Texting while crossing the street in New Jersey gets you 15 days in jail and a $50 fine
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Shorter than 6 weeks in hospital. And cheaper. And probably a little less painful.
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
But how many people have been injured whilst crossing a street at a legal time (i.e. when the little man made of lights says it's OK) because of this? If you cross at a legal time and someone hits you with his ridiculously dangerous mode of transport, it's his fault, not yours (and there are existing laws that cover that). The only instances of injuries quoted in the article were: 1. An idjit who was walking on the pavement, and fell into a hole which should have been barricaded for precisely this reason -- nothing to do with the new law, but plenty to do with road workers' Health & Safety regulations. 2. A worse idjit who walked around a railway-crossing barrier -- nothing to do with the new law, but plenty to do with existing ones. Damned if that's good reason for victimising people who are doing nothing wrong. What next? Laws against thinking whilst walking? How much of our taxes are earmarked for the Thought Police budget?
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But how many people have been injured whilst crossing a street at a legal time (i.e. when the little man made of lights says it's OK) because of this? If you cross at a legal time and someone hits you with his ridiculously dangerous mode of transport, it's his fault, not yours (and there are existing laws that cover that). The only instances of injuries quoted in the article were: 1. An idjit who was walking on the pavement, and fell into a hole which should have been barricaded for precisely this reason -- nothing to do with the new law, but plenty to do with road workers' Health & Safety regulations. 2. A worse idjit who walked around a railway-crossing barrier -- nothing to do with the new law, but plenty to do with existing ones. Damned if that's good reason for victimising people who are doing nothing wrong. What next? Laws against thinking whilst walking? How much of our taxes are earmarked for the Thought Police budget?
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Mark_Wallace wrote:
Laws against thinking whilst walking?
Not unless your thoughts offend someone, then you must be punished. You musn't have thoughts that offend someone, while walking. Shirley there is a Monty Python skit in there somewhere. :)
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I don't see anything that even resembles mention of statistical analysis of the causes of accidents -- i.e. if people doing this has not caused any harm to anyone, then why are they wasting time with it, instead of debating/voting on issues that genuinely affect people's safety? Is there a guillotine on a more important bill that someone is trying to sabotage?
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So you'd prefer to wait for someone to actually cause a pile up with multiple deaths and injuries before doing anything to prevent it occurring? As it is there had been an estimated 4000 deaths in the USA directly attributable to attention deficit caused by walking while texting by 2013. It is reasonable to assume that the trend has continued.
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So you'd prefer to wait for someone to actually cause a pile up with multiple deaths and injuries before doing anything to prevent it occurring? As it is there had been an estimated 4000 deaths in the USA directly attributable to attention deficit caused by walking while texting by 2013. It is reasonable to assume that the trend has continued.
I am not a number. I am a ... no, wait!
9082365 wrote:
there had been an estimated 4000 deaths in the USA directly attributable to attention deficit caused by walking while texting by 2013
Source, please.
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Mark_Wallace wrote:
Laws against thinking whilst walking?
Not unless your thoughts offend someone, then you must be punished. You musn't have thoughts that offend someone, while walking. Shirley there is a Monty Python skit in there somewhere. :)
Slacker007 wrote:
walking
I hope that wasn't a typo.
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article[^] Now, who's going to be the first to write an app that ties in your phone's GPS so it knows when you're about to cross a street? At least in New Jersey? :laugh: Marc
Imperative to Functional Programming Succinctly Contributors Wanted for Higher Order Programming Project!
Strikes me as ineffective. Change it 15 days paid vacation and $50 award for running over a moron texting while crossing the street. Now that will solve your problem!
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9082365 wrote:
there had been an estimated 4000 deaths in the USA directly attributable to attention deficit caused by walking while texting by 2013
Source, please.
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W∴ Balboos wrote:
Expectations: as no one enforces the law with respect to drivers doing the same thing, it's likely empty legislation.
Depends on the country. The UK is fairly hot on it for drivers, with it now being £100 and 3 (of 12) points on your licence. That's if the Police spot you, and whole months go by without me seeing a cop car ... I don't text or even touch my phone while driving - I used to ride motorcycles all the time and am well aware how much a situation can change very, very quickly. Even a moment's inattention can result in an avoidable accident, so texting or phoning while driving is just stupid...
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
OriginalGriff wrote:
texting or phoning while driving is just stupid
Meanwhile I hear no one about the radio, or heater, that have been in cars for 10's of years and can be equally distracting!
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Regards, Sander
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OriginalGriff wrote:
texting or phoning while driving is just stupid
Meanwhile I hear no one about the radio, or heater, that have been in cars for 10's of years and can be equally distracting!
Visit my blog at Sander's bits - Writing the code you need. Or read my articles at my CodeProject profile.
Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability. — Edsger W. Dijkstra
Regards, Sander
Heater isn't that distracting, and it serves two very useful purposes: i) it helps to demist the windows so drivers can see where they are going... 1) it keeps the extremities warm - which means clearer thinking, better reactions, less distraction, and faster physical movement. I used to ride motorcycles all year round, and heated gloves/grips made a HUGE difference! My left heated gloves failed in a blizzard one night, and by the time I got home I couldn't pull the clutch in! :laugh: And boy did it hurt getting the feeling back... :OMG: Radio can help too - it prevents white line fever, where the driver gets focused on the road and effectively falls into a trance, where they don't even notice other vehicles. It's a good idea to listen to something you don't like took much...
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt -
Heater isn't that distracting, and it serves two very useful purposes: i) it helps to demist the windows so drivers can see where they are going... 1) it keeps the extremities warm - which means clearer thinking, better reactions, less distraction, and faster physical movement. I used to ride motorcycles all year round, and heated gloves/grips made a HUGE difference! My left heated gloves failed in a blizzard one night, and by the time I got home I couldn't pull the clutch in! :laugh: And boy did it hurt getting the feeling back... :OMG: Radio can help too - it prevents white line fever, where the driver gets focused on the road and effectively falls into a trance, where they don't even notice other vehicles. It's a good idea to listen to something you don't like took much...
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
Maybe it's just me, but I always set the heater on HIGH (which is max) and low fan until the car is warmed up. I then put the fan on maximum blowing capacity (which always requires me to look up the correct button, but then I can just bash it a few times and it'll be max). After a while I warm up and then I want to put the fan on a low position, which DOES require me to look at it as I don't want to turn it off either! After that I need to find the temperature switch and switch it a couple of times (usually to 21 or 22 degrees, can't have it on x.5, as that's not a nice round number). All this time I'm dividing my attention between heater and road! This requires so much cognitive ability on my part that I can't really do this while in urban areas, it's just too dangerous! The alternative for me is to be cold or way too hot. I have a likewise problem with my radio, the song needs to be good (I really very much hate commercials, news, traffic reports, and weather, which are on at least once an hour (but mostly twice)...) and the alternatives must be explored. For long trips I really don't listen to the radio and I put up something from my iPod. I only put on the radio on short trips (about 15 minutes or less), at night, and on Fridays as at those times I can be pretty sure of 50 minutes non-stop good music. Yeah, and I don't like driving a car as it is without (very much first world) heating and radio problems :sigh:
Visit my blog at Sander's bits - Writing the code you need. Or read my articles at my CodeProject profile.
Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability. — Edsger W. Dijkstra
Regards, Sander
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Report by lead researcher Dr. Beth Ebel, director of the Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center at the University of Washington in Seattle published in the journal Injury Prevention, December 2012.
I am not a number. I am a ... no, wait!
I'm afraid she said nothing of the kind. She merely said that her "study" (watching a paltry 1,000 people cross the road at rush hour, on the way to work, when people are most distracted, anyway) concluded that only one in four people "followed the green cross code" to the letter. There are lots of "might"s and "may"s in her report, but no evidence that accidents have been caused by people texting whilst crossing at a legal time. The whole thing is utter bollocks. Who's making money from it? That's the question to ask.
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