Did my cell cause a crash?

[ilovecamping]

I tend to agree with the not talking on the cell when driving.  My DH does it all the time and the worst is when he is trying to find someones number to call them.  If I am driving I let the passenger answer my cell.  I have talked on mine a few times but it just is too distracting for me.  I do feel there should be a way for the passengers to talk on their phones while traveling but am not sure there is a way to allow this and not the driver.  
I also think there are a LOT of people putting on make up, shaving, reading, etc and not watching the road at all.  We were behind a couple last wknd that the woman was trying to read a map and the driver was reaching over and was all over the road.  He was in both lanes and you would have thought he was drunk if you couldn't have seen the map.  I am not sure what it will take to make people stop all of these things but something does need to be done.  You can't give or teach a person common sense and that is what most are lacking.

[TheViking]

I'm still a firm believer in the old saying: "If you don't like the way I drive, Stay off the sidewalk"

[Monterey]

I am personally not a big believer in talking on the cell while driving.....but just to stir the pot  :Z how do you explain that while flying I'm expected to keep track of other planes in the landing pattern, pay attention to FLYING the plane, monitor the frequency, AND talk to and respond to air traffic control?  

There has to be an explanation for why we don't see headlines screaming, "Pilot crashes because they were talking on the radio".  What could it be?  Hmmm....I'll place my bet on the fact that people simply don't pay attention while driving period.  Talking to passengers, looking for that thing you dropped on the floor, changing the radio station, yelling back at the idiot on talk radio, screaming kids in the backseat, passenger nagging about your driving, 5 gigawatt bass thumper blasting the latest Ludacris single.  The list of distractions is endless.  The cell phone is just one more distraction.  

As I said, I'm not a big fan of talking on the cell while driving.  I'm not a big fan of any of the other distractions listed above either.  I am, however, a big fan of "Shut up and drive".  

[AustinBoston]

I am personally not a big believer in talking on the cell while driving.....but just to stir the pot  :Z how do you explain that while flying I'm expected to keep track of other planes in the landing pattern, pay attention to FLYING the plane, monitor the frequency, AND talk to and respond to air traffic control?

I think you know the answer to that, but for those who don't, it's about 1) Reaction time and 2) Vehicle separation.

Necessary reaction times in the cockpit are usually much, much longer than on the road.  Except during landing and departing, a pilot typically has a much longer time to react, where a driver makes constant 2-3 second reactions, and frequent sub-second reactions.  During the takeoff roll or the end of the landing (when a pilot does need to be constantly able to react quickly), a pilot is typically tasked with *nothing* but flying the airplane.  Call when you're in the air (takeoff) or call when you clear the runway (landing), but not during the roll (OK, T&G is an exception, but it's typically one quick call).  That "in the air" doesn't mean the moment the wheels leave the runway, either.  The pilot is given a chance to get a stable attitide before making his first radio call.

The details are more complicated than I want to explain, but traffic separation in aircraft is typically measured in thousands of feet vertically and thousands of feet or even in miles horizontally.  Could you imagine the accident rate if, on the highway, we had to maintian five mile separation between cars, and we only drove on 1000 foot wide roads?  There would be more plane crashes than car crashes, and we'd be allowed to drive 200 miles per hour.

There has to be an explanation for why we don't see headlines screaming, "Pilot crashes because they were talking on the radio".  What could it be?  Hmmm....I'll place my bet on the fact that people simply don't pay attention while driving period.

Actually, it only takes a moment's inattention while driving.  Do you ever look at maps, change channels, or (as you say) talk on the radio while flying?  I doubt that you are looking for other aircraft while looking at a sectional, and that you often look at it for five to ten seconds or more at a time.  You can't look at a map for ten seconds while driving.  You would crash first if you tried.

I agree that not paying attention (or compromising the quality of that attention) is a big problem, but your comparison to flying is not a fair one.

Austin (stirred the pot back :p )

[zamboni]

I'd venture that Montery identified the real problem:

People simply do not pay attention while driving.

Expanding on that, there are 2 types: Those who do, and are able to balance interruptions, and most of the rest -- who, if they're not distracted on the phone, are eating a burger, shaving, or playing a Led Zepplin drum solo on their dashboard (while supposedly driving).

Some people, when they sing and drive, do incredibly accurate Stevie Wonder imitations -- wiggling about so much, I doubt they even know where the road is.

To them, a cell phone is just a different way to distract someone who is usually distracted anyway.

If I ever talk on the phone (rare, as I don't have a set in my commuting car - can't hear the phone in a convertible), it is with a hands-free... and even then, I often say "hold on" and stop the conversation to do lane changes, merges, etc... or tell them I'll talk later, and hang up, if traffic gets heavy or I am in unfamiliar territory.

[dthurk]

I am personally not a big believer in talking on the cell while driving.....but just to stir the pot  :Z how do you explain that while flying I'm expected to keep track of other planes in the landing pattern, pay attention to FLYING the plane, monitor the frequency, AND talk to and respond to air traffic control?  
 
 There has to be an explanation for why we don't see headlines screaming, "Pilot crashes because they were talking on the radio".  What could it be?

Autopilot?
Copilot?

[griffsmom]

On the other hand, there have been cases where a person that is not involved in the accident has been arrested and convicted of contributing to the accident due to road rage. The one that comes to mind is where 2 drivers were engaged in aggressive driving and road rage driving. One person lost control of her vehicle, resulting in a deadly crash. The other driver kept going, not realizing that other drivers witnessed the road rage and reported it to the police on the scene (along with the license plate # of the other car). That driver was arrested, prosecuted and spent 18 months in jail.
http://www.courttv.com/archive/casefiles/verdicts/alfieri.html
It's never simple .

I'm not sure how that's complicated. :confused: The driver who was convicted and sentenced was guilty of road rage by engaging in aggressive driving targeted at the other driver. She cut off the other driver (who was also engaging in the same road rage driving, btw) and then slammed on her brakes, causing the other driver to plow into the rear of a tractor-trailer. What you may not have realized,though, is the convicted driver was prosecuted under a fetal-homicide law, not a road rage provision.
 
 
 

In California, road rage will get you a mandatory 6 months in jail. All you have to do is get out of your car when someone is yelling at you or even pounding on your car. Once you get out of your car, you are a participant in the road rage and subject to mandatory jail time.
 

Not sure where you get the part about just getting out of your car will get you a road rage conviction. That's not the law here in California. The applicable California Vehicle Code section is very clear about having to actually commit an assault. See below:
 
Cal.Vehicle Code

[mmeier71]

My favoriite bumper sticker?

"You are not driving a telephone booth"

Nuf Said.