Washington doesn't have one) for LEOs answering or making calls in the line of duty would make some sense. You see someone robbing a bank, a fellow LEO needs backup ASAP, etc., that's more of an emergency than the potential danger from calling. Texting could ostensibly be needed where a phone ringing on the other end could be problematic, too. However, a blanket exemption arguably sends the wrong message (and yes, I can foresee hearings, lawsuits, etc. where a LEO would have to defend his/her actions with a limited exemption in place).

#21 Not for me personally. Washington banned all but hands-free calling while driving many months ago, but you'd never notice it driving around the Puget Sound area. Nonetheless, I got a bluetooth headset (cost me less than a single ticket for a violation would have). I love it. Allows me to take a call if need be while still keeping my attention on the road. I just press a button on the headset and take the call. Nice to have the freedom not to have to handle the phone itself, and it's handy as hell when I'm moving around the office or home, as I still need to keep my phone handy 24/7 for my work. I find it very easy to use, even when driving, and have paid extra attention to see if I'm drifting across lanes or making other such attention-deprived moves...just hasn't been an issue.

re 33

Ha!1 Just wait until you get a call about a damaged Cigarbid shipment.

^ here, after a game 2 boys were walking home when a texting school adm. ran off the road killing one of the boys. she has to face both herself & pissed off students on a daily basis .

#34 Oh, I never get such calls. I just get the damaged shipment!

BTW, good thing the police are planning around these idiots. This driver could have killed a few people a couple days ago:

MERIDIAN - Police say a texting driver slammed into the back of a parked Boise patrol car at about 60-65 miles per hour Saturday night on I-84 in Meridian.

The force of the crash sent the cruiser sliding about 200 feet down the highway. It skidded to a stop just shy of another police car parked on the shoulder.

Sargent Lynn Sperry says nobody was in the patrol car when it was hit. The texting driver was taken to St. Luke's Hospital in Meridian with minor injuries.

It all happened around 10:15 p.m., in the west bound traffic lanes of I-84, just after the Eagle Road exit. Three Boise patrol cars were pulled over to the side, arresting another driver on a DUI charge.

The accident smashed the tail end of the cruiser, leaving a three-foot crater and totaling the vehicle. The texting driver's Corsica was also totaled, scraping to a stop in the far left lane. Sperry says the driver had also been drinking, but his BAC was under the legal limit.

The texting driver, police say, is a 37-year-old man from Nampa. No charges have been filed at this time.

Authorities closed the highway for about an hour, diverting traffic off the Eagle Road exit. Once the scene of the accident was established, police had traffic going around by taking the exit and using the on ramp to re-enter the highway.

The crash left tiny bits of glass and shattered car debris on the road. Officers from Boise and Idaho State Police investigated the crash scene and then called in a large sweeper from ITD and two trucks to clear the highway.

Sperry says the accident could have been much worse if not for lessons already learned on similar crashes. All three patrol cars were parked away from each other, to avoid a domino effect in a crash, and all three Boise officers and the DUI suspect were standing on the shoulder out of harm's way.

Sperry says it would have been a different story if an officer and suspect were in the cruiser. The force of the crash compressed the backseat, which would have easily crushed the legs of anyone sitting there.

Dear fellow citizens:

Please learn to touch text before texting while driving.

Perhaps they need to add it to the driver's test.

Solution: Voice-activated texting...

I just saw a Houston Police Officer texting on her phone while driving a squad car on the freeway at 60mph.............

Couple of trolley cars slammed into each other--one driver admitted to texting.