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Phone Addicts Are the New Drunk Drivers

blog.zendrive.com

141–150 of 293 posts

Re: Phone Addicts Are the New Drunk Drivers

#141
post #125

DUI and driving while using your phone should have equal punishment. I’m not advocating drinking and driving, but phone use is “no harm, no foul” right now. On the other hand you can drive without crashing into anyone but if you’ve had two glasses of wine with dinner, you can get charged with a crime.

There should be an instant ban from driving, you are not allowed to continue your journey, and for at least a week after. Plus fine. It is ridiculous how lenient the laws are. 40,000 people die every year on our roads.

> It is ridiculous how lenient the laws are.

I think it is because people who make the laws are breaking them too.

Re: Phone Addicts Are the New Drunk Drivers

#142
post #102
post #75

Here's my test for phone addiction (for men): If you are pissing into a urinal and need to look at your phone during those 15 seconds, you have a problem. And I see this a lot . A scary game: when in stop and go traffic, have a look at the person behind you. Are their eyes on the road, or their lap? In my experience, 7 out of 10 are looking at their lap, with a quick glance up every 5 seconds or so. I spend plenty of…

I don't think your test is all that good. If I'm out with friends, I try to consciously avoid using my phone when we're together so that I'm present and so that they know I value their presence. Those 15 seconds at the urinal are often the best time to check notifications before getting back to phone-free socializing. Agree with your other points though.

Might just be me, but I don't think it's appropriate to pull a camera out at the urinal

Re: Phone Addicts Are the New Drunk Drivers

#143
Additionally, imposing strict consequences (like a ban from driving, loss of license, etc.) for phone addicts kills two birds with one stone: not only does it save lives, it has the potential to remove A LOT of people from their cars and onto public transportation which would drastically alleviate traffic congestion.

Re: Phone Addicts Are the New Drunk Drivers

#144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cellphone use while driving is a primary offense in Ohio, meaning you can get pulled over solely got that and receive a citation

A citation is nothing. A couple drinks will put you in jail, cost you your license for a while, maybe your job, and thousands of dollars.

My wife got her start as an attorney in the U.S. and her first criminal cases as defense counsel were for drunk divers. It ended up driving (no pun) her away from defense work, because these guys were inveterate offenders and never got more than a slap on the wrist. The penalties on the books for DUI and the penalties actually administered are often miles apart. That may have changed in the last decade though, I can’t say.

Re: Phone Addicts Are the New Drunk Drivers

#145
post #61
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's weird how humans don't care about the threat of death. I'm not being sarcastic, we clearly don't.

It's a conditioned suppression. Otherwise fight or flight would be kicking in every time you crossed the street.

> Otherwise fight or flight would be kicking in every time you crossed the street.

That exact thing does happen to me. The drivers in my country are atrocious even if we do not consider the use of phones. Having to cross the street is quite stressful and do not dare to do so without running, even if I am in a another country with more sane drivers.

Re: Phone Addicts Are the New Drunk Drivers

#146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not check your phone while at a stop sign? Why not check your phone while on a straightaway with no cars in sight? Why not check your phone to make sure you're on the right route? I get what you're saying but these are the thousands of little thoughts in the back of your mind that encourage you to use your phone in the car. "Just leave the phone in your pocket" has to defend itself against every one of these litt…

Because it's dangerous!! Figure out where you're going before driving off! If you get lost PULL OVER! It's really not that difficult and it shows that you actually care about people in the world other than yourself.

I have an issue with most of the defenses of using a phone while driving, but are you saying we should not be able to use a dashboard mounted phone as a GPS unit? Should all dashboard mounted GPS units be illegal, or just phone as a GPS? The advice was literally to keep the phone in your pocket.

Re: Phone Addicts Are the New Drunk Drivers

#147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A citation is nothing. A couple drinks will put you in jail, cost you your license for a while, maybe your job, and thousands of dollars.

My wife got her start as an attorney in the U.S. and her first criminal cases as defense counsel were for drunk divers. It ended up driving (no pun) her away from defense work, because these guys were inveterate offenders and never got more than a slap on the wrist. The penalties on the books for DUI and the penalties actually administered are often miles apart. That may have changed in the last decade though, I can’…

What do you consider a slap on the wrist? Everyone I know that’s had a DUI lost their license for a min amount of time with exponential increases for repeat offenders (one month, then two years, then 10 years). And that’s only the ones that weren’t involved in a collision.

Re: Phone Addicts Are the New Drunk Drivers

#148
post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My wife got her start as an attorney in the U.S. and her first criminal cases as defense counsel were for drunk divers. It ended up driving (no pun) her away from defense work, because these guys were inveterate offenders and never got more than a slap on the wrist. The penalties on the books for DUI and the penalties actually administered are often miles apart. That may have changed in the last decade though, I can’…

What do you consider a slap on the wrist? Everyone I know that’s had a DUI lost their license for a min amount of time with exponential increases for repeat offenders (one month, then two years, then 10 years). And that’s only the ones that weren’t involved in a collision.

[deleted]

Re: Phone Addicts Are the New Drunk Drivers

#149
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see the new Subaru's have this feature where they seem to track your eyes and alert you if you're looking down at your lap. I think that could be a possible solution, it needs to be in the vehicle since the vehicle is the thing causing the damage, not the mobile device. I don't like Apple's method: When it senses you moving (which gets triggered for false positives as mentioned), it locks your phone unless you pres…

The problem for Apple is they don't know you're not a passenger.

Let's make that Apple's problem and not that of the people they kill.

If the phone cannot distinguish driver from passenger, shut it off.

Re: Phone Addicts Are the New Drunk Drivers

#150
post #47
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's trivial to mandate a phone be designed so that it can't be used in a moving car or for a certain amount of time since it has experienced significant acceleration. In fact you could ban certain apps like txting and calling during these times. I guess you could even mandate tech to help the phone figure out where in the car the person is sitting and only disable their phone.

It would be hard to filter out the false positives. I'm almost always a passenger or riding a train. Locking out my phone during either of those situations would be a problem.

Getting killed or maimed is a bigger problem.
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