Distracted driving!

Not 15 minutes ago, a guy in a nerew tractors, pulling what looked like a 14 foot haybine almost ran himself into the ditch right in front of me trying to answer his cell, stop for a stop sign and turn his radio down.....guess even on something like a tractor cells can be bad.

Rick

It's a good thing that I have people skills and am control of my urges like I am..... Else there'd be a whole bunch of smelly cellphones..........
Provost marshall just put out that anyone caught on the installation (driving) using a cellphone in any way would loose driving priveleges for a week, a month, and 3 months and get 2 points against their license (1st, 2nd, and 3rd offense)... Pretty expensive off post already.

Sounds good to me.

Tractors and farm equipment have very twitcy, responsive steering, so even if going slow, they can head for the ditch much quicker than a car, when one is distracted.....

--->Paul

I think it goes without saying, if you use one of these devices, and allow yourself to be distracted while operating a motor vehicle or any kind of equipment, you really need to take a red Sharpie and write "idiot" across your forehead so you can read it in the rear view mirror, "TOIDI" !!! LOL !!!

I realize there are hands free devices, however its still a distraction, maybe less but you are taking focus off what you are doing. I know some will comment and say, well what about older electrical devices like a CB and a hand held mic, that have been around for years so I suppose you could argue that but if you are any kind of professional with a serious attitude about being safe, you just know better than to engage yourself in conversation while driving or operating equipment.

Smart phones are a really great modern device and or tool, the things you can do with these are just great, but people just don't get it. We were not born with these things and where is the need to be so darned connected you're practically joined at the hip ? The annoying thing is people just over use the device, its ridiculous. The worst thing I see and its every day, is a tractor trailer driver with his head down or a darned cell phone in use without a hands free device. The local beverage center, friends with owner since they opened, they built a new mid rise building across from it, during construction an operator running a CAT IT28 loader was texting while running the loader amongst motor vehicle traffic sharing the street between them, one slip the tire on that loader could crush a car. If he stopped to do this, the super would have his @ss, but as long as the loader is moving its ok. Yeah right....

One of the local city cops on his patrol this morning,(I know him too, a real hard@ss giving tickets out, there is no getting out of it with him). He parked his patrol car on the sidewalk and was standing there nailing people on the 4 lane road doing this, vs checking speed further up the road near the elementary school in the 20 MPH zone like he normally does. Law enforcement has another problem to look after, I swear people just lose their common sense sometimes, its just selfish to conduct ones self like that and have no regard for people around you.

Yep saw a woman put a Prius at 45degree angle at 70+mph on a freeway. I don't know how she didn't roll it. Must have a very low center of gravity. She used up all three lanes with here driving over 10 miles. Didn't dare pass her or get close. She even had the everyday "Detroit drivers" backed off. This was last year on I96 north of Brighton, Mi.

You don't see reports of people wandering all over the road, and/or causing accidents by tuning the radio, talking to passengers, or talking on the CB EVERY DAY...

There's something different about the cell phone, whether it's physical or psychological, and it affects EVERYONE. For some reason people can split their attention to change the radio station, or carry on a conversation with the passengers in their car. For some reason dealing with the cell phone requires every last drop of concentration most people can muster.

For those of you who cry why outlaw cell phones and not the radio, there IS a difference in the way our brains treat the two devices.

Maybe this is inadvertent proof of Darwin's theory of evolution? The ability to split your attention enough to tune the radio is genetic, and the people that couldn't handle it offed themselves in car wrecks in the 1950's, 1960's and 1970's. The ones left to breed created children with the same ability to deal with driving and tuning a radio...

The problem is nowadays we make laws to protect stupid/uncoordinated people instead of letting evolution by survival of the fittest take care of them naturally.

was a article couple days back about 17 year old -convicted of negligent homicide for distracted driving- texting while driving. conviction upheld, sentance something like 20 years but sentance was being modified a bit-- the recent enacted law was upheld and case was being used as example of why it was needed. tickets linked to the law can be $1000.00 plus.

You are so right about the cell phone being in a class by itself. I have seen women who can drive 75 on the interstate while smoking a cigarette, drinking a cup of coffee and changing a baby's diaper, but when they're on the cell phone they forget where they are and what they're doing. (No slam on women, it's the same for men.) And no, it doesn't matter if it's a hands-free.

The guys that rent my dads ground, an Uncle and his nephew, have a phone atttached to their ear 24/7. They wrecked a header and my fence cuz of one handed talkin on the phone drivin. The other day I slowed to let him pull out with a tandem setup 8640 with a digger and drags. Of course he was one handed with the phone. I don't know who he;s talkin to all the blinkin time!

You'd be surprised at the importance of folks when they get a phone call..... Gives others the impression that they's in high demand yaknow....

My nephew is 30 +/- a year and still a kid about a few things (like the rest of us)....
Was home visiting a couple years ago and helped out my brother on a roof job a little so we could catch up some.... Nephew was above us on his phone talking or texting his GF.. Brother told him to get off the phone and work several times... Lasted a couple minutes every time he'd hang up... After about 4 times, he fumbled and dropped the phone. It slid down in front of us and my brother never missed a motion. Mashed it with his hammer and kept right on going..... I about fell off the roof...nephew was blubbering dammit dad, that's the 4th one you ruined.................

It's gone crazy in my area with people on their phones. Tractors, trucks, cars, in the store, at the gas station, on and on.

My company phone stays on my desk most of the time, and we don't own a personal cell. People can't believe it when I tell them that.

The world used to function just fine somehow before the advent of the cell phone.

Were you referring to this:
Mass teen to prison

(quoted from post at 22:48:17 06/08/12) You'd be surprised at the importance of folks when they get a phone call..... Gives others the impression that they's in high demand yaknow....

My nephew is 30 +/- a year and still a kid about a few things (like the rest of us)....
Was home visiting a couple years ago and helped out my brother on a roof job a little so we could catch up some.... Nephew was above us on his phone talking or texting his GF.. Brother told him to get off the phone and work several times... Lasted a couple minutes every time he'd hang up... After about 4 times, he fumbled and dropped the phone. It slid down in front of us and my brother never missed a motion. Mashed it with his hammer and kept right on going..... I about fell off the roof...nephew was blubbering dammit dad, that's the 4th one you ruined.................

Click to expand...

Darn now I want to meet that boys daddy! That's too funny! Got a son in law like that......I keep telling my daughter that he is married to that darn phone and she is just his Mistress! I know where that phone would have been with my dad around........

Rick

(quoted from post at 10:39:24 06/09/12)

(quoted from post at 22:48:17 06/08/12) You'd be surprised at the importance of folks when they get a phone call..... Gives others the impression that they's in high demand yaknow....

My nephew is 30 +/- a year and still a kid about a few things (like the rest of us)....
Was home visiting a couple years ago and helped out my brother on a roof job a little so we could catch up some.... Nephew was above us on his phone talking or texting his GF.. Brother told him to get off the phone and work several times... Lasted a couple minutes every time he'd hang up... After about 4 times, he fumbled and dropped the phone. It slid down in front of us and my brother never missed a motion. Mashed it with his hammer and kept right on going..... I about fell off the roof...nephew was blubbering dammit dad, that's the 4th one you ruined.................

Click to expand...

Darn now I want to meet that boys daddy! That's too funny! Got a son in law like that......I keep telling my daughter that he is married to that darn phone and she is just his Mistress! I know where that phone would have been with my dad around........

Rick

Click to expand...

We have a pretty low tolerance for BS..... Not that you could tell it by my gentle temperament.... My brother would BS around when we were younger on the job... Dad would catch him kneeling somewhere dosing and nail his boot sole to the floor.. That'd happen about once a week....

(quoted from post at 06:01:11 06/09/12) It's gone crazy in my area with people on their phones. Tractors, trucks, cars, in the store, at the gas station, on and on.

My company phone stays on my desk most of the time, and we don't own a personal cell. People can't believe it when I tell them that.

The world used to function just fine somehow before the advent of the cell phone.

Click to expand...

Agree 100%. this is how bad it's gotten: I work with a bunch of younger guys who ALWAYS are looking at their phones while at work. At lunch in our kitchen, there'll be a bunch of us eating lunch and just talking. Someone might mention something they heard on the news or something else, just typical lunch time talk, and next thing you know, someone will have googled it or looked up something more about it or found something to contradict it. Sometimes it'll be 2 or 3 guys racing to see who can find stuff first. If we're going out to lunch walking through a parking lot, someone might say, "Looks like a hot one today" and a couple of guys will bring up the weather on their phone and announce "it's 85 now". Duh!

I get text messages on my phone or computer from guys 5 feet away in another cubicle. I usually just turn around and answer them in person. When people ask me how I like my iPhone, I say, "It rings, I answer it". I don't text or surf on it, I use it so my customers can reach me or I can reach them or my suppliers. Short, quick conversations. Minimal use while driving. On the road, I usually let calls go to voicemail and check it when I reach my destination. I've even been in the men's room at work with a guy in the next stall yakking away.

Facebook is just another dumb extension of it. I'm friends with a couple who will take pix of their commute, discuss every minute detail of their lives ("darn, the lines at Starbucks are long today") ad nauseum. I post on FB maybe 1 or twice a week to my kids who live out of state. Usually pix of the dogs, horse or something like that.

the technology is great, but people today are addicted to it, and that applies especially to the online video gaming.