Texting & Driving

I never text and drive and it should be illegal. I'm fairly certain that the kid that ran a stop sign and hit me broadside was texting at the time. He claimed he slid on wet pavement. Right.

It's illegal here, though I used to send texts with my old phone as I could without looking. I can't with my iPhone's qwerty touch screen.

I keep my phone in my pocket and wear fairly tight jeans. I can't even pull the thing out without stopping or even pulling over and putting the car in park. But even if I could easily get to it I wouldn't, I can't split my attention like that and am fed up with drivers on their cells nearly hitting me.
The world survived with waiting till you got home/to work in the past to answer that message, it will get along just fine if you wait now. That's the whole point of having voice mail, email, and text that you can read later.

Legality of it varies around here with town and cities deciding to be more strict about it than the state.

I don't and I thought it was supposed to be illegal here starting today. I know we must be hands free now. I've got a little life in my back seat to care for. No conversation; especially one that would occur by text, is worth that price. And if you ask me; when you text and drive you risk the life of anyone who happens to be around you. So yes I think it should be illegal.

It's illegal around here, but that doesn't stop people from doing it. I'd like to see even hands-free cell phone use in cars banned and the ban enforced. It's reckless and unnecessary. People can check their messages and missed calls when they're not behind the wheel.

It's illegal here and I think it should be but I still do it.

I have done it once or twice, only short messages like "yes" or "no" or "OK", and only on a straightaway with no other vehicles around. Not that it's safe to do even under those circumstances, but I can't see how anyone could possibly do it in city traffic (except at a stoplight?). I don't think anybody SHOULD do it. . .LOL, we're all such hypocrites. I think it's illegal, but we all know how well that works. I told everyone that if they get a one-letter reply from me, they'll know I'm driving!

Maybe those that can't resist temptation of chatting on their phones and potentially causing a wreck should just turn their phones completely off while driving?

LOL. If I don't answer my phone (call or text, at least with one letter) within, say, 10 minutes or so, my mom will PANIC. Like, calling Highway Patrol to find me kind of panic. She always thinks I got in a car accident or kidnapped by a serial killer or something. Not that that makes it any better, I know. . .but turning off my phone is generally a bad idea.

It's illegal here in GA, and it actually became illegal fairly recently. I don't text and drive now, since I have a touch screen keyboard and that means I can't text without looking at the screen. When I had a phone with buttons I did text, but I knew was taking a risk not worth taking and it was stupid, but somehow felt obligated to reply to a text ASAP.
About whether or not it should be illegal- I think the law making it illegal is really hard to enforce- I'm not sure how a police officer will know that the person was actually texting, rather than just looking at their phone for a second or trying to dial a number. In a sense it's one of those things that people should know better not to do, I don't think there should be a law making it illegal. But alas, people do it, there have been so many accidents I've heard of of people texting and driving, the most recent one was about a teenage girl who hit a school bus

Remember this? Train engineer was texting just before California crash
Twenty-five people were killed, and a train engineer has a lot less traffic to deal with than somebody operating a car.

It's illegal here to which I think is completely right I don't do it never have and that's the truth I wish they would ban smoking and driving I've seen drivers duck into the passenger football taking their eyes completely off the road

I LOATHE people who text and drive. They are risking everyone's life. I have four cats who depend on me. If you are texting and driving you are putting MY CATS at risk, because if you kill me they would have no one.

You want to kill yourself, go drive into a brick wall, but turn the bleepin phone off until you get somewhere, or be a responsible adult and PULL OVER.

When I am behind someone weaving all over the road I get the license number, then pull to the side of the road and call 911 and report it as a possible drunk driver.

It is illegal to use a cell phone here with out a hands free device, though it is not enforced and everyone has a phone glued to their ear.

It is also illegal to text while driving, but I figure reporting a possible drunk driver might get the cops out there faster.

PS one of the reasons I feel so strongly about this is because there was a fatality just recently because of texting. Two young men who were texting one another in separate cars on their way home from work. One of the guys swerved into the other lane and hit a woman head on, a nurse, on her way to work at the same place they had just left. She was killed. The other guy was barely hurt.

She was a beloved nurse in a hospital, patients and coworkers alike loved her, her young children and husband loved her. A useful life snuffed out because of an irresponsible jerk. Oh yeah, and it's a road I drive on, the same area, every day. There but for the Grace of God go I....

put your phones away. Life is more important than the next text message.

Says it all right there!

Hands-free is the law here. On my new car I got the Bluetooth package which is fabulous. My cell phone is "programmed" to my car. As long as I have my phone in my purse somewhere in the car, when it rings the radio automatically mutes and the call comes through the radio speakers. To answer I just have to press a button on the steering wheel. When finished talking, I push the same button to disconnect and the radio automatically goes off mute.

Having said that, I rarely use my cell phone even when not in the car.

I was almost hit 3 times in one week by someone merging onto the highway where I was driving while they were talking on their cell phone. Grrrrrrr!

Has anyone read/heard about the studies that even the hands free devices distract the person so much that it puts attention and driving competency near that of being drunk? For some reason talking to someone on the phone even like that is more distracting than talking to a passenger. I have no idea where the distraction level sits if the passenger(s) happen to be misbehaving children, though.

Willowy - Talk to your mother and explain that her insistence of you breaking the law and putting yourself and others at risk is going to eventually mean that you're going to need 911 called for you. Hopefully if that day comes no one is seriously injured.


One of my DH's coworkers had a bad accident months ago. He had just left his girlfriend's house 10 minutes prior but the two were always glued to each other via text or call. He was too busy looking down at his cell screen to see the semi in front of him had stopped. While the guard on the back kept his car from crunching up under the back of the trailer he was still going more than 35mph when he hit. He ended up needing several surgeries to fix his back, pelvis, and legs. He's very lucky he healed as well as he did, though the poor guy now has to live with a lot of pain for life.

Neither hubby nor I text - we don't send them and we don't reply to them (told our kids if they want to contact us - use the phone and TALK to us).

I see nothing wrong with talking (briefly) on the cell - not more then 5 mins of conversation unless you pull over. But I'm very much against texting and driving.....you CANNOT do both safely.

We lost a niece (she was barely into her 30's) to a driver who was arguing and texting on the cell phone! Not only her but 2 of the 4 children in the car with her (under 10 yrs old). The texting driver? She's been convicted of 3 deaths and STILL has not done jail time!

No, it's not. I agree with Strangewings. Talk to your mother and explain that if you text her back while you are driving you are putting your life and the lives of others in jeapordy. Wouldn't you rather have your mom panic for 10 minutes because she thinks something bad happened to you than for her to live with the reality that it actually happened?

To all of those who text and drive -
Please stay out of Florida, Connecticut, and Vermont because that is where all of my loved ones live. Thanks.

I have, and that's why I said even hands-free devices should be banned. A passenger who is talking ordinarily is aware of the traffic/road conditions in which you're driving (and will act accordingly), while the person on the phone isn't.

Exactly. Tricia, you just said everything that needed saying.

I can't imagine anyone arguing that it isn't dangerous. I've been bumped into several times by people who can't *walk* properly and text, etc. on their smartphones at the same time!

Depends on the person. Children, especially younger ones, won't. And neither will some people - such as someone who just isn't observant or is looking down at something else and finding a way to distract you. I'm sure there have been plenty of wrecks caused by driver and passenger arguments, too. It's also the reason why learning permits and drivers licenses for teens have passenger restrictions on them.

Cell phones/texting is just yet another stupid distraction.

I will occasionally talk on the phone while driving, though I usually put it on speaker. Texting? Never!

I just drop mine in the console and ignore it. I figure that is what the voice mail is for.

I agree to a point Trish. I personally don't use a cell phone while driving except for a brief call to coordinate meeting up with someone or let them know I'm running late, etc. and as I said, I am totally handsfree. The button on my steering column also scrolls through my phone numbers programmed into my cell.

There are women who put their makeup on while driving (worse than cell phone call IMO), drinking coffee and eating while driving (as bad as cell phone use IMO), arguing with misbehaving children (as bad as cell phone use IMO), arguing with a spouse or passenger - you get the picture.

Texting is a whole other matter - should never be happening while driving.

This is a huge problem everywhere. I find teens to be the worst for it. Sometimes I think the driving age should be 18 instead of 16. My friend was REALLY bad for it I used to tell him to put the ' phone down or I would throw it out the window. It is illegal here in NS, but like others said, it's not really enforced. It isn't like cops can see a cell thats held down low so getting caught is rare.

Tell me about it! I was walking with my cousin who was 5 at the time to the store. We were going across a small intersection where 2 streets meet and a woman was rolling down the hill towards the stop sign when we were half way through and was putting mascara on...she rolled through the stop sign and came within two inches of hitting my cousin. I lost it on her and she just drove away like nothing happened.

People need to wise up and take driving seriously. You can take your own life or someone else's in the blink of an eye.

Oh, it's happened maybe once a year. . .like I said, I've only done it once or twice. I'm not justifying it--it's dangerous and stupid, I was just saying, yeah, I've done it once or twice, since that was the question. I'm scared to death of getting in a car accident, so I do my best not to do things that increase those chances.

I've seen people doing a lot of dangerous things on the road. Anything that takes your eyes off the road is dangerous. Driving is dangerous enough without increasing the danger.

I do not text and drive but on my way in from work I will call someone, anyone and put them on speaker phone and make them talk to me till I get home from work as I work nights and I usually don't get enough sleep and so its a choice talk on speaker phone or fall asleep behind the wheel.