Cell phone users

[snikr]

My wife works at a local grocery store and had a funny thing happened this past Friday. She was checking out a lady (Lady #1) and the lady was bagging her groceries as my wife was scanning them. Lady #2 was next in line and talking on her cell phone, not paying attention to what was going on. When my wife totaled up Lady #1 groceries Lady #2 swiped her Debit Card and paid for Lady #1's food not knowing who's food she did pay for. From what I understand Lady #1 was NOT very happy and Lady #2 was all upset and had to get the charges off of her Debit Card. Just goes to show you that cell phone are a distraction. Please pass this story along. It is TRUE!

Tom

 

[wheatonFJR]

Take 1. -two years ago-

On my way to take my boy out for pancakes. Stopped at a 4-way stop next to a school on a Saturday. Have my 2nd son in the right hand front seat. Look to the right, look to the left...wait for the car on the left to go as I edge forward for a left hand turn. Look to the right ...BOOM! I SLAM on the brakes as driver from the right sails through the 4-way stop at 35-40 mph (est) while talking on the phone -oblivious to what he just did. :blink: He would have landed into the right side of my car near my son. :angry: :angry: :angry: I was very shaken up by that.

Take 2. -last week-

Going home from work with some snow accumulated...within a mile of my house. Coming up to a stopsign at a one way street (leftwise). I watch with "glee" as a driver going the wrong way cruises through the intersection while chatting on his cell phone. As he slowly approaches cars going the correct direction, he "motions" the cars on "his" side of the street to "get out of the way".

Driving while cell-phone...the "new" drunk...

Don't let them take you out. :glare:

 

[uctofeej]

Lady #1 shoulda taken the groceries and left. Lady #2 shoulda considered it stupid tax!

Cell phones certainly add something to the old adage "defensive driving."

 

[Murph]

...Coming up to a stopsign at a one way street (leftwise). I watch with "glee" as a driver going the wrong way cruises through the intersection while chatting on his cell phone. As he slowly approaches cars going the correct direction, he "motions" the cars on "his" side of the street to "get out of the way"...

So absorbed in his little world that he couldn't possibly think that he was in the wrong.

Your first story made me angry but your second story just makes me shake my head in annoyance and a little despair.

 

[abarron576]

I was stopped at a light today and a man pulled up next to me in a Toyota Tacoma. What was unusual (you may have seen this before) was that he appeared to be carrying on two conversations at once with two separate cell phones. WOnder if he had a Bluetooth hooked to a third one??

:angry2:

 

[Checkswrecks]

...Coming up to a stopsign at a one way street (leftwise). I watch with "glee" as a driver going the wrong way cruises through the intersection while chatting on his cell phone. As he slowly approaches cars going the correct direction, he "motions" the cars on "his" side of the street to "get out of the way"...

So absorbed in his little world that he couldn't possibly think that he was in the wrong.

Your first story made me angry but your second story just makes me shake my head in annoyance and a little despair.

I've had so many people drift into my lane while chatting that alert for it. Usually, I'll hit the FIAM horns, which sound like a full Caddy, and chuckle as they jump. (Despite the never-ending temptations, I only do this if they are leaving their own lane.) The thing is that it's totally common for these asshats to get upset at ME for interupting THEM. If they keep screaming (I'm supposed to hear it?), I have a sticker on each side of my helmet that says HANG UP AND DRIVE, so I point at one with a single finger. It just serves to get their necks more purple and the veins stand out better.

Too bad that there's a straight-forwrd potential technical fix, but no political will to implement it. If the cell tower network calculated that a phone were moving at more than a set speed of say 15 mph, and not on a list of LEO/FIRE/EMS/etc, then the network could drop that call. Can you imagine the career suicide that suggesting this would be for any politician, though?

Bob

 

[ionbeam]

Why is it that we can (usually) successfully talk to a passenger next to us but implode inward when we are talking on a cell phone? Does it really take that much extra concentration to talk to a person that isn't present? Are abstract conversations so difficult to handle?

 

[.paul]

My wife works at a local grocery store and had a funny thing happened this past Friday. She was checking out a lady (Lady #1) and the lady was bagging her groceries as my wife was scanning them. Lady #2 was next in line and talking on her cell phone, not paying attention to what was going on. When my wife totaled up Lady #1 groceries Lady #2 swiped her Debit Card and paid for Lady #1's food not knowing who's food she did pay for. From what I understand Lady #1 was NOT very happy and Lady #2 was all upset and had to get the charges off of her Debit Card. Just goes to show you that cell phone are a distraction. Please pass this story along. It is TRUE!
Tom

That actually happend to me once when I worked as a cashier at BJ's Warehouse. Some people are truely amazing.

 

[Toecutter]

Does it really take that much extra concentration to talk to a person that isn't present? Are abstract conversations so difficult to handle?

I doubt that vehicle collision rates went up noticeably per capita since the advent of the cell phone. Distracted driving is distracted driving, in any form, and more risky than focused driving. It's also relative to the skill level and focused-driving experience of the individual driver. I've followed numerous drivers as they've been having conversations with their passenger, and have been amazed at how much time they spent with their eyes off the road ahead.

I've been cleaning up after collisions for 25 years, and it seems to me that major vehicular crashes are actually down from the time before mobile phones came along, at least in the area I cover. I attribute the decline to fewer drunk-driving incidents, for whatever reason. Maybe people are being more careful, due to the increased level in DUI penalties.

Back when I used to drink regularly, I never let it get in the way of me driving home afterward*. I also never had so much as a close call, or even left my lane without intent. It was all about focus. YMMV, but at legally intoxicated levels plus, I was still as good or better than the vast majority of others out there.

*Tried it once on a bike, not good!

 

[feejer222]

It has been totally illegal to drive whilst using a mobile phone here in the UK for a couple of years now. Regardless, you see it every single day. The fine is £40 and 3 points on your licence. The same as doing 40 in a 30 limit. (12 points get you a ban).

As this is not working it was announced last week that the penalty is now to be changed to a prison sentence.

 

[03HiYoSilver]

Snikr,

Please let me know what Lady #2 looks like so I can get in her line...I will be appreciated!

 

[snikr]

Snikr,
Please let me know what Lady #2 looks like so I can get in her line...I will be appreciated!

I'll have to ask my better half what she looked like. My wife did think she was in her 40's. Maybe with age wisdom isn't certain?

Tom

 

[jekirby]

Lady #1 shoulda taken the groceries and left. Lady #2 shoulda considered it stupid tax!
Cell phones certainly add something to the old adage "defensive driving."

Stupid tax? You a Dave Ramsey fan?

 

[SacramentoMike]

They have a WAREHOUSE for BJs????? :yahoo:

 

[jekirby]

They have a WAREHOUSE for BJs????? :yahoo:

Huh. :blink:

 

[jwilly]

My favorite sighting in a convenience store in Birmingham, AL:

Sign on the back of the register: As soon as you hang up, we will ring you up! No Exceptions!

 

[MrTwisty]

It has been totally illegal to drive whilst using a mobile phone here in the UK for a couple of years now. Regardless, you see it every single day. The fine is £40 and 3 points on your licence. The same as doing 40 in a 30 limit. (12 points get you a ban).
As this is not working it was announced last week that the penalty is now to be changed to a prison sentence.

We should implement a similar law here...even though I'm guilty of talking on the cell phone while driving my cage.

I know better, but I do it anyway.

I didn't while I was in the UK though because I knew it was illegal. Plus, the driving is MUCH more intense over there. I kinda liked intense driving once I got used to it.

Love the round-abouts!

 

[Silver Penguin]

I was stopped at a light today and a man pulled up next to me in a Toyota Tacoma. What was unusual (you may have seen this before) was that he appeared to be carrying on two conversations at once with two separate cell phones. WOnder if he had a Bluetooth hooked to a third one??

:angry2:

No, this is the hi-tech version of the weirdo who talks to himself.

 

[Silver Penguin]

Back when I used to drink regularly, I never let it get in the way of me driving home afterward*. I also never had so much as a close call, or even left my lane without intent. It was all about focus. YMMV, but at legally intoxicated levels plus, I was still as good or better than the vast majority of others out there.

My opinion? You illustrate your own point here. At legally intoxicated levels, you BELIEVED that you were a good driver and that you had no close calls, lane wandering etc. Is it possible that you might not have been thinking quite straight?