Poll: Driven to Distraction?
A bill introduced by Maryland lawmakers would make using a cell phone while driving a primary offense.
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On Feb. 7, Baltimore County delegates James Malone (D) and A. Wade Kach (R) introduced a bill that would authorize police to pull over a driver speaking on a hand-held cell phone.
As the law is presently written, speaking on hand-held cell phone is a secondary offense, meaning that police can only issue a citation if they see another violation, the Baltimore Sun reported.
The new measure, if adopted into law, makes driving while using a hand-held cell phone a primary offense. Hands-free phone sets would still be legal, and the law makes an exception for calling 911 in an emergency.
Driving while using a cell phone is a primary offense in nine states and the District of Columbia, the Washington Post reported. Texting while driving is already a primary offense in Maryland.
Being distracted by portable digital devices dramatically increases the risk of driving, some experts claim, as much as drunk driving. According to a 2009 study by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, texting while driving increases the risk of collision by 23 times.
Texting and talking on the phone while driving is becoming increasingly common, particularly among young people, according to a recent study by State Farm. About 58 percent of all drivers admit talking on a cell phone while driving, and 32 percent say they text, the survey found.
However, among drivers 18-29 years old, 70 percent say they talk on a hand-held phone while driving and almost two-thirds admit to texting while driving, according to the insurance company.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in 2009 more than 5,000 people were killed and 450,000 injured in distracted driving crashes. NHTSA recommends a national ban on all digital devices while driving, even hands-free phones.
Is it time to treat driving while distracted more seriously?
JW Putney
12:48 pm on Monday, February 13, 2012
Have seen too many 'almost' accidents as a pedestrain and as a driver.
Fortunately they were just 'almost' and it is extremely unfortunate when it actually happens.
JW
Purple Elephant Politics
2:18 pm on Monday, February 13, 2012
Del. Malone also has a piece of legislation in that would make it illegal to do anything while driving, eating, drinking, smoking, repositioning the rear view mirror, handing your kid a sippy cup...literally anything but keeping your hands at 10 and 2. At what point do we say, enough is enough? At what point do we draw the line on the extent to which Big Brother can tell us how to live our lives?
Jeff
3:42 pm on Monday, February 13, 2012
When the TSA has check points set up and asks you for you papers ...it's too late ...your a commie now ..oh wait they do that for alcohol..don't they
Coming soon ....cell phone check points ...and how do the Marxist at large pay for all this ...to quote O'Malley 's famous 2010 TV spot ...".if it comes out of my pocket it's a tax..... A tax is a tax is a tax "
Jeff
3:47 pm on Monday, February 13, 2012
Don't worry the congress just passed a law allowing the FAA 30,000 drones to watch your every move .....all of our liberties are being taken away for supposed "safety " and in the end we are NO safer and LESS free. and We pay for all of it
How about you teach your kids AND yourself some self discipline so they learn to be good drivers and citizens....or some liberal will take that right from you as well
Richard Hiteshew
9:45 am on Tuesday, February 14, 2012
How about shaving (hand held electric), putting on make-up, reading (yes I have seen that), yelling at the kids, arguing with your spouse, eating a donut, looking at the GPS, changing a radio station or CD, or any other form of not paying attention?
Where does it stop?
Jeff
9:50 am on Tuesday, February 14, 2012
It stops when you find yourself on a train like a sardine and living in Suburbia and rural America is a memory ...like in the Soviet Union ...It didn't die ...it is growing here under the cloaked liberal progressive commie agenda ....
Michael Ernest
2:05 pm on Tuesday, February 14, 2012
When the use of a technological advance like cell phones proliferates to the extent that it leads to accidents, deaths and becomes a safety hazard to other drivers, it is clearly the time to take legislative action. Without cell phone use while driving being a primary offense, it will not be obeyed by those that feel they can get away with it. And frankly, from what I see even with it being a secondary offense-It is still largely ignored by habitual cell phone users and a heck of a lot more than you see with drivers eating, shaving, putting on makeup and so forth-thde commonly used weak argument against such legislation. While I have see such occurrences they are far less frequent than cell phone use even now with a secondary offense law on the books. I equate cell use while driving as the same as DWI and the penalties for causing an accident or death should be the same. Maybe with comparable penalties on the books that would make people think twice before practicing such irresponsible behavior. There will always be these comments about other forms of inattention, but it is a matter of the frequency at which cell phones have contributed to diminished safety compared to these other much less frequent and of lesser duration periods of inattention.