Dear Right Wing: Transportation Secretary Is Trying To Save, Not Contol, Lives

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Posted on 20th November 2010 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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The right wing is blasting  U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood for seeking to violate our rights.

What outrageous action has LaHood advocated? LaHood, a vocal opponent of distracted driving, last week said that someday the government may mandate that devices be installed in vehicles to block cellphones from working in cars, so that idiot motorists stop chatting, texting and killing innocent Americans.

http://www.popsci.com/cars/article/2010-11/thwart-distracted-drivers-government-considers-cell-phone-kill-switches-cars#

“There’s a lot of technology out there now that can disable phones, and we’re looking at that,” LaHood said in an interview.

That comment got Michelle Malkin, a conservative columnist for the conservative New York Post, all riled up on Saturday. 

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/now_they_re_after_your_car_cellphone_RweoH5n8MRR7NrNl4oP83N

“Will the cellphone banners outlaw radios, GPS devices, makeup and fast food in cars next?” Malkin asked. “They’re all also listed as causes of distracted driver-induced accidents.” 

She also griped about the 30 states that have passed texting or cellphone bans for drivers. Malkin then tried to bolster her case by citing a study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, which found that non-texting states had higher accident rates for young drivers than states with no bans.

I wonder how many other freedom-depriving Malkin objects to when it comes to vehicles. I wonder how she would have reacted when the idea of seatbelts being installed in cars was first broached. What, restrain a person in their own vehicle? After all, there are cases where a seat belt can injury a car passenger in a crash.       

And I assume she is against laws that mandate that motorcyclists wear helmets.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: Your rights end when they put me, my family, my friends and the rest of America in danger. If some morons can’t get it through their thick heads that it’s dangerous to text and drive, I guess maybe it is a good idea to have mandatory devices that disable cellphones in cars.

And aside from the tragedy that distracted drivers cause, they also cost taxpayers money, raising our insurance rates, damaging public and private property, and putting people in hospitals.

Miss Malkin, you accuse LaHood of “controlling lives” rather than “saving lives.”

Call it whatever you like: Public safety trumps a CrackBerry’s sick addiction to their fancy phone. 

 

 

 

Disney Threatens To Fire Workers Who Text While Driving

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Posted on 15th November 2010 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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The Walt Disney Co. is known for having strick rules for its employees, and now it is taking an extra hard line on texting.

The website Deadline Hollywood reported last week that Disney has told its workers it may fire anyone caught texting while driving.  

http://www.deadline.com/2010/11/disney-employees-face-termination-over-texting-and-emailing-while-driving/

The media giant sent out a companywide memo last week that said it was “enhancing its vehicle safety policy effective immediately.” To that end, Disney workers are banned from sending or reading texts or e-mails while driving a company vehicle or when driving their own car while doing work-related tasks.

According to Deadline Hollywood, the memo warned, “Failure to comply will lead to disciplinary actions up to and including termination.”

The show business website slyly noted that Disney was following in the shoes of the Obama administration, which has banned federal employees from texting and driving while on official business, and barred commercial bus and truck drivers from texting on the job as well.

Deadline Hollywood pointed out that this new Disney rule may put a crimp on dealmaking, since in car-centric L.A. lots of executives do business on their Blackberries while behind the wheel.

Posters to the Deadline Hollywood story suggested that Disney was imposing this texting-ban to avoid liability if any accidents take place.

Whether Disney’s motives are self-serving or not, it’s a good idea for a company to read the riot act, so to speak, to exmployees who tesxt.            

Eating While Driving Can Be Dangerous, As FedEx Truck Driver Found Out

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Posted on 16th July 2010 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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There’s been a lot of press this year about the dangers of  motorists using their cellphones or texting while driving, with Oprah Winfrey even taking up the crusade.

But we should remember that our full attention should always be on the road when we’re behind the wheel. And texting isn’t the only distraction than can lead to an accident. Eating while driving is another one.

For example, do you scarf down a quick McMuffin when you’re late and driving to work, or do you like to snack while taking long trips during family vacations in the summer? And should a truck driver manning a tractor-trailer, a potentially lethal weapon, be eating while driving?

Edward Sutherland found out the hard way that’s it’s not very smart to be chowing down food when you are at the helm of a big rig. Sutherland, 42, was driving a FedEx tractor-trailer Monday in Washington State near the Canadian border, and noshing on spicy pork rinds at the same time, according to the Associated Press.  

http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/articles/2010/07/13/20100713washington-crash-pork-rinds.html

Sutherland suddenly started choking on the pork rinds. He lost control of his rig on Interstate 5, and swerved over a median from a southbound lane to a northbound lane. The truck  jackknifed and landed in a ditch.

Miraculously, Sutherland’s rig didn’t hit any other vehicles and he only sustained minor injuiries. But he will be charged with “driving with wheels off  the roadway.”

But here is the obvious lesson to be learned: Don’t eat while driving. It is not only a potential distraction, but you could also choke doing it.

 

 

Six More States Ban Texting While Driving Effective July 1

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Posted on 1st July 2010 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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Today, July 1, bans on texting-while-driving went into effect in six states, adding to the 18 others that already prohibit motorists from using their cellphones to send messages.

http://www.landlinemag.com/todays_news/Daily/2010/June10/062810/063010-03.htm

Michigan, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska and Wyoming will start enforcing their new laws today. And a number of other states will have their anti-texting bans go into effect before the year ends, namely Kentucky, Louisiana, Wisconsin and Connecticut.

With so many laws against texting debuting today, the national and local media have done a lot of coverage on the new laws, their penalties and the whole issue of whether such bans really work. Every media outlet from NPR on the radio to Landline, the business magazine for professional truckers, to the Detroit Free Press did pieces on the new anti-texting legislation.  

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128220944

NPR cited statistics from the U.S. Department of Transportation that said that in 2008 roughly 6,000 people died in accidents connected to distracted driving, and some 500,000 were hurt. 

The NPR report, interviewing Georgia State Police, focused on the difficultyof enforcing the texting bans. In other words, how do you know that someone is texting?

The texting bans that went into effect today vary from state to state, in terms of who they cover and their penalties.

For example, in Georgia the texting ban applies to all drivers, while in Iowa it also bans drivers under 18 from using a cellphone while beind the wheel. 

The fines for violating the texting bans vary widely, from $30 in Iowa to $200 in the Cornhusker State.

The Detroit Free Press warned drivers in the Motor City that they could be fined $100 initially, then $200, if they are caught texting-while-driving from now on.  

 http://www.freep.com/article/20100701/NEWS05/100701012/1320/Texting-while-driving-could-cost-100-now

Oprah Winfrey Leads Passionate Charge Against Deadly Driver Distractions, Texting And Cellphone Use

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Posted on 3rd May 2010 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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Talk show host and cultural trendsetter Oprah Winfrey is continuing her passionate quest to make texting or using a cellphone while driving considered as dangerous, and heinous, an act as drunken driving.  And who better to get national attention on this life-threatening issue.

Winfrey declared last Friday, April 30, as National No Phone Zone Day. She had done a show on the topic back in January, and has ramped up her efforts to support the cause.

One of the high points of  Friday’s show was when it televised Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm signing that state’s anti-texting bill into law. With a stroke of her pen, Granholm made Michigan the 24th state to ban texting while driving. 

“We’re proud to be the 24th state now to be able to ban texting while driving,” Granholm said. “While talking on the phone is a distraction, clearly, texting while driving on top of that — where you don’t have your eyes on the road or your hands on the wheel or your mind on what you’re doing — it is clearly a danger.”   http://www.freep.com/article/20100501/NEWS06/5010362/Oprah-celebrates-Mich.-texting-ban

Said Oprah, “Michigan just became a safer place because of that new law.”

There was plenty of press coverage  about the signing, which may have been a non-event for newspapers until Oprah got news of the texting-ban front and forward.  

Via satellite, Oprah also went live to anti-texting and anti-cellphone use rallies in Los Angeles, Detroit, Washington, D.C., Atlanta and Boston.

The Detroit coverage, hosted by actress/comedian Ali Wentworth, included not only the bill-signing, but also a clip of  General Motors chairman and CEO Ed Whitacre. He announced that 77,000 of his U.S. employees will sign Oprah’s “No Phone Zone” pledge, which now has more than 200,000 names. http://www.oprah.com/packages/no-phone-zone.html

By pledging, drivers agree to make their car a “No Phone Zone” and refrain from using their phone while driving, eliminating distractions from incoming calls, texts or e-mails. Among those that have signed the pledge are Sandra Bullock, Jeff Bridges, Olympic star Sean White, Jerry Seinfeld, Oscar winners Jeff Bridges and Mo’Nique, Tyler Perry and the cast of the hit TV show “Glee.”

At the rally in Washington Secretary of  Transportation Ray LaHood, who is spearheading a federal ban on texting by truckers behind the wheel, make some remarks.

Correspondent Lisa Ling lead  the Los Angeles rally, interviewing celebrities who have signed Oprah’s petition for anti-texting and cellphone use laws, including Mario Lopez and last year’s “American Idol” winner Kris Allen.    

Oprah, to strike home her message about the danger of distracted driving, also had the victims of motorists who were texting while driving, or using a cellphone, on her show. It was poignant, with parents talking about the deaths of their children, from a 2-year-old hit by a vehicle driven by someone texting to  a beautiful teen-aged girl who crashed and flipped over her truck while texting to a friend. Her mother and father found her body. 

Oprah also have a shout-out to a New York Times reporter, Matt Richtel,  whose series “Driven to Distraction”  just won him a Pulitzer Prize.