Painting nails while driving? Distracted driving

[Liberal_in_LA]

Victims, relatives press for action on distracted driving

CNN) -- Greg Zaffke II's mother, Anita, was killed in May when a car struck her motorcycle at a stoplight, he said.

"The driver behind her that rear-ended her at 50 miles per hour admitted afterward to painting her nails while driving. There was also reportedly nail polish all over the air bag," he told 250 officials gathered in Washington this week for a two-day conference on distracted drivers, hosted by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

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Jennifer Smith of Grapevine, Texas, lost her mother, Linda Doyle, when a driver hit her car squarely in the side, she said.

"He never saw the red light, he never saw all the other cars already stopped at the light, he never saw my mother's car until it was too late, he never even tried to brake," Smith testified.

"The first thing the driver did admit when he got out of the car was that he was talking on his cell phone. He was not texting, he was not dialing, he was not looking for his phone, he was having a conversation."

Nearly 6,000 people died in 2008 in crashes involving a distracted or inattentive driver, and more than half a million were injured, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Eighty percent of crashes are related to driver inattention, according to a Virginia Tech study, and drivers that use handheld devices are four times as likely to get into crashes serious enough to injure themselves, the National Safety

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But Teater's focus isn't only on texting. He said that his son Joseph, 12, was killed in 2004 when a Hummer ran a red light and hit the Chevy Suburban his son was riding in.

"A young lady who was talking on her cell phone, looking straight out the windshield -- we know this because the people in the cars and the school bus saw her -- blew by the cars and the school bus, didn't see the red light, didn't see them, didn't see the vehicles crossing directly in front of her and hit our vehicle at 48 miles an hour. Never touched her brakes, according to the crash recorder on her vehicle," he said. "That's the power of the distraction associated with a phone call."

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/10/01/distracted.driving.conference/index.html

[elocs]

1. Remember the good old days when we would only get distracted by changing the radio station,

picking up whatever fell on the floor, having hot coffee spill in our lap, yelling at the kids in the back seat. I guess there's always been distractions and now there are more.

[rurallib]

2. I nearly got hit by a guy reading the bible while he was driving

[Arctic Dave]

7. Well that settles it, we have to ban the Bible for the safety of the children.

[RaleighNCDUer]

6. Searching for the lit cigarette in your crotch was always a good one -

hardly anybody smokes anymore, so we're much safer from that one.

Just last week I was nearly run off the road by some person in an SUV talking on the phone. Never even knew he was drifting across the lanes.

[elocs]

11. Even though I've never smoked I can appreciate how that might be distracting.

But a distraction is a distraction only some are more distracting than others.

[TrogL]

13. I've threatened to duct-tape my passengers

For awhile I even kept a roll of it in the between-the-seats-compartment to wave around when I felt I was being distracted by their blathering or leaning in front of my mirrors.

[elocs]

15. I've never been distracted by passengers talking to me.

In fact, driving on long trips with others at night when I was driving if the others would go to sleep I would instantly become overwhelming tired. Somebody had better stay awake and talk with me.

[TrogL]

19. I don't like it in heavy traffic

With 50 idiots around me the last thing I need is somebody blabbing in my ear or blocking the rear-view mirror adjusting his hair.

[elocs]

20. When I get into heavy and fast moving traffic like in Chicago

I don't even like to have the car radio on. For me that is intense driving when it takes all of my attention. I really have never had any problem with people talking while I am driving.

[KittyWampus]

3. the driver's seat is NOT THE LIVING ROOM SOFA.

[Ron Green]

4. This is why "hands-free" is not OK, and why other "distractions" are not the same.

The problem with talking on a phone (or texting) while driving is that your mind is literally not in the car with you, but with the person you're talking to. If you're talking to someone in the car with you, it's a very different mental process.

[TrogL]

14. It's blocking the "self-talk" you need to do to drive safely

Yes, we all have "the voices in my head" jabbering away in the background warning us about stuff like "hmmm....maybe it would be good idea to actually stop for this red light" that can't be heard over some kid screaming in your ear that you forgot to pick up his favourite flavour of icecream.

[enlightenment]

5. I saw a girl doing that a couple of weeks ago.

At a stop-light. Polishing her nails. She appeared to be talking to herself, also, so I assume she had one of those ear gizmos or some other hands-free phone. What was even more frightening was the policeman in the next lane over. He was right next to her car, but didn't bother pulling her over. He may not have noticed her . . . he was on his cell phone.

I turned about a block later - never so happy to reach my destination in one piece.

:(

[Hepburn]

8. I remember seeing a female on the 405 pass me and she was...

...leaning over from the driver's seat, head extended up to the rear view mirror with the mirror tilted towards her face and PUTTING ON MASCARA while she was driving about 75 MPH! And, oh, she was in the HOV lane with a kid in the front passenger seat!

:wow:

Edit for typo

[MindPilot]

9. I was alongside a car on the 15 at about 85mph

the driver was putting in eye drops.

[frylock]

21. that was not me..

so stop saying that!

[blues90]

10. I'll never understand what is in anyones mind

When they get in a car or truck and feel it is so important to talk on a phone let alone text. Things even without these distrations happen so fast why add to the risk.

It is really no different than driving drunk or with your eyes closed.

I don't take my eyes off the road for a second ever. It's not worth my death or someone elses or even a fender bender to me not to mention raised ins rates and time lost and repairs.

If my cell rings I wait and call back when I'm stopped , If I don't like the radio station I change it when stopped.

[TrogL]

12. I was nearly T-boned last week

I was just coming up to the intersection on an advanced green meaning the light had been red the other direction for at least five seconds. I slowed 'cause wasn't sure if I was gonna get a green or a red and some idiot in a little truck yakking on a cell phone blew through the intersection - no brake lights.

If I'd stuck to the letter of the law instead of my usual paranoid driving style (the other driver is a complete fucking idiot) I'd have likely been killed.

[Fire1]

16. I've seen so many people get cussed OUT about this and I

cheer them on everytime. I have never in my life seen so many folks totally engaged in full blown conversations! It's like they've never had a fuckin phone before! NOTHING is THAT damned important that you can't pull over to the side of the road and talk. Of course, MY conversations are short and to the point.

[Ezlivin]

17. Computers multitask very well; humans, not so much

Our culture is shifting to a machine culture. People are starting to think they are like computers and, as such, can effortlessly multitask and give full attention to each task.

Unfortunately this is wildly incorrect.

[CrispyQ]

18. My husband & I were on I-25, driving through Denver & in the car next to us,

a guy had his guitar perched on his lap & was playing it. The neck of the guitar & his left hand were sticking out the window, while he steered with his knees. I thought I'd seen everything stupid on the road, but never could have imagined that. :grr:




on edit: I've always claimed that you see the pinnacle of human stupidity & rudeness behind the wheel of a car. No shit.

[Liberal_in_LA]

22. driving while playing the guitar. Now that's ok.

[nadinbrzezinski]

23. I should join them

If I got a hundred pesos for each time I picked the pieces...