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Cell phone/ Seat belt sting

I think one of the things we sometimes forget in our cell phone while driving rants is the very real fact it is only one example of distracted driving. Every day we see people distracted by all sorts of things. We see people reading all sorts of things, eating, sometimes with two hands like the woman last week eating her ice-cream in a cup. There are new moms dealing with crying babies in the back seat because they are not allowed to ride up front. And what about the new trend of computer screen styles with in dash information systems that you must scroll through? The list goes on and on. I would guess distracted driving is probably illegal and specifically noted in the vehicle code in every state in the US.

I really donÔÇÖt view it as a cell phone issue, it is much more a general misconception in our society that when we strap into our seat belted air bagged cars we are really safe. Reality is 50,000 + people die on roads in the US every year! I would imagine the count for life changing type injuries must be just as startling.

Laws will not have a big impact on this social phenomenon. You could not put enough LEOÔÇÖs on the street to begin to curb the problem.

And what about us? Just look at the cockpits of the new high end touring bikesOMG.

It really is not about holding the phone, just talking on the phone, like some of us riders do, has been shown to be distracting by an English study a few years ago.

Ride smart, and be careful; our roads are not a safe as we would like to think.
 
Short memory

It comes to mind, how did our forebearers ever get to where they needed to be without great overseers telling them what to do, where to go, what eat etc.? We may have smoked plenty in the past, ridden our pants off through the middle of the night, took risks in hand, buried our dead without oncologists hovering, and never thought twice about cell phones and PSAs. Never had a seat belt until my brother installed a set in our '63 Chevy. Never used one until '68 in my Volvo. Natural selection used to be a way of life. Had to look out for yerself in the not too distant past. Just a thought or two.

DonnerParty 1846
 
As I have pointed out in the past, those who cherish freedom so much that they want to do away with seat belt and helmet laws should be consistent and abolish all building codes, plumbing codes, electrical codes, food inspection, and on an on. After all, why pick and choose only your own favorite laws to abolish or ignore? Then you can also revert back to the good old days where houses burned down at a more frequent rate, boilers exploded, and buildings pancaked in earthquakes. We could also take snake oil cures and abolish approval of drugs.

Harry
 
Sounds wonderful to me Harry. I think our society would be much better off if everyone still carried a peacemaker on their hip.

However, I think you are going a little overboard to the extreme side of the equation.

Did you survive child hood without seatbelts? Bicycle helmets? Were you able to ride in the back of a pick-up? Were you able to play Cowboys & Indians with toy guns?
Were you actually able to fail in school, or god forbid loose a football or basketball game to learn the value of hard work and how it relates to success?
Did you have a family doctor with his own office in your neighborhood? I'll bet he's been regulated out of business.

I think the underlying side of this thread is that there are just too many rules and regulations that have run amuck.
Do you know that there is new legislation in the works that you as a homeowner are unable to work on your own house?
You have to hire a licensed contractor? (probably union) Even down to small remodeling jobs such as wallpaper & paint.

I see your side of the coin, but I'll bet if you sit down and think about the other side objectively, you will agree that there are just too many regulations anymore.
It has grown too big, and gotten out of hand.

....this is bordering on becoming political, so we probably should change the direction of this thread.......before the regulators get us! :)

Ken
 
I think you have an idealized and selective memory of the 'good old days'. Sure, we survived cars without seat belts and without most of the modern safety stuff but thousands of people didn't. I don't think any of the other things you mentioned have been regulated out of existence, at least not where I live...even the Peacemaker on the hip. Sure, there are lots of regulations that don't make sense but the majority of them make the world a safer place. Sure, some of them may be a bit inconvenient but sometimes there's a price for the greater good. You can't always expect things to be the way YOU prefer them.
 
Mark-
Yes, in an effort not to become political I did use some "selected" examples of long ago rather than current examples. From the "Collectivist" tone of your post I'm
going to surmise that we are probably on opposite sides of the fence, but I will extend to you the offer that if you would like to carry this on in private, I'm willing, however
neither of us are probably going to win the debate, or change the others mind. :)

The price for the "greater good"? It's not about what I prefer. The vision laid out by the framers of the Constitution for the Federal Government has been left far, far behind.
The burdensome, exhaustive, over reaching, regulatory, & over taxing government that now leads this nation has limitless power- and its influence and intrusion in the lives of "We the People" has already begun to crumble the foundation & principles on which our country was founded.

There! We've done it-gone from seatbelts to politics. (If the regulators feel that I've crossed the line, feel free to delete this post.)

I wonder if Amish buggies are required to have seat belts? They do from time to time come into contact with motorized vehicles.

Ken
 
It's virtually impossible to discuss anything today while avoiding a political context. An art critic back in the seventies, if mind remembers correctly, said, "all is political." The reason this has become more true today, even concerning anything connected to bikes and riding bikes, is the vast oversight of at least four levels of government over our lives. The reason we try to stay away from the political here, correct if wrong, is that the political has become very very raw. The political may at sometime in the future be unavoidable, meaning, we will have to discuss politics. Needless to say, this is not a political posting, nor does it intend to solicit political responses. How's that for deniability? Oh, I'm against cell phone use while riding or driving.
 
Mark-
Yes, in an effort not to become political I did use some "selected" examples of long ago rather than current examples. From the "Collectivist" tone of your post I'm
going to surmise that we are probably on opposite sides of the fence, but I will extend to you the offer that if you would like to carry this on in private, I'm willing, however
neither of us are probably going to win the debate, or change the others mind. :)

The price for the "greater good"? It's not about what I prefer. The vision laid out by the framers of the Constitution for the Federal Government has been left far, far behind.
The burdensome, exhaustive, over reaching, regulatory, & over taxing government that now leads this nation has limitless power- and its influence and intrusion in the lives of "We the People" has already begun to crumble the foundation & principles on which our country was founded.

There! We've done it-gone from seatbelts to politics. (If the regulators feel that I've crossed the line, feel free to delete this post.)

I wonder if Amish buggies are required to have seat belts? They do from time to time come into contact with motorized vehicles.

Ken

Down around Bowling Green ,KY they were arresting Amish a year ago for not having the slow vehicle triangles on their buggies, as It was a sect that will not allow use of the color red. The law was changed specifically for them.
 
I'm with Lew all the way on this one. See this crap all the time; people are stupid and the guv'mint is too pansy to let Darwin do what's right. Sheeple and drones are the result.

Around here, the cops are also talking on their cell phones while driving. Maybe it's easier or less crowded than the radio, or better for local coordination of their tasks, but it ain't exactly comforting.

Even when I'm walking or riding my bicycle, there have been a more than few times when other pedestrians just walked right in to me, clearly because they are not paying attention. Just for fun, I've stopped ten feet away from them and watched as they walk toward me. "Duh??" It doesn't help any that parents and schools around here obviously don't teach kids how to cross a street either.
Cops are not civilians when it comes to talking & driving,etc.. Obviously if they are making small talk on the job with their sweetie it should not float. Another same sort of example is for a pilot to make radio talk while flying. Aircraft can get fairly complex too but I hope they talk while they fly! That's why the selection & training of cops & pilots is designed to sort out & prepare them. The people we have our bitch about on the hwy. have gone through none of that process & I promise to not go into my "Driver Ed" rant again.
I do have a related concern about people using this Google earth thing around my place as I can honestly say that I enjoy my on the spot whizz privileges!:) Also my hot summer hose wash downs. :)
 
maybe another reason

so... got license in 74 and was crazy and impervious. Got in several accidents as a youth but no big deal. Years went by and imperviousness wore off. Never really got in the habit of wearing seatbelt. Got a ticket or two for not wearing one and now? for the most part wear one.

internet pulls the extremes to the center. Most people aren't extremely anything just normal people learning things a little slower than they maybe should.

I am lucky I am alive for MANY more reasons than not wearing a seatbelt. I wear one now and am glad I do.

Peace to all
 
Had the radio on this morning and recent study, can't remember by whom, said the average length of time with eyes removed from road ahead while texting was five seconds, and at 55mph, that's the length of a football field. Another wild stat, and apparently no one is keeping track, gadget use in the car while driving may be accounting for for as much as 60 percent of all accidents? Don't know if any of this is actually verifiable, but that is probably why a driver rammed into my wife's new CRV while stopped at a traffic light, and then the next car rammed into the one that hit my wife, so double whammy. Could any of this distracted driving be tolerated in, say, Germany?
 
Sorry to hear about your wife, hope she is alright and not injured.

We had almost the same thing happen in our little town yesterday. A semi was stopped at a traffic light on the highway through town, with two cars stopped behind it.
Another 18 wheeler running 59 in a 40 slammed into the two cars behind the first semi without putting on it's breaks. Two people killed and the driver of the 18 wheeler was a Chinese immigrant who's immigration was under investigation, and had already driven 70 hours this week according to the computer in his truck.

It looked like the two cars sandwiched inbetween the two semi's had exploded. Mechanics from a Ford dealership came running out to see if they could help, but stated that with the first look at the two cars it was obvious that there was no one remaining they could help. It was impossible to determine whether the two automobile drivers had been wearing seat belts.
The driver was arrested, and charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter.

Ken
 
Tricky Tricky

I live on a corner with four way stop signs, one morning I notice a city motorcycle cop standing near the stop sign on my corner watching traffic, drivers see him and now for sure stop at the intersection. Then I notice vehicle stops or not he jumps on his Harley blue lights flashing siren screaming, stops car, writes ticket, back to same corner just watching.

I am on a friendly basis with these guys as the same ones patrol this neighbor hood and my having a motorcycle gets me a friendly smile, so I walk out there and say "Good morning, may I ask what are you doing"? He looks at me and says seat belt enforcement, child seats and checking license and insurance.

So you think you got it made by stopping for the stop sign, not necessarily.
 
I am on a friendly basis with these guys as the same ones patrol this neighbor hood and my having a motorcycle gets me a friendly smile, so I walk out there and say "Good morning, may I ask what are you doing"? He looks at me and says seat belt enforcement, child seats and checking license and insurance.

Unfortunately his time has to be tied up doing those checks because some people just can't figure it out. They're the ones that usually think their rights and freedoms are being violated..as if driving is a right in the first place.
 
What I just don't get is not wearing a seat belt! What is the payoff, aside from the 3 seconds it takes to click it in? Any of you not use a seat belt? Please tell us why.

I often don't wear a seatbelt, for one thing I find it uncomfortable. I notice some passengers in airplanes unbuckle them when the seatbelt lights go out, probably uncomfortable for them too. I'm not saying that I shouldn't take advantage of wearing it since it is a safety feature. Then again if I was worried too much about safety I wouldn't ride my motorcycles. Cell phone use is different. It is distracting and the results of driving distracted (wrecking) can injure or kill other innocent people.
 
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