Proposed Ban. NHTSA.

[dirtfan21]

The accident is absolutely tragic and terrible but I have two things to say about that picture.

 

1) Unless that was the most lifted pickup truck that I have EVER seen that bus driver could easily see over and beyond to view the up coming road.

2) Easy to blame the pickup driver on cell phone usage and his own death. Shame on everyone for blaming the school bus part of the accident on him. That bus driver is just as much to blame for the rear ending. Please, you are telling me that bus driver couldn't see a slowed or stopped vehicle over a pickup truck?

[RyanbabZ71]

I still want to know how close the buses were following. The accidents after the truck have very little to do with the cell phone/texting issue IMO

[Portdriver]

Texting is bad but bluetooth? Come on! What about talking to the passenger?! To much big brother!! As others have said "where does it stop?!" CB's too? Any and all devices? Gimme a break!

[truckofwinandawesome]

Might as well pull the radio out of the vehilce too. I toatally understand the concerns but if you are going to take away all handheld devices then you should not be able to drink, listen to music, change radio stations, adjust your seat, mirrors, or anything else that takes your vision or mind off the road for a second. It IS NOT the devices that are killing people, it is the morons who cannot use them responsibly.

 

Give me a friggin break government. Pretty soon I'm going to have rules about taking a dump in my own house.

 

 

While we're at it, why don't we rip out the HVAC, put metal over all but the front and back windows, rip out the seat tracks, immobilize the Side Mirrors (or get rid of them all together), rip out the interior lights, and rip out the Instrument Cluster BECAUSE THEY ARE ALL DISTRACTIONS! *dripping with sarcasm*

[marine_devildog801]

The accident is absolutely tragic and terrible but I have two things to say about that picture.

 

1) Unless that was the most lifted pickup truck that I have EVER seen that bus driver could easily see over and beyond to view the up coming road.

2) Easy to blame the pickup driver on cell phone usage and his own death. Shame on everyone for blaming the school bus part of the accident on him. That bus driver is just as much to blame for the rear ending. Please, you are telling me that bus driver couldn't see a slowed or stopped vehicle over a pickup truck?

 

 

I have to agree that the blame for the fatalities should not have been placed on the pickup driver texting. However, he was texting when he hit the semi at 55mph, therefore the initial collision can be blamed on texting. As for the fatalities, the bus driver should be at fault for being distracted or following too closely. Hell, she told the highway patrol that she NEVR HIT THE BRAKES.

 

Source: CNN

 

That was the case in a 2010 chain-reaction accident near Gray Summit, Missouri. During the 11 minutes prior to that incident, the driver of a pickup truck received five text messages, and sent six, and he was seen leaning over just before the accident, leading investigators to believe the driver was likely distracted when his truck plowed at 55 mph into the rear of a tractor trailer, which had slowed or stopped because of a highway work zone. Two school buses then plowed into the wreckage. Two people -- including the pickup truck driver and a bus occupant -- were killed; 38 other people were injured.

The driver of the pickup truck was 19 years old, and was in violation of a Missouri law prohibiting drivers under the age of 21 from texting while driving. But the safety board focused little on the age of the driver, casting "distracted driving" as epidemic among people of all ages.

Although Missouri requires school bus inspections twice a year -- one by the highway patrol and a second by a certified inspection station -- an inspection 10 days before the accident did not reveal faulty brakes on one of the buses, the NTSB said. The faulty brakes were not a factor in the accident, the NTSB said, because the driver said she did not hit the brakes before the crash.

But the NTSB criticized the service station that inspected the brakes, the contract owner of the school buses, and the highway patrol. The highway patrol gave the bus company a "Total Fleet Maintenance Award" before the accident because 100% of its buses had passed inspection. In an unannounced inspection following the tragedy, the pass rate dropped to 60%, the NTSB said.

The NTSB said both the inspection station and the highway patrol performed inadequate inspections.

[SouthCo]

I agree with those who say the buses are at fault too. They should have been able to see what was ahead and stop. Alot of buses around here speed, don't stay in their lanes and run stop signs. I see it all the time. I have little kids that ride a school bus and it worries me to no end.

[ChevyTech77]

Some of the craziest drivers that I've ever known were the school bus drivers that use to take me to school when I was young. True story.

[dirtfan21]

Some of the craziest drivers that I've ever known were the school bus drivers that use to take me to school when I was young. True story.

 

 

 

Agreed! We have a bus turn around near my office that takes place in a local excavating company's yard. The bus drivers whip into this yard on what seems like only right side tires and do it around their refueling station. It just sickens me... One wrong move and God only knows how many people would get hurt.

 

My uncle is a bus driver and the only thing he does wrong is chew the whole time. There are good and bad.

[RyanbabZ71]

On the bus driver story theme, In kokomo this past month there was a bus driver who was driving a sports team to a game on a Saturday I believe that was drunk. They had to physcially stop her from driving

[wavery]

Doesn't matter what laws they pass. People will do what the see as ok. Who always does the speed limit? Some people can multi-task and some can't. The only sad part is when someone who can't multi-task kills someone else. If they only harm themselves than it would be fine.

 

This is the most dangerous mentality out there........ I'll bet that 90% of people "Feel" (as you might) that they can "Multitask" while driving. I heard those exact same words from my 34-year-old son and told him the exact same thing...... He figured that I was of the generation that "Didn't understand"

 

About a year ago, his best friend (they were attached at the hip) was killed in a car accident ....WHILE TEXTING MY SON (who was also driving at the time). Now, my son turns off all such devices before he gets behind the wheel. His eyes well up whenever he puts his kids in the car. My eyes well up reading this thread.

 

BTW....... there are already devices that can interrupt all cell phone signals and can detect any text messages being sent and the exact location, which in turn, can be reported to the Highway Patrol.. CA has experimented with them and I predict that they will be in place on all major highways within 10-years (I hope).

[marine_devildog801]

Doesn't matter what laws they pass. People will do what the see as ok. Who always does the speed limit? Some people can multi-task and some can't. The only sad part is when someone who can't multi-task kills someone else. If they only harm themselves than it would be fine.

 

This is the most dangerous mentality out there........ I'll bet that 90% of people "Feel" (as you might) that they can "Multitask" while driving. I heard those exact same words from my 34-year-old son and told him the exact same thing...... He figured that I was of the generation that "Didn't understand".

 

 

Couldn't agree more. I think we can all agree that driving under the influence is dangerous, so just to put "feeling like" into perspective; EVERY person that I, or one of my partners, arrest for DUI that is over the legal limit of 0.08 gets asked the same question and we get the same answer:

"Do you feel like you should be driving right now?"

"I feel fine."

Just mind you, this is after we have seen them drifting from lane to lane, following too close to other vehicles, driving on the wrong side of a 4 LANE HIGHWAY, making wide turns covering two lanes of traffic, and quite often wrecking by themselves or with other vehicles.

Some of these people might feel fine physically and mentally because they drink a lot (tolerance). However, the degree to which the fine motor skills (eg. reaction time) are degraded by alcohol is not lessened by a higher tolerance. And the fine motor skills are vital to safe operation of a motor vehicle. The NHTSA established the legal limit for blood alcohol content at 0.08 because up until that point you are relatively "safe", for lack of better terms, to operate a vehicle after consuming alcohol. At 0.08 BAC the likelihood of an accident occurring skyrockets.

 

The point I am trying to make is this. You might "feel" as if you are safe to drive while multitasking or texting and driving, but in all reality you are no better than a drunk. When you are multitasking you are dividing up your already divided fine motor skills (the same as having them degraded). When you drive you are already multitasking if you think about it. Accelerating, decelerating, changing lanes, staying in your lane, turning, watching your mirrors, and most of all watching out for the idiots around you. And most of us, me included, are messing with the radio and A/C on top of all that. Why add more to the equation? You have enough to pay attention to as it is. Don't be one of the idiots the rest of us have to look out for. And don't turn into a statistic.

 

Just food for thought:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DebhWD6ljZs

[TheTrueMoron]

They can ban whatever they want, no way I'll stop talking to someone if I have to. Just like any other law of the road, I'll do what I need to do to get through my day and I'll deal with the fallout if I'm stopped. It is BS though because it's the damn feds who pushed handsfree laws in the beginning and now they want nothing at all. Sorry but no. And I'm about as averse to talking or texting as one can get so it's not like I'm always on the phone. If I'm talking to someone it's because I need to. If conditions warrant I will stop and pull off the road but more often than not (especially with bluetooth) I absolutely can drive and talk without any risk.

 

 

Anything other than paying attention to the road is a distraction, and any distracting increases risk. Overestimating your abilities is really going to get you (or worse, someone else) in trouble.

 

On the original topic:

Based on the information I've gathered, the bus crashes are definitely a result of the their own poor decision making. If they'd maintained a safe following distance, we probably wouldn't be hearing about their little "accident." The likely reason that all the blame was assigned to the texting driver is that he is dead, and therefore more difficult to sue than the local school bus operator. There's probably some "inside" things going on here that don't tell the entire story. The texting driver however, well, that's just natural selection at work but it's a shame that people like that have to put other lives at risk.

 

Back in June, I was hit by a guy going 55 who was texting while driving. He hit me square-on in the driver side door, and his tire skid marks didn't start until about 2 feet before impact. Had I been in some little car like him, I probably wouldn't be typing this right now since his little Spectra went under my (lifted) truck.

 

Personally, I'm on the fence about the bans. Texting and MP3 player use is an absolute no-no (see this test: http://editorial.aut...umentid=1076338). Talking with hands-free devices is currently acceptable in my book, as long as the person uses proper discretion and doesn't devote much attention to the conversation. However, I haven't really seen any studies that would lead me to really disagree with talking on phones altogether. I know it will impair functionality somewhat, but with proper defensive driving and maintaining safe distances from other vehicles it should not be an issue.

[EX-F150 owner]

I am all for the ban of cell phones while driving unless you're using a hands free device. I am also against people reading the paper, putting on makeup and those of you who thinks it's ok to do a quick text while at the stop light well, I'm against that too and if my opinion offends you

[jro909]

it is illegal here to text and drive,,,600 dollar fine, but bs laws like this are way too hard to enforce...just like seatbelt laws

[wavery]

it is illegal here to text and drive,,,600 dollar fine, but bs laws like this are way too hard to enforce...just like seatbelt laws

 

They enforce seat belt laws in CA......... Harder to enforce cell phone laws because they can be hidden. That's why I would like to see interrupters.