Texting While Walking

[Carfire]

I'm sorry if my sense of humor is off here, but I think this is hilarious. If you haven't seen the video, it is very funny. This girl was walking and then she fell into a man hole that was being worked on. Personally I think it is the city's fault, because there was no marking..But I do not know how all this bad stuff happens to people. I text while I drive, while not that much, I still do it, and I text while I walk, but still no accidents. I do not understand how people can not multitask...In fact I text while I detail!! There is a funny commentary video, but I can not post it due to the rules, because there is bad language in it.

Video

[Underdawg736]

Re: Texting While Walking

It's job security for me! Of course they play the blame game. Carfire I'm surprised that you text and drive being a firefighter and all. I won't touch my phone unless it's an ABSOLUTE emergency, ie calling a report in for my partner with an unstable pt. We just ran a fatal MVA several weeks back where sumdood was playing with his cell phone, crossed the double yellow and head on into a lady on her way home from work. Sumdood walked away with an injured thumb, lady crashed soon after being extricated. IMHO the cell is just as bad as booze when a car is involved.

[rusty bumper]

Re: Texting While Walking

I guess she'll think twice before texting & walking at the same time.

As for multi-tasking, I am a "do one thing at a time person". I never could do more than one thing at a time and do them well.

[Carfire]

Re: Texting While Walking

It's job security for me! Of course they play the blame game. Carfire I'm surprised that you text and drive being a firefighter and all. I won't touch my phone unless it's an ABSOLUTE emergency, ie calling a report in for my partner with an unstable pt. We just ran a fatal MVA several weeks back where sumdood was playing with his cell phone, crossed the double yellow and head on into a lady on her way home from work. Sumdood walked away with an injured thumb, lady crashed soon after being extricated. IMHO the cell is just as bad as booze when a car is involved.

Don't worry, I am very safe when I do, which is not often though. Its not like every time I drive I am texting, and some times I get a text and I don't answer it. Darn people with their cell phones getting in car accidents.

[J. A. Michaels]

Re: Texting While Walking

The dangers of texting. Do one thing at a time your much safer.

[CieraSL]

Re: Texting While Walking

I think it's freaking hilarious. You can't blame the city because you didn't bother to watch where you were going. I suppose that means if I was talking on my cell phone and hit a guardrail while I was driving because I wasn't paying attention, then that means I could sue the city? Not likely. If they do indeed decide to file a lawsuit, I hope any judge with common sense will throw it out. Such stupid people. It's like the person who sued McDonald's because eating their food made him fat or the person who sued McDonald's because they spilled hot coffee on themselves and got burned. When are people going to grow up and take responsibility for their own actions?

[john m.]

Re: Texting While Walking

I text and do multiple things all the time! My texting has gone down lately but I used to text a TON! I text while I drive, detail, walk, all the same things as Joel mentioned Idk I feel differently about me specifically talking/texting while driving cuz when I do I really dont pay much attention to anything the person has texted or is saying to me cuz im driving lol. Now it sounds like I do this alot but it really is not but a semi rare occurance for me You should see the girls text like my little sister! She is 14 and always has the phone out and thumbs working overtime! haha

I just dont know how you can not see the hole hahaha! To funny man!

[rusty bumper]

Re: Texting While Walking

Could this accident have been avoided? Yes, if the person doing the walking was paying attention to the ground in front of them.

I don't see how a lawsuit is going to help the girl. Any competent judge / jury would rule that she is partly at fault herself.

[CieraSL]

Re: Texting While Walking

That girl has two options to make sure that doesn't happen to her again:

1. Stop texting
2. Stop walking

[FLINTstone]

Re: Texting While Walking

if i have to text someone while walking i usually stop walking altogether...

not because im trying to be safe...most likely because my brain cant handle both things at once!

[Eddie6th]

Re: Texting While Walking

nice couple of chics

[mcox]

Re: Texting While Walking

The word moron comes to mind!

[roushstage2]

Re: Texting While Walking

It's like all of the idiots at school who do that and either end up running in to me or making me move out of their way because they are not paying attention.

[Tim Lingor]

Re: Texting While Walking

Morning,

Without making this into a debate, let me throw out some food for thought. *

How much does texting while driving affect your reaction time? Studies completed in the UK have found that text messaging while driving slows one's reaction time down by 35% and slows your steering response down by 91%! So before anyone says, "I'm different" let me pass on a few other numbers and concepts.

Let's suppose someone is driving down the highway at 60 mph, and you have to suddenly stop because a car in your lane has stopped for whatever reason, what factors need to be considered?

You need to consider:

1. speed for which you are travelling
2. the weather conditions (dry, wet, icy roads etc)
3. "Your" reaction time which requires "thinking time" as well as eye tracking time
4. Braking distance
5. Overall braking distance when the above factors are added to the equation.

So let's use the 60 mph on the highway, the Highway Code suggests that to stop at 60 mph:

1. Thinking distance is 60 feet
2. Braking distance is 180 feet
3. Total to stop is 240 feet

Now this does not accurately convey the true stopping distance, as there needs to be reaction time added to the thinking distance. The Thinking distance is for your foot to hit the brake. But what about the time it takes for your brain to identify the situation, decide a course of action? This must be added to the equation. One point of contention is whether or not reaction time is 1:1 or if it is 0.7:1. If using 1:1, let's add in to that the 35% slower reaction time.

So again at 60 mph:

1. Thinking distance is still 60 feet + 35% slower reaction = 81 feet
2. BUT the reaction distance for non-distracted drivers at 1:1 is another 60 feet. Add to that the 35% slower reaction times of texting while driving provided by scientific research, you get: 81 feet
3. Braking distance on dry pavement is still 180 feet

Overall Stopping Distance for the above figures: 342 feet! So you have effectively added 4 -5 car lengths to your stopping distance while text messaging. Those 4-5 cars lengths could mean not stopping and hitting someone, killing them or yourself. Those numbers do not represent the whole picture either as some people may be emotional and that too adds to the distance. What about a person in a cross-walk?

Let's also look at the legal ramifications: Driving is privilege and is not a right and it therefore can be taken away at any time. But what happens if a person is not in full control of their vehicle, because they were text messaging? Would that constitute negligence? If you are negligent, does your insurance become invalid? So let's say you hit someone and it was proven in court that you were text messaging and not in control of your vehicle at the time of the accident. The other party is a young graduate of dentistry and because of the accident is not able to use his hands, and therefore, his career has ended. If your insurance is now invalid, you may have to pay financial compensation to the victim for the rest of their life. In the case of the dentist, and I use that example as a similar drunk case involving a person hitting a new dentist, had to pay the $3 million in damages for ruining their career and life.

I am not trying to be a prude, but if you are not fully paying attention while you are driving, you should not be on the road as it may one day kill someone or someones family. Just something to think about.

Tim



Source of Highway Code and stats:

http://www.hintsandthings.co.uk/garage/stopmph.htm

http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2008/09/22/texting-driving.html

*The above is my understanding of the information

[Underdawg736]

Re: Texting While Walking

Very well put Tim!

Carfire, I wasn't busting your chops, this is just a sore spot for me. My wife chats on the phone while driving, she knows how I feel about it and continues to do so. I've lost count on how many times I've hung up on her after hearing her complain about people on the road.