Apparently People Need A Law To Tell Them Sending Faxes While Driving Isn't A Good Idea
from the brake-is-on-the-left dept
We've written plenty of times about the ongoing push to ban talking on the phone while driving. Drivers that are distracted by phone conversations are undoubtedly a problem, but the real problem isn't them talking on the phone, it's the distraction. Devoting laws to make specific distractions illegal seems rather pointless, when compared to enforcing broader laws that seek to tackle poor and reckless driving in general. But, it would seem, many states would rather try to ban distractions one by one. So, in addition to talking on the phone, driving while drowsy, smoking while driving, and using OnStar or other telematics systems while driving, some New York lawmakers now looking to ban playing video games and sending faxes while driving. This illustrates the folly of these distraction-specific laws. Once legislators go down this path and begin to ban specific activities, they're in some sense obliged to try and ban every single distraction. After all, while most reasonable people would realize that it probably wouldn't be a great idea to operate a fax machine while driving -- but if it's not specifically made illegal, like talking on a cell phone while driving, it must be okay, right?
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Apparently People Need A Law To Tell Them Sending
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Re:
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Folly
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Stupid is, is Stupid Does....
Washing clothes,
Washing your Hair,
Singing to the Radio,
Drumming to the Radio,
Playing the Air Guitar,
Ironing,
Mowing your grass,
Sleeping,
Drinking a Milkshake,
Eating Ice Cream,
Sitting,
Using the Bathroom,
Cooking,
Beating your kids,
Your kids Beating You,
Listening to the Game,
Watching the Game,
Playing a Game,
Doing the Nasty,
Paying Attention, (wouldn't want them to get distracted)
OK, let's keep adding to this list.
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Re: Stupid is, is Stupid Does....
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Faxing etc.. while driving
The problem is people in todays society have no regard for other people around them. They take no care in operating their two ton vehicle while talking on the phone, faxing, watching DVDs etc... Because after all it's all about them and their need for instant gratification. Never does it enter their mind that they could instantly kill an innocent person due to their careless disregard for others safety.
Until we make a fundamental change in our societal behavior the madness will continue and people will die.
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Re: Faxing etc.. while driving
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Re: Re: Faxing etc.. while driving
I would rather trust an in-car computer that 'nets with a central traffic computer than a soccer mom in a three ton SUV who is talking on her cell phone, running a DVD for the 7 kids, eating lunch, and doing make up while running 75 mph down the Interstate -- even if the car's OS came from Redmond.
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Common sense tells you not to drink and drive, but people do. So we made a law against it, not because we really care if they drive while drunk, but because of the potential consequences... like reckless driving and getting into an accident.
So, tell me what's wrong with outlawing things one at a time, if it ends up saving lives? Or, do you have a better suggestion? Like a "not driving while distracted" law? Because that's not open to subjective interpretation by the police officer at all.
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Faxing
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Re: Faxing
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you don't need a law...
the bad thing about making laws for everything is that then, there is a law for everything
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Cell phones shouldn't be allowed while driving. I know a lot of people can handle it, but a lot of people can handle driving drunk too. Its just that there's no way to tell if you're a person that can or can't handle it. I'd rather ban everybody from doing it then allowing everybody to do it. If people actually followed the law about cell phones (which they don't), there's no doubt it'd save lives.
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Re: # 11
Which is why there are already umbrella laws against "reckless" driving. Because the issue isn't the phone call, it's YOUR ability to drive while you're taking the phone call. If taking it makes you drives recklessly, you should be ticketed for reckless driving, not talking on the phone.
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Re:
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Twice as many fatal accidents have occurred from driving while having sex (DWS) than all drunk driving incidents combined. It is said that sex sells and that it causes uncontrollable urges in men and women alike. According to this study, sex can also kill. Driving while having sex (DWS) is similar to driving while on the cell phone (DWTC) in that the driver loses their ability to concentrate on the road and on the matters at hand.
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The real reason is...
Therefore, we have to write out very details laws that spell out everything, otherwise a good defense attorney will just say, "The law doesn't prohibit this implicitly or explicitly" and the judge will be forced to toss the case.
Much like the article I read on an anonymous Blog this morning (insomniac I am) about the guy that got an insurance company to insure his cigars against fire. Well the dude smoked them and filed a claim, the insurance company refused to pay, and the guy sued and won, because the insurance company didn't specify what would be an acceptable or non-acceptable fire. Course, once they paid out, they then filed 24 counts of arson for insurance fraud and the man is now in jail, but the real point is, you got to be specific about the law, otherwise Judges have to toss things out.
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Re: The real reason is...
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Re: The real reason is...
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Re: The real reason is...
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Re: #15
This is a preventative law, just like drunk driving.
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Re: Re: #15
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What we need.
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missing the point
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We Call It Multi-Tasking
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Oh yeah
Read a newspaper or map while driving
Eat while driving
Not looking at the road while driving
Put make-up while driving
Having sexual intercourse while driving
Just a few of my favorite gripes.
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There's needs to be a law to prohibit laws that state the glaringly obvious.
It's just a matter of the elites taking more and more control - give them an inch and they want 25,000 miles and more.
Can find lots of issues like that on the web - www.infowars.com is a good place to start. Sad part is - I didn't used to buy half that stuff, but now - I'm not so sure.
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Navigation Systems
I personally love mine, especially when I travel the country on vacation and set it up in my rental car to get me around areas I know nothing about. I'm sure not going to stop using it, law or no law, just because some silly politician wants to look like he's doing something to Protect the Children (TM).
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Re: Navigation Systems
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Re: Navigation Systems
That would seem to cover in-car navigation systems. The irony is that these navigation systems actually lead people to drive more safely than they would otherwise. By telling them exactly when their turn or address is coming up, drivers aren't distracted by trying to find and read street signs or building numbers or caught needing to cross over three lanes of traffic at the last minute to make turn.
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Uh Oh!!!!
I call bullshit on anyone who uses that word>
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I bet driving while eating doesn't get banned
In any case driving while eating and drinking (even non alcoholic beverages) has to be one of the most distracting thing you can do in a car. We'll call this "DWE" to satisfy
Anonymous Coward...
Often eating requires at least one of your hands to be off the wheele for extended time, sometime food drops and natural reaction is to reach for it. In terms of drinks, sometime the lid pops off and contents spill.
Now this is only a guess, but I would bet that DWE wouldn't be far behind DWS and DWI in being a major contributor of accidents.
Somehow with all the drive thrus in the US I doubt that a law to ban eating in the car would go very far.
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Re: I bet driving while eating doesn't get banned
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driving while..
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If you legally want to kill someone run them over
However the problem I've got with these laws are that the people who speed and drive through red lights aren't usually distracted. They are just selfish people who don't care that they can easily kill people.
And why should they?
The penalty for killing people while driving your car is next to nothing. Kill a pedestrian even though you drove reckless, through a red light, while they were crossing legally and you don't even go to jail.
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Re: If you legally want to kill someone run them o
wrong. vehicular manslaughter. at least a few years in jail.
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reckless driving WAITS for the bad driving to occur. Banning cell phones (unless hands-free, but even thats pushing it) is a preventative measure.
People have to learn to care more. Swerving in and out of traffic to get ahead saves you next to nothing in terms of time, but it runs the risk of an accident up a whole lot. Do people care? No. Usually these are the people on the cell phone anyway. And they think they're good drivers cause they can speed, swerve in & out of traffic, and talk on the cell phone and they've never been in an accident. Problem is, when it comes to these drivers, they're usually never in more then one accident if you catch my drift.
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Re: Reckless Driving
> doesn't actually cover the whole cell
> phone thing is that you can talk on the
> cell phone for years without a problem.
> its that one time you screw up cause
> you're fighting with your wife about
> how you don't pay attention, and you end
> up hitting a little kid running across
> the street to get his ball.
Replace "cell phone" with "conversation with passenger" and the same thing applies. You can carry on a conversation with the person sitting in the car next to you every day for years on your way to work, but the one day you get into an argument and don't pay attention, you hit the kid in the street.
Should we ban talking to passengers, too? Or how about let's just ban passengers altogether?
Oh, but wait... the global warming crowd says we need to carpool more.
Hmmm... sounds like a perfect storm of nanny-state busybodies are coming into conflict.
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Priviledge not a right
They can put whatever kind of precautions they want on it.
People seem to forget they're driving around tons of metal at high speeds (the more it weighs, the less speed required to actually cause damage).
Stop caring only about yourselves. You have no *need* to be on a cell phone. You have no *need* to fax. You have no *need* for any of those things. If they decide to ban a few of them to save lives, then fine. Who cares if it makes them look good. Instead of people complaining that cops will pull over people who can drive perfectly fine, but they're on their cell phone, well, MAYBE THEY SHOULDN'T BE ON THE CELL PHONE. You could make the same argument for speeding. You want to get rid of that restriction? Plenty of people can drive while speeding, but its impossible to gauge who safely each and every person can drive, so they set a limit and just don't let anybody drive over it.
Laws wouldn't be required if people actually acted responsibly.
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Re: Priviledge not a right
Yep, that's what the government has beaten into our heads all our lives. But it's only a privilege because the government *says* it's a privilege. And that's a pretty self-serving declaration for them to make, too.
Why is my ability to legally drive any more of a privilege than, say, owning a home? Or running a business? Or any of the other myriad things we do in our daily lives that we would never stand for the government unilaterally declaring to be "privileges" that can be revoked at its whim?
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I DON'T NEED OR WANT A NANNY STATE! the more they let you talk you into ridiculus laws because "its for your protection" the more freedoms we loose and before long we end up living in a nazi/communist country. Why doesn't anyone remember and LEARN from their history??? Every bad thing that ANY government has ever done through out history has ALWAYS started with "It's for your own good."
" any man who would give up even the smallest measure of freedom for safety deserves NETHER freedom nor safety." (Benjamin Franklin)
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Faxing etc.. while driving
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Yep, that's what the government has beaten into our heads all our lives. But it's only a privilege because the government *says* it's a priviledge. And that's a pretty self-serving declaration for them to make, too.
Yeah - take away everyone's "privilege" and see how fast the economy tanks.
Of course, not that we live in a Free country anyway. Anything we do now is a 'priviledge' right?
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