posted
A landmark study of driver behavior determined nearly 80 percent of automobile crashes and 65 percent of close calls involve distracted driving -- ranging from dialing a cell phone to putting on makeup to sleepiness.
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Which is one of the reasons why speed cameras are a BAD idea. Too many of them and you spend more time looking at your speedometer than the road, all on roads classed as dangerous. I can't quite remember- or can't calculate!- how many yards go by every time you glance at the mirrors or down at your instruments but it's in the hundreds, plenty enough time to have a collision before you know it!
Posts: 34 | From: South Shields, England | Registered: Mar 2006
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This is also portrayed in the new Volkswagen commercials. Some may consider it "this could be you" or "scaring the crap out of the viewers".
In their latest commercials, they have folks conversating while driving. In one commercial, the driver talked to his passenger with his eyes off the road, an unsuspecting pickup truck backed up and they sideswipped him causing impact damage to the hood and popping out the airbags.
In another commercial not related, VW had the passengers take off on a green light without seeing the idiot that is running the red light impact their left side and they all come out with possible cuts and bruises scared out of their minds with distraught.
-------------------- Joseph Z Posts: 1356 | From: Woodbridge, VA | Registered: Jul 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Joseph Z: ((TELEVISION RECAP))
This is also portrayed in the new Volkswagen commercials. Some may consider it "this could be you" or "scaring the crap out of the viewers".
In their latest commercials, they have folks conversating while driving. In one commercial, the driver talked to his passenger with his eyes off the road, an unsuspecting pickup truck backed up and they sideswipped him causing impact damage to the hood and popping out the airbags.
In another commercial not related, VW had the passengers take off on a green light without seeing the idiot that is running the red light impact their left side and they all come out with possible cuts and bruises scared out of their minds with distraught.
I HATE those commercials! Give me the wiggins! With all the reckless drivers in this area, it's scary just driving to work and back.
-------------------- I'm not mean, you're just a big sissy. -Happy Bunny
The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.- Verbal Kint
Trespassers will be pelted with jellyfish.- Daniel Cluley Posts: 221 | From: Bradenton, FL | Registered: Mar 2006
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quote:Originally posted by bloodaxe: Too many of them and you spend more time looking at your speedometer than the road, all on roads classed as dangerous.
I've got a Heads-Up Display in one of my cars. It's sounds gimmicky, but it's really useful since you don't have to glance down at the instruments. I really miss it when I drive my other car.
-------------------- "My neighbor asked why anyone would need a car that can go 190 mph. If the answer isn't obvious, and explaination won't help." - Csabe Csere Posts: 1225 | From: Wichita, Kansas | Registered: Nov 2003
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No, this is not a joke, it's really out there for sale.
Mnot - Why ever even leave your car? - r2
-------------------- Infinite goodness is creating a being you know, in advance, is going to complain. Captain Billy Cutshaw Posts: 582 | From: Germany | Registered: Oct 2002
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posted
Glad I don't have one of those. But then why would you be stupid enough to drive with a laptop on the steering column anyways? It restricts the wheel movement as the cage would bash into your right leg and unable to turn the wheel far enough to make wide turns and you can cause an accident with someone or jump up the curb into a city property.
Bad enough to have a GPS and looking at the TV screen when it doesn't say "Turn right at Shoppers Best Way" when it only says "Turn Right in XX Miles" "Turn Right"
-------------------- Joseph Z Posts: 1356 | From: Woodbridge, VA | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
I don't think it's been mentioned on here but the Sat Navs over here are becoming a bit of a fiasco! Programmed to take the shortest routes , they've ended up taking drivers up farm tracks, through fords too deep for vehicles, near cliff edges with 100 foot drops, through villages who previously had one or two vehicles pass through a day to lots every day, etc. In theory a great idea for the lazy or folk who can't read maps, but in practice .....
Posts: 34 | From: South Shields, England | Registered: Mar 2006
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No, this is not a joke, it's really out there for sale.
Mnot - Why ever even leave your car? - r2
Would I drive with that tray on the steering wheel? No friggin way! Do I want one? Absolutely! I need a place to put my fries and condiments when I eat at the Sonic drive-in. However, it's impossible to comfortably use a laptop in the driver's seat of most cars, even parked, without cranking the seat waaaaay back.
-------------------- There are 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary and those who do not.
"Are you pondering what I'm pondering?" - The Brain Posts: 587 | From: Colorado | Registered: Jul 2000
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posted
I doubt that the 3-in-1 auto tray was designed to be used while the car was in motion, although I suppose some idiot might try it.
Many outside sales people spend most of their day making sales calls. Many companies do not provide any sort of office workspace for outside reps -- it costs money to do so, and the reps are supposed to be out calling on customers, anyhow. So if their home office isn't located conveniently to the sales calls they're making that day, they really have little choice but to work in their car -- or a Starbucks.
-------------------- How homophobic do you have to be to have penguin gaydar? - Lewis Black Posts: 8322 | From: Columbus, OH | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
I use my PDA (made by Garmin) as a GPS in my car. It has a disclaimer that comes up every time I open the GPS antenna that says "Warning- Do not attempt to enter information or or adjust this device while driving. Failure to pay full attention to the operation of your vehicle could result in death, serious injury, or property damage. You assume total responsibility and risk for using this device. (Tap to continue.)"
It seems to me that trying to read the disclaimer while driving would be more dangerous than using the GPS. At least the GPS gives voice commands when leading me to a destination. Too bad it can't read me the disclaimer!
-------------------- "They got a name for the winners in the world; I want a name when I lose" -Steely Dan Posts: 480 | From: Tampa Bay, FL | Registered: Feb 2005
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[geek hijack]My hub has the iQue, as well. He loves it. He does everything she tells him to do. I have inquired what it is she has that I don't. I am not at all bitter toward a machine.[/geek hijack]
-------------------- "When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty."--George Bernard Shaw Posts: 19266 | From: Nashville, TN | Registered: Jun 2002
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quote:AAA's Anderson said that while the report might not support calls for a narrow ban on cell phones, it could give impetus in Maryland to calls for broader laws such one adopted by the District of Columbia that bans distracted driving.
All in favor? ::raises hand:: We really need stricter penalties for reckless driving.
-------------------- "If God wrote it, the grammar must be infallible. Perhaps it is we who are mistaken." -MapleLeaf Posts: 977 | From: Boston, MA | Registered: Oct 2005
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quote:Originally posted by AnglRdr: [geek hijack]My hub has the iQue, as well. He loves it. He does everything she tells him to do. I have inquired what it is she has that I don't. I am not at all bitter toward a machine.[/geek hijack]
My wife has developed a strong dislike of "her" as well. She gets pretty posessive of my attention while driving. I occasionally have to take deliberate wrong turns in order to prove that the machine does, indeed, know the roads in other states better than my wife. My kids now refer to "her" as my girlfriend.
-------------------- "They got a name for the winners in the world; I want a name when I lose" -Steely Dan Posts: 480 | From: Tampa Bay, FL | Registered: Feb 2005
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posted
I can't quite remember- or can't calculate!- how many yards go by every time you glance at the mirrors or down at your instruments but it's in the hundreds, plenty enough time to have a collision before you know it!
At 30 MPH it's 44 feet per second, 60 MPH 88 feet per second, etc. More than enough time for my wife and I to get broadsided in the 4 seconds between the light turning from amber to red. ($4000 damage just for looking up the cross street to try to figure out where we were...mutter, mutter,mutter.)
Posts: 44 | From: Boundary, BC, Canada | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
I remember reading something back in the late 70's or early 80's that a couple of the auto makers were having problems with goverment regulation and HUDs for cars. The problem was that the goverment thought it was better for you to look down at the instrament panel that have a distraction in or in front of the window. They figured that if you had a odomiter in easy view. You would spend all your time watching the odomiter and not the road. Things have changed since then.
Posts: 597 | From: Bellingham, WA | Registered: Nov 2005
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posted
I don't know if it is true or not, but I've been told that in some parts of the US it is legal for drivers to watch TV while the car is in motion.
Posts: 27 | From: Perth, Western Australia | Registered: Jan 2006
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posted
None of the states I've driven through allow a driver to watch movies, in fact most have a law about requiring DVD players to be inoperative if the engine is running, the car is in gear and the DVD can be viewed from the front seat.
Posts: 44 | From: Boundary, BC, Canada | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
One time I got distracted when a teenager girl was waving her head in the back of a pickup truck she was riding on waving her hair back and forth. Almost crashed my car in front of me from the distraction.
-------------------- Joseph Z Posts: 1356 | From: Woodbridge, VA | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
I drive 30-or-so miles to university and 30-or-so miles back nearly every day and there are many speed cameras dotted up and down the A19. I have to keep a constant eye on my speed because I can't afford 3 points on my licence, but I think it's really unsafe to take your eyes off the road.
Maybe someone should invent something which warns you when your speed exceeds 70mph...
-------------------- I got in a fight one time with a really big guy, and he said, "I'm going to mop the floor with your face." I said, "You'll be sorry." He said, "Oh, yeah? Why?" I said, "Well, you won't be able to get into the corners very well" Posts: 49 | From: Teesside, UK | Registered: Jul 2006
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posted
York has no speed cameras at all! Unfortunately it does have the most speed humps (per square mile) in Europe.
Certain GPS systems warn you when you exceed the speed limit.
P.S. Tequila Mockingbird is a great name!
-------------------- Brosandi. Hendumst í hringi Höldumst í hendur Allur heimurinn óskýr Nema þú stendur Posts: 694 | From: York, UK | Registered: Jul 2006
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posted
Never seen someone using a laptop while driving, I have however actually seen the following:
Putting on make-up in the mirror Reading a book (they had it on top of the steering wheel) Doing something with a checkbook Eating (guilty of this as well) NSFBK'ing while driving (If THEY didn't cause an accident, then someone driving by them might have wrecked from looking at them) Watching a dash mounted DVD player
I am suprised people don't have more accidents...
-------------------- Marriage is a relationship in which one person is always right, and the other is a husband
The main difference between men and women is that women need a reason to have sex, and men just need a place. Posts: 206 | From: Evansville, Indiana USA | Registered: Nov 2004
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posted
Saw someone driving with his dog sat on his knee.
Very intelligent
-------------------- Brosandi. Hendumst í hringi Höldumst í hendur Allur heimurinn óskýr Nema þú stendur Posts: 694 | From: York, UK | Registered: Jul 2006
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posted
I think my favorite was the pickup truck I followed for a couple of miles down a busy city street. The driver and passenger were conversing the whole time. In sign language.
-------------------- The plural of "anecdote" is not "data." Posts: 4255 | From: Sacramento, CA | Registered: Feb 2000
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quote:Originally posted by Joseph Z: In their latest commercials, they have folks conversating while driving. In one commercial, the driver talked to his passenger with his eyes off the road, an unsuspecting pickup truck backed up and they sideswipped him causing impact damage to the hood and popping out the airbags.
[nitpick] They T-boned or broadsided him. A sideswipe is when you scrape the side of your car along another car's side. [/nitpick]
-------------------- IIRC, it wasn't the shoe bomber's loud prayers that sparked the takedown by the other passengers; it was that he was trying to light his shoe on fire. Very, very different. Canuckistan Posts: 3694 | From: Arizona | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
Thanks Pikey! I hate speed humps, I can never seem to judge my speed well enough and my bum gets lifted off the seat and I hit my head off the roof.
I wish I could afford a GPS, am not that good with directions
I have relatives in America and was quite shocked to see that my Uncle had a laptop mount on the dashboard so he could read his emails 'on the go'. My auntie has 2 small dogs and when she drives, one sits on her lap and one lays behind her neck next to the headreast with his head out of the window!
Strange family...
-------------------- I got in a fight one time with a really big guy, and he said, "I'm going to mop the floor with your face." I said, "You'll be sorry." He said, "Oh, yeah? Why?" I said, "Well, you won't be able to get into the corners very well" Posts: 49 | From: Teesside, UK | Registered: Jul 2006
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posted
[hijack]Tequila - I made the mistake of taking a large mouthful of water before reading your signature. You came precariously close to genuinely owing me a new keyboard.[/hijack]
Posts: 340 | From: Redmond, WA | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
Hehe... glad it put a smile on someones face! Or water on the monitor, whichever...
-------------------- I got in a fight one time with a really big guy, and he said, "I'm going to mop the floor with your face." I said, "You'll be sorry." He said, "Oh, yeah? Why?" I said, "Well, you won't be able to get into the corners very well" Posts: 49 | From: Teesside, UK | Registered: Jul 2006
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quote:AAA's Anderson said that while the report might not support calls for a narrow ban on cell phones, it could give impetus in Maryland to calls for broader laws such one adopted by the District of Columbia that bans distracted driving.
All in favor? ::raises hand:: We really need stricter penalties for reckless driving.
Another hand raised here.
Too many urban legends revolve around the fear of you or your loved ones getting maimed to pieces by some axe-murderer. If only everyone fully appreciated that this happens monthly on roads local to them due to distracted or reckless driving.
Posts: 1157 | From: Westcountry UK "It's Bootiful" | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
"Maybe someone should invent something which warns you when your speed exceeds 70mph..."
They've had them for years, just not a very popular option. My mother's ex had a '74 Oldsmobile 98 with a buzzer that sounded when the speedo needle passed the setpoint. He usually set it at 70 MPH, and you'd get an annoying buzzer when you hit about 72 MPH. The commercial truck I drive has the same thing where it beeps whenever you pass 90 KM/H. Really annoying when the speed limit is 100 KM/H and you have a steady beep at you for 10 hours a day. You just have to turn up the radio real loud...
Posts: 44 | From: Boundary, BC, Canada | Registered: Aug 2005
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BrainDamage
I'll Be Home for After Christmas Sales
posted
quote:Originally posted by bloodaxe: I can't quite remember- or can't calculate!- how many yards go by every time you glance at the mirrors or down at your instruments but it's in the hundreds, plenty enough time to have a collision before you know it!
At 45 mph you travel 22 yards per second. Generally, you wouldn't glance at the spedometer when you're somewhere with a high potential for an accident anyway, such as a crossroad or merging onto the freeway.
Posts: 146 | From: Orlando | Registered: Jun 2003
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posted
I once saw a woman merging from one freeway onto another, at about 70MPH, during rush hour, while: *Holding a cigarette between her left index and middle fingers. *Using her left thumb, pinky and ring finger to hold a spoon *Using her right hand to hold the cup from which she was eating with the above-mentioned spoon.
-------------------- How homophobic do you have to be to have penguin gaydar? - Lewis Black Posts: 8322 | From: Columbus, OH | Registered: Aug 2005
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quote:Originally posted by spe934: Never seen someone using a laptop while driving, I have however actually seen the following: *snip* Reading a book (they had it on top of the steering wheel)
When my husband worked for the FDA, I'd drop him off and pick him up each day. The drive from my in-laws' (where we were staying) to his work was about a 10-15 minute drive with no traffic, but on a typical day it took more like 45 minutes. I eventually started taking a book with me to read in those long minutes when traffic stood still. I would hold the book up in front of me in a position where I could keep an eye on the car in front of me at the same time, and get back into gear when traffic started moving.
One day I was reading my book this way in the middle of a traffic jam, and I noticed a young man in the car to my right pointing his camera phone at me! He must have thought it was funny to see a woman holding a book straight in front of her face in the car in the middle of traffic. So probably somewhere out there on some guy's blog, there's a photo of me reading in traffic.
quote:Originally posted by jamira: "Maybe someone should invent something which warns you when your speed exceeds 70mph..."
They've had them for years, just not a very popular option. My mother's ex had a '74 Oldsmobile 98 with a buzzer that sounded when the speedo needle passed the setpoint. He usually set it at 70 MPH, and you'd get an annoying buzzer when you hit about 72 MPH. The commercial truck I drive has the same thing where it beeps whenever you pass 90 KM/H. Really annoying when the speed limit is 100 KM/H and you have a steady beep at you for 10 hours a day. You just have to turn up the radio real loud...
All cars here in the Gulf have devices like that. Exceed 120kph and you get a ping, or in some cars, continual pinging. Mine just pings at 120, so if I do 121 it stops.
I noticed yesterday that if I exceed 240kph, it pings again. It was surprising - I nearly spilled my coffee all over my newspaper. I had to put down my cellphone to clear up the mess Posts: 2370 | From: Arabia | Registered: Feb 2002
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