Mighty BOB!

November 02, 2009 at 4:07pm

I'm with most of America on this one.  Complete ban on texting while driving, and requiring a hands-free device for talking. (Although other people have brought up good points about you still need to look at the phone or push a button to start or accept a call on most models AFAIK.)

 

Also I'll be the first to admit that I'm a hypocrit and have texted while driving on one occasion and do not have a hands-free device [although as it stands, I only drive for a total of a few hours every year thanks to public transit].

popstop785

November 02, 2009 at 3:21pm

I cannot stand the mindless people that drive and text. It's so annoying. I fully support it myself.

You're in a car to drive, not text your little buddies. Focus on the road and the people around you. Nothing is so important that you need to text while driving, and if it is important enough to communicate with a person, tehn pull your butt over and CALL them. Texting while driving is unecessary no matter what the reason.

 

People need to put their damn phones away and actually drive their car. If I ever get hit by a person who is using a cell phone, I will sue them so bad their great grand children will feel it.

AndyYankee17

November 02, 2009 at 12:32pm

I support a person's right to text and talk and not wear a seatbelt while driving. I regularly web browse while driving and have never been in an accident. It's all about self responsibility, not a nanny state

 

edit: Also, making the penalties the same as drunk driving? what the hell? drunk driving is a hell of a lot worse than texting while driving

LVmonkey

November 02, 2009 at 10:07am

it boils down to something like if its in your hand and your driving, you are driving distracted. Doesn't matter if your playing Bejeweled on it or even talking. It does always come down to if the officer thinks what your doing is enough of a reason to pull you over for it. And they don't always, much like jay walking. If they ticket everyone to the extreme then their credibility as a policing force is in jepardy ...so it behoves them to keep the publics confidence by not being weenies with the law but to keep the law simple enough to not have to fight with the offender about it.

Tenhawk

November 02, 2009 at 9:51am

Don't get me wrong... I think anyone who texts while driving is a bloody imbecile and should probably be slapped with whatever penalties drinkers get, but...

How does anyone plan to enforce a law like this? I mean, I don't see a breathalizer test for texters coming up anytime soon, so except for complete morons who actually text while a cop is like driving right BESIDE him, how does one get caught for this? Are we going to let cops into our phone records on suspicion of texting so they can match the time with... with what? I guess it *maybe* could be used in some accident cases if the cell phone was broke in the accident, or the time of the accident was known down to the minute...

Mostly, however, this is an unenforceable law. Do we really want more pointless crap cluttering legal books? 

deadgarth

November 02, 2009 at 9:42am

I'm against texting while driving, but I've no problem with talking.  I drive with one hand most of the time while not using a cell phone and I fail to see how it's different from talking to someone who's sitting in the car with me.  Should we ban that too? 

Arrowdodger

November 02, 2009 at 9:37am

And what if you're stopped at a stoplight/sign?

I vote make the requirements for a drivers lisense a bit higher. Get rid of all the damn teenage girls and we'll be good.

PhelanPKell

November 02, 2009 at 9:30am

As of October 26 it is now illegal to utilize your cell phone in the province of Ontario, Canada without a handsfree device while driving. This is following suit with at least 3 of our other provinces that have already legalized the law.

In the interests of this law, some companies, such as Blueant, have released bluetooth devices with features like text-to-speech and even voice commands for answering calls. I would well imagine they are working on improvements to voice dictation as well.

I figure that it's only a matter of time before the U.S. Follows suit.

zstadt

November 02, 2009 at 8:26am

I stand firmly against texting / talking on the phone while driving.  If I get a call while behind the wheel, I usually put it on speaker and say I'll call back.

nforce

November 02, 2009 at 8:18am

What was there Sample type? (you can always make a servay say what you want to say just by putting the poll where only your targreted people go.) ie old people.