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Dads Against Distracted Driving. It is time. DADD for real!
Don't worry he is stopped.
Probably that name is taken.
This week in San Diego alone we lost a mom and two children due to phone use while driving. That is more and worse than drunk driving here. It is not yet criminal like drunk driving and I have to ask why?
What the hell are people thinking? I am sorry but you are not baddies like me, you cannot throw a football with either hand and raise a child while working two jobs. I can do it. But I never ever ever would pick up a cell phone while driving. What kind of moron does that? I am sorry but you are already probably late and you forgot something at home and the driver next to you just woke up and is nursing a coffee.
But you think you are such a bad ass as to talk or text while driving?
I grew up 3 blocks from route 66, driving was a right and something just to do. Flagstaff Arizona
Let me say it this way.
I qualified at the Long Beach and Riverside Speedways. I have taken over twenty hours of courses for public safety driving -- read that to be a cop and they only need 10 hours to qualify.
I work in risk management and that includes defensive driving stuff to minimize insurance premiums. I have actually driven over 4,000 hours as a patrolman.
And I would no more pick up a phone while driving as unbuckle my 3 year old from his car seat on a freeway. But these housewives and utility drivers think it is not criminal to do so?
I call bull on this and I am plenty upset. These are the same people who censor others for disagreeing with their position.
Not quite ready
We grew up working on our own cars. Driving was plenty to do whey you all were doing it.
Have you ever seen 3 thousand pounds of metal run into 180 lbs of meat?
I once saw a big diesel truck hit a 200 lb deer going full on 65 mph. It through the deer 100 feet. And it destroyed the front end of the tractor rig. I saw a car that had hit a 110 lb deer in New Hampshire and the driver was dead as the deer went up and into the drivers seat.
I worked on a case where a disabled car was hit on a freeway by a distracted driver at 85 mph. All three were dead. We know he was distracted because his wife called 911 as she was talking to him on the phone from another car at the time of the collision. What madness.
Professional drivers know the cost of distraction.
Have you ever driven 130 mph. It is a blast. It is crazy wild. And there is nothing less dangerous about driving 50 mph.
A guided missile must be guided. Your vehicle is a guided missile. Hell, motor vehicles taken as a whole would qualify for an WMD (weapons of mass destruction) as the kill about a person a second.
Distracted drivers in the United States only kill about one person every 45 minutes. Drunks only kill about one person every 25 minutes.
That is disgusting and only you can prevent distracted driving deaths.
Please do not kill my daughter
Comments
- Author
I had a great experience picking up my boy just the other day. A call on the way from my other son and from a great client the way back.
So I pulled over both ways and talked.
My three year old proclaimed "you pulled over daddy to be safe". One child and person at a time. God bless you Theresa
Such an important issue and such a terrible and dangerous problem. Nothing is so important that it can't wait a few minutes, and if it is .... PULL OFF THE ROAD. PLEASE. FOR THE SAKE OF OTHERS.
This is a great public service. Sharing. Theresa
- Author
Thank you swilliams, I hope we can keep the pressure up. The writing about it may help get something done and no matter it keeps it in our minds which will help. I caught myself looking away for a second just yesterday. I almost pulled over just to slap myself ;-)
Great Article Eric! Thanks for bringing awareness to a dangerous subject. My family and I witnessed a woman who was on the phone while driving, she was so engrossed in her conversation that she swerved in our lane ran over a curb and slammed into a telephone poll. The lady was alright but…. No. Thant is saying something when I have actually driven over 4,000 hours as a patrolman. And that you would no more pick up a phone while driving as to unbuckle your 3 year old from his car seat on a freeway. The fact that you are aware of the harm, that driving can cause while on the phone is real to you. A lot of naive drivers are not at that point yet, until something bad happens. Again thanks for your awareness concerning this serious problem.
- Author
Treat it like what it is -- criminal negligence just like a DUI.
Don't worry you know I am a bulldog and will not let this bone go!
I want the penalties to be greatly increased for this sort of thing....take away their license for ten years and see how they like it...fine them $5000 for a first offense.....the cops could crack down and it would disappear in a month....but right now it is a law nobody pays any attention to....it needs to change.
- Author
It is like 100% of the time now that I see disruptive driving and see a cell phone. It is a ticket here to hold them. But not just to use them while driving. I think this will change soon. Thanks Deborah.
It never fails when I come upon a driver who is driving too slow or somewhat erratically, they've got a cell phone in their hand. I have blue tooth in my card and I don't even like to use that sometimes, especially in traffic or poor weather conditions, because it's just best to concentrate on the road not on a conversation.
- Author
DDE, I like your position on this one "cell phones don't run over people distracted drivers do".
Thank you for reading and commenting as each time we do we raise awareness.
- Author
Thank you retief, I hope to update this hub today with some facts and figures and some advice. But I did not want to let another day go by without pounding on this issue,
Answering a cellphone while driving is ridiculous there is no logic in that lousy behavior the innocent get killed or injured, it is senseless blaming the cell phone when humans have become something they truly are unable to handle.
I have told people for years that the most dangerous thing any of us will do today is drive. Perhaps the most important thing we can do everyday is be mindful. A focused, mindful and patient driver will be safer to himself and others. I have seen far too many accidents in which the driver was not mindful of the conditions in which they were driving.
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