Regarding what happened to Andrey, the guy who works at WebCyclery and was hit from behind while riding his bike on Shevlin Park road a couple of weeks ago, he is lucky to be alive. The driver was on the phone, drifted into the paved bike lane and never saw him until he was on the hood. The driver was cited, yet really deserves nothing less than a public flogging and a prison sentence. Well, OK, he justly deserves to be thrown out of a moving vehicle at 30 m.p.h. with his cell phone strapped to his thick head.
What does it take to actually get no hand-held cell phone legislation passed and enforced in Ore?
(We need) one with a simple and severe penalty, like first offense is phone and license confiscated, $500 to get your license back on probation for 6 months. Let’s make it very visible, like newspaper listings of violators each week. A cop could just sit at any roundabout in town and fill his quota by 8 a.m. as a considerable percentage of drivers are on their phones-not paying attention to driving their oversized vehicle.
This article appears in Jun 25 – Jul 1, 2009.
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Really? Through him out of a car? Really? Spend money that’s not there on a law that already is? Yes there is a law that says no driving while distracted. It sounds like he was cited. The problem is enforcement, just like anything. Do you know it has been YEARS since the bend police have issued a citation for not signaling. How many accidents have been caused by that? Do we really want to start down that path? So the next law is we can’t listen to the radio, eat, drink, talk to the passengers, put on make up, have a pet on our lap? Where od we begin and where do we end? Yes, let’s spend time and money on extra laws to the point we can’t enforce any of them. Laws governing the laws we already have. By the way if we start using logic like that we would have to start holding public exicutions for drunk drivers that kill people. Not that I’m apposed to that. But I don’t see the punishment fitting the crime in any area.
How many lives and how much injury might be saved if cell phone laws were enacted and enforced? I cannot begin to count the number of cell-distracted drivers that have blown crosswalks on me (one at Kenwood School directly in front of a cop who couldn’t be bothered to give chase); certainly Andrey could have been spared substantial suffering; from early reports (but nothing recent — anyone?), it sounded like a cell phone may have been involved and distraction on one or more levels was almost certainly involved in the death of Keith Moon.
Cars are deadly weapons, and we should treat them that way. Do you think a deer hunter who injures someone else while talking on a cell phone would have anything but the book thrown at him? Why should a distracted (equals more-impaired-than-a-drunk) driver who crushes a cyclist get a relative slap on the wrist?
Don’t we now have a law? I believe it goes into effect on January 1, 2010. With a ridiculous fine of $90. This is for handheld talking or TEXTING! Do people really text while they drive? Come on. Pay attention to the road. You are not so important.
If it isn’t the cell phone causing the crash, then itâ ™s going to be something else. Yes people get into accidents while distracted on the phone. They also get into accidents thinking about something else, talking to a passenger, changing the radio, and so on. But every day 99% of those other people who talk on the phone while driving seem to do just fine. Why is it that a small portion of people always dictate policy for the rest of us? This bubble wrap society we live in is destroying us, and it just keeps getting worse.
I can see why you’re annoyed Guest – it does seem like a bubble wrap society and we have too many rules just because the “few” don’t pull their weight… but these same arguments were used against the introduction of seatbelts, turn signals, airbags and probably workplace safety standards, environmental protection laws…. there’s just no educating the dumb “few” – we’re stuck with them. In the meantime there are hundreds of thousands of people walking around today who wouldn’t be alive if we didn’t have seatbelt laws, speed limits, airbags etc….
I think DJ and Guest are in a little bit of denial. It’s estimated that 1/4 of all accidents are caused by a driver talking on a cell phone; not listening to the radio, or eating, or putting on makeup, although I think that putting on makeup while driving is stupid too.
But I do agree that “the bubble wrap society” is getting to be a pain in the ass. The problem is that you cannot count on people to do the “smart” thing, which is to leave their cell phone alone for 15 minutes and drive. So if that means we hit people in the wallet, so be it, because the truth is that people on cell phones are piss poor drivers.
The thing is, I watch for bicyclists ALL the time. Especially in Bend because in my opinion it’s a city notorious for having way too many bicyclists. Not that biking is a bad thing, at all, in fact I support it because it’s better for the environment. But the point is, I can’t count how many countless times I’ve nearly hit or BEEN hit by a bicyclist that isn’t paying attention to drivers. Just this evening in downtown a man on a bike drove between me and the car to my right then swerved in front of me, causing me to slam on my brakes just to avoid hitting him. When I honked the horn HE flipped me off. Another example, on a round-a-bout a bicyclist cut me off and went right in front of my car as I was getting ready to go, they never once saw I was moving, and then continued to nearly get hit by cutting off another car in the lane.
While I agree that cell phone drivers should definitely stop what they’re doing (I pull over if it’s important, hit ignore if it’s not) I also think that bicyclists need to reprimanded just as much as drivers. In this case, that’s not applicable because from what I’ve read and heard, it was entirely the drivers fault, but I just wanted to put my two cents in that bicyclists need to be aware just as much as any driver.
same rules, same enforcement for all. as much as I support penalties for drivers who intentionally drive while distracted, law enforcement should not shy away from enforcing those rules that apply to cyclists as well. Bad behavior needs to be corrected. unfortunately, we live in a society where personal responsibility is in short supply, and we do have to rely on cumbersome legislation and rules to govern our behavior. we can’t count on people to act responsibly on their own. sad.