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Cell phones while driving?

posted Friday, Jan. 23, 2009 3:55pm

See more on: Colorado State of Mind, Poll

Should Colorado ban the use of cell phones while driving?

Jan 23, 2009 5:31pm to Sep 28, 2009 8:35pm

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Colorado State of Mind
"Cell Phones and Driving"

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What's your point of view?

Floyd Kilpatrick
Friday, January 23, 2009 › 4:21pm
YES! BAN the use of cell phones AND texting while driving! I've been nearly run down too many times by such distraction.

Aaron Mac
Friday, January 23, 2009 › 5:38pm
If people won't use common sense I guess we will have to. "Common sense ain't so common" - Will Rodgers
Also our kids have never known a time without "cells", and for the soccer mom, she went from talking to Gladys in the morning, to talking all day since the cord has been cut.

Cyndi
Friday, January 23, 2009 › 6:34pm
By all means ban the use of them while driving; the texters are the worse ones out here. Some nut was rexting while driving the I-25 N and almost hit me four times before passing me at a high rete of speed,I called the police cause I thot he was drinking then to my horror I saw him using both hands to text. Please,get these idiots off the roads or give them a huge fine or better yet jail time in order to think about what they are doing

tony pierce
Friday, January 23, 2009 › 7:57pm
The question is not what is your right while driving, but what is your responsibility.
Most drivers are not good enough or considerate enough even without the use of phones while driving. Driving is a cooperative, not a competitive, activity. When on the road, the overriding concern is the safety of all, not individual "rights." The distraction is the same whether "hands free" or not; it has nothing to do with the hands. It's the focus of the mind, stupid. Years ago there was a law that said a driver had to have two hands on the wheel, unless shifting gears. How about one mind, undivided, on the road?

Ed Knafelc
Friday, January 23, 2009 › 8:03pm
Yes, ban the cell phone use in a moving vehicle by the driver. I know that it is an distraction that will cause an accident at some point in time. We are gambling with our own and anothers life. I personally do not want to be killed by irresponsible driver, especially one who is talking on the phone.

J.R.Sowell
Friday, January 23, 2009 › 8:20pm
...With increasing traffic everyday -everywhere - the task of driving becomes more & more tedious-it's clear that more distractions lesson the odds for everyone's safety-it comes down to having a healthy respect for the responsibility of driving a many ton moving object
amongst many others- more damage makes us all pay higher insurance rates- a dead cell phone driver isn't worth much now are they?-This is such an obvious decesion-let us all realize just what impact this "trend" has had on road safety along with the increasing numbers of vehicles on all of our roadways-to include the fact that fuel tax has stayed the same for many years and that directly affects the standard of the roadways- how about a cell ph. tax to aid in the aging infrastructure for those who "have' to drive & yack?

Arthur Eggers
Friday, January 23, 2009 › 8:23pm
Several years ago the telephone user driving in the right hand lane started to move into the left lane, which would have pushed me into a lane of cars stopped to make a left turn. Sunday, 18 Jan 09, a person in a slower moving center lane whipped out into our lane just ahead of us where I was driving just under the speed limit. BAN all telephone use while vehicle is in motion. Penalties should be same as for DUI

skip guarini
Friday, January 23, 2009 › 8:25pm
It is near impossible to enforce such a law. While I agree talking on a cell phone is a major distraction, even with hands free, making a law to stop it would be ineffective. Moving to hands free is a sensible solution and has worked in states such as NY, where cell phone related accidents have declined. I think attacking this problem at the root makes more sense. We fail miserably on teaching people how to drive a car. Basically anyone can get a drivers license with little or no real training. Requirering individuals to pass a mandatory driving school that teaches the safe handling of a car in bad weather, on freeways, merging, passing, backing, mountain driving and how to avoid distractions of all kinds, including cell phone use would significantly reduce all types of accidents.

Conni Eggers
Friday, January 23, 2009 › 8:36pm
We support and applaud banning use of any communication device by the driver while the vehicle is moving for this compelling reason: the person being communicated with is not in the car with the driver to see what the driver sees & cannot suspend conversation when necessary to allow the driver to give full attention to the road & traffic conditions.

Mike Scott
Friday, January 23, 2009 › 9:17pm
Commentator Kathy Hall is always introduced as "former (fill in the blank)." She is now a lobbyist for gas and oil drilling. Why do the guest and the show not disclose this on the air? Is she embarassed? Her comments have a different twist when one considers their true source. She does not now speak for the majority of the western slope, if in fact she ever did.
Cell phone use while driving is extremely distracting and dangerous. Outlaw it! Seatbelt laws are hard to enforce, but compliance has significantly improved since their use was mandated. And many lives have been saved. Wake up, we all pay more for auto insurance because of cell phone related accidents. Except those driving without insurance, who also cost us more.

John Sorensen
Saturday, January 24, 2009 › 12:09am
There was mention of changing the vehicle tax structure and as the owner of 4 vehicles and NO visible income, I am strongly concerned. As a senior citizen existing (not living) on an extremely small fixed income, increasing my taxes could drive me out of the state, and possibly out of the country. My primary vehicle is a 2002 4-cylinder saturn. My second vehicle is a 1995 Nissan SE-V6 pickup (Frontier-comparable) which I use to transport home-remodeling supplies, and to pull trailers for moving. The third is 1968 International 1100 pickup collector vehicle, and finally a 1987 Honey motorhome which I no longer can afford to drive. The last 2 are not currently licensed.
Since there is only one driver, I am concerned that laws created to generate revenue could drive me out of the state or ??

John Sorensen
Saturday, January 24, 2009 › 12:24am
It would be extremely easy to equip all motor-vehicles containing one or more cell-phones with a light visible to other drivers indicating that the person is using their cell-phone while driving. This would help other drivers as well as law-enforcement to observe any erratic activity, and enable other drivers to avoid being drawn into an accident, and would enable law enforcement to issue tickets to drivers who are not as attentive as the situation warrents. I would be in favor of limiting usage to hands-free equipment! If unenforcible, I would favor mandatory signal indicators on vehicles containing an active cell-phone. Persons at the other end of the line have no view of situation and whether driver is jeopardizing others by careless driving while on a phone. Could they be signal also?

jestbill
Saturday, January 24, 2009 › 9:54am
Why bother with a light?
This whole question should be fixed on a national scale. The Feds could require that all new vehicles have an onboard device that would block cell phone signals (except 911 outgoing) when the engine is running.
Done.
There could even be a device to automatically send your incoming calls to voicemail.

Ed Knafelc
Saturday, January 24, 2009 › 12:33pm
Looks like there is a majority here. Just to add a comment again. The carniage on the highways adds much the poor economy. Auto insurance, health insurance, EMC costs, impact on family income, long term care for those disabled, and on and on are the cost of auto accidents. Like Obama, our new president, said, everyone must give back, we must sacrifice to make things better. So, giving up a convenience to communicate with others that is most of the time trivial, is a way for all of us to give back and improve our country and consider the well being of others. Therefore, ban the cell phone while driving.

M. McCormick
Sunday, January 25, 2009 › 5:24pm
Public Radio had a science program discussing this very topic. The neuroligists on the program indicated the exact same pathways in the brain are used to drive a car and talk on the cell phone. This explained why people are unable to attend very affectively to both at the same time. It is different a different pathway than talking with someone who is a passenger. Therefore allowing the hands free option solves nothing. Stopping the signal once the car engine starts is the best idea I read. If that law had been in place when the person hit me while talking on their cell phone, I would not be disabled today. Driving is a privilege that is granted through a licence. It is not a right. People can pull over to make or return calls. Lives depend on it.

Edward S. Wilbarger
Wednesday, January 28, 2009 › 9:17am
While the automobile is a convenient and sometimes necessary means of transportation, it is also a potentially lethal device. It requires training and a licence. It requires the full attention of the operator to protect life and property. To assert that it is a right to converse on a cell phone and consequently divide one's attention while operating an automobile is irresponsible. and self serving.

Zim Olson
Sunday, February 1, 2009 › 7:10pm
I think before they write another law, on cell phones for example, that they need to know the facts concerning the issue. Maybe studies are expensive and time consuming. And it may be much easier to write a law and hope for the best....I just think if the facts concerning this issue and similiar driving issues were known that they may be able to come up with a better alternative. Maybe a different law or some other type of initiative. Every time the legislatures write another such law about some picky or whatever issue, I get a little worried. How many laws are they going to write and will this really make life in the State/Country what it should be. Alternatives to Law writing should be sought. Or is that all the legislatures can do??? Yikes.

jestbill
Monday, February 2, 2009 › 2:35pm
Well, gee, did you every ask yourself what a "legislature" is or where the word "legislature" came from?
That's what they do: write laws.

As for more studies, the only reason we're discussing this is that there have been several studies all saying the same thing: cell phone use while driving is not good.
Yikes indeed.

Zim Olson
Monday, February 2, 2009 › 3:11pm
jestbill:

What I had in mind for an alternative law or inititiative was something involving an alternative form of communication: Interactive voicemail, spooling conversation 'bytes', or anything less attention invasive. Something designed for driving that is.

Yeah, I know legislatures write laws. Maybe they could do a study on impact of innumberable laws on Society, Business, etc. Or do a study on Transportation + Communication alternatives.

Aaronmac
Monday, February 2, 2009 › 9:01pm
The biggest problem is we can't "Legislate" Common sense.What about people who eat while driving, Turn music up too loud, the list goes on.......and when we end that list a new one continues. We can't have Peace,Love, Common Sense, Kindness, Integrity, nor Consideration forced apon us , it is something we must have in us or not.
I believe the only answer is to have more in depth driving schools, and Classes. It's worth a try......

Aaronmac
Monday, February 2, 2009 › 9:05pm
Ok , ok the idea is to exchange ideas not to verbally abuse others. We will all try to understand the magnitude of your great intelec, while you merely tolorate us......

jestbill
Tuesday, February 3, 2009 › 8:43am
What I had in mind was the number of calls for "studies" to find the "facts" about Global Warming, the relationship between cancer and cigarettes, whether oil spills in the ocean "really" harm the fish--

I'm really sick to death of being told that there haven't been enough studies to determine whether the sky really is blue.

There really are not many people arguing that the current economic mess is the result of too many laws: it turns out that people can not, do not, and will not regulate themselves.

Zim Olson
Tuesday, February 3, 2009 › 9:14am
jestbill:

Yes, I really think the number of laws and the relevancy (or irrelevancy ) to each other can adversely effect Society, Business, AND individuals. Not such a strange idea to me, anyway....

You can study this, or just think about it before your next post!

Maybe studies have been over done in some cases. I just think there is a better alternative to simply banning cell phones that should be explored somehow. I mentioned a few in my prior post.

And this could be said about a lot of other laws I have heard of. Mostly after the fact.

jestbill
Wednesday, February 4, 2009 › 10:06am
Zim Olsen:
You have cleared up my knee jerk response: you actually were/are looking for alternatives rather than just trying to delay action.
Lao Tsu said that the more laws there are, the more criminals. He was right (in context.) The problem, as always is to strike a liveable balance.
I really doubt that a ban will happen--if it happens it won't last. If it were done by the Federal government, it might have a chance, but Colorado won't be able to make it work.
They might successfully require hands-free phones in cars and increase penalties after an accident if (handset) cell phones were in use.

Raymond Bilyeu
Monday, February 9, 2009 › 1:25am
Adding another law to the books will not matter. Law enforcement cannot enforce even 1% of the traffic violations committed in a single day let alone pull up to vehicles and look to see if they are texting or on the phone.
Society and the culture we instill our children with is what needs to be changed. Life is taught by Music Video's and Movies, instead of parents.
Target the problems at the source and stop it before it becomes a problem in the first place. Common Sense 101 should be part of every schools coursework.

Floyd Kilpatrick
Friday, January 23, 2009 › 4:21pm
YES! BAN the use of cell phones AND texting while driving! I've been nearly run down too many times by such distraction.