teen slams into back of semi

The only problem with that is how does the phone know if it is being used by the driver or a passenger in the car? A person who is NOT driving shouldn't lose the ability to use THEIR phone....

Personally, I'm against all of these "safety" regulations. If you want airbags in your car, buy a car that has them. Personally, I don't want them...which means I either have to stick to older vehicles, or as soon as I take delivery on a new one, I have to disassemble the interior to remove the crap I didn't want but had to buy anyway thanks to these BS regulations. I don't have any use for anti-lock brakes, either...which again means either sticking to older vehicles or disabling them on a newer one. I don't want electronic stability control, either....nor am I a fan of "crumple zones". There is a lot of unnecessary crap being mandated by the government in new vehicles that I just don't have any use for. If you know how to drive, and you pay attention to what is going on around you, NONE of it is necessary. There is a reason why some people are involved in (whether they caused them or not) a lot of wrecks, and there is a reason other people can drive for 50+ years and NEVER tangle with another vehicle....and it has nothing to do with luck.

Stupid SHOULD be painful, and by idiot-proofing cars, it allows people to get by with stupid behavior without having to suffer any consequences.

 

You're not going to get me to believe that you've never seen drivers caught up in wrecks caused by some other idiot. Not with your experience. Hell, I've even got pictures of an SUV that was totaled out by a deer that took a flying leap off an overpass and came right through the guy's windshield. Tell me that's got nothing to do with luck.

What about all those drivers who were on the I-35 bridge up north when the whole thing dropped into the river. Tell me, what driving technique saves you from something like that?

 

And I agree with that, I will never have an auto transmission. However the point was if we want to get rid of cell phones becouse they cause distractions. Then we should get rid of every distraction.

Granted me and you dont get distracted by manual transmissions. And I feel the same way about cell phones, All you have to do is pay attention to what the vehicle is doing, and avoid hitting things around you.

 

You might be a great driver who pays attention and drives according to conditions but that doesn't mean you are immune to what can happen out here. I understand what your saying but i think your old enough to know that things can happen to the best of us and there is nothing you or your experience can do about it. If your waiting at a red light and someone hits you from behinde your skills have no bearing on the situation but your vehicle is still going to be damaged with you and maybe your family in it, i bet you would appreciate some of those saftey features then. How many times have you just cruised on through and intersection on a green light and never looked to see if someone was about to run their red light, your still a human and your reaction time is what it is and things can happen faster then you can react to them no matter what your experience is.

Your wrong about antilock breaks, i to have driven vehicles with and without out both in passenger and comercial vehicles and i do think they help in coming to a more controlled stop on wet roads situations, you just don't know how to use them properly, but on ice they are as useless as everything else because nothing helps there. I do not believe seatbelt use should be law however because it's your life and should be your choice, i also think all vehicles should have the option to turn off the airbags if you want.

 

On anything less than ideal traction, anti-lock brakes actually increase stopping distance over properly applied non-ABS brakes.

AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety

The key is to know how to PROPERLY apply the brakes. Much like anything else, if you don't know what you're doing, it can get ugly pretty quick. Personally, I have no use for them. I have driven vehicles with ABS, and I do know how to drive with them. I just prefer to drive vehicles without them...easier to get the vehicle to do exactly what I want it to do when I want it to do it.

As for the seat belt mandate, I agree with it for the driver. Take this video, for instance:

http://www.trutv.com/video/most-daring/disintegrated-busing.html

Bus got t-boned in an intersection, knocking the driver (who was not wearing a seat belt) out of his seat. Now, there is a large bus rolling down the road with NOBODY at the controls until it (thankfully) bumps into a telephone pole and stops. What if that was a pedestrian on the sidewalk instead of a telephone pole? Had the driver been strapped in, he would have been held in his seat & at the controls, where he could have applied the brakes and maintained steering control of the bus.

For anyone else in the car? I think it is outside of the police powers of the state to mandate, since a passenger's decision to wear/not wear their seat belt is a matter of personal safety and does not affect the safety of anyone else other than the person who makes the decision whether or not to wear it. That is the same reason why the Illinois Supreme Court tossed out the helmet law in '69...because it is a matter of personal safety, and therefore beyond the police powers of the state.

And yeah, stuff happens. That's why you have to watch what is going on all around you...including while you're stopped. Leave yourself an "out" for if you happen to see something coming behind you. Look for cross traffic when approaching every intersection. Maintain proper following distance. Basically everything you know you SHOULD be doing, you need to do every time you climb behind the wheel. It only takes a split second of inattention for things to go bad. The more often you allow yourself to take your focus off of your driving, and the longer your focus remains away from your driving, the greater the likelihood that something might happen and you won't see it coming in time to be able to avoid it.