I will as soon as some politician or organisation with a grant decides they want to make that "scapegoat of the week"...
But seriously, because texting is something that anybody with a phone can do, it is always going to be more of a target than the small percentage of BMWs on the road.
Seriously though - what is more dangerous, A) being on a motorway on cruise control on a clear road in good weather in a new BMW that has been well built and maintaned, sending a text message without having to look at your phone, and being 10mph over the speed limit, or B) being on a twisty road at night in pouring rain and concentrating 100% on driving, in your 10 year old beat up car travelling to the legal speed limit.
There are SO many variances that cause crashes that it's often impossible to say "he crashed because he was sending a text message". That is just one factor, and in many cases it will not be the determining factor. Ie, if he had not been texting, he would have still had that crash.
I only text when safe to do so. I can send a text message just as easily (if not more so) than going in to iDrive to select an MP3 album and start a song playing.
I am not saying it's 100% safe 100% of the time. But it should not be stated that sending a text message is any more dangerous than anything else you may do when driving a car. Messing with your iDrive to find your favourite MP3, lighting a cigarette, having a drink of water, even taking your hand off the steering wheel to change gear can result in a crash if done at the wrong time.
Young people have better reactions than older people, old people are often complacent about driving (another word you could use is "experienced", but that isn't always a positive thing compared to young drivers who will often be paying attention a lot more than older people!). etc etc etc ... we could right a 100,000 word essay and just scratch the surface.
Driving safely or dangerously has SO much more to it than a blanket statement of "texting whilst driving will kill people".
07-19-2007, 11:28 AM
Reasonable people would dissagree with your illogical reasoning particularly those with children who like others have refuse to ignore common sense and end up maimed or dead because they insist on being right. I suppose it's the age we live in, but whatever. For those who insist on ignoring the inevitable, i only hope their family's are spared the consequences of their bad decisions and they live long enough to look back and say "what a fool i was for doing the dumb crap i use to do".
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