OT: Allow mobile phones when driving? Or ban the disabled from driving?

Here in NJ you can use a cell phone while driving, you just can't be holding it. But I only do that for short periods, if really necessary. I know people that yapped away endlessly about nothing. Like an elderly friend who'd be driving

The local news just had a woman on TV that was recovering from a wreck. She was lucky to be alive as someone stopped and pulled her from a burning car. Single car accident.

She said she was going down the road, talking on her cell phone and that was the last thing she remembered before waking up in the hospital.

No.

Oh come on. Those with one working arm have no choice. Those who want to use a cell phone have a choice. Well, functionally they do but legally they don't in most places and they shoudlnt'.

People who want to drive while holding a cell phone can stop the car and talk on the phone. People with only one arm can't park the car and grow another arm. Don't be callous towards them.

I was thinking about my final days and I want to die peacefully in my sleep like my uncle did.

Not screaming in terror like his passengers.

She is lucky. A lot of people wouldn't stop and a lot of those who did woudl be afraid to get near a burning car.

Maybe they should ban drive through windows at fast food joints. Drinking hot coffee or eating a sandwich is a lot more distracting than just talking on a phone. Texting is a whole other thing tho since you are looking at what was sent and what you type. I almost wadded up a car texting before most folks even knew what I was doing (1985).

I have been run out of my lane by idiots on the phone more than a few times.

I think you miss the point. A lot of the mobile phone generated accidents have been while texting, not talking. Now you can get hands free kits, there really should be no need to hold the phone. Remember you can do other things with a phone these days, like read emails, chat on social media etc, and it is often these extras that cause the lack of attention, not just talking on a hands free phone. People have been done for applying make up in the car, watching videos, eating sandwiches etc etc, The law really is about due care and attention, but certainly holding a normal phone or fiddling with a touch screen while driving would seem to be rather a bad thing to do. Brian

With regard to disabled drivers. It is the case that some disabilities mean you cannot drive. Even when I could see, I was not blessed with enough vision to drive. Many people with only one working eye can drive, even though they do not have stereo vision, they judge distances in a different way. Hand controls work very well, so I'm told, its mostly muscle memory just like it is for all drivers. You do not have to think about it. What does worry me though is that any driver of anything can see far less than they think, seeing as the brain can only process so much at a time and tends to throw a lot away. Remember the only part of the eye which can see detail is the macular, the rest of it is very poor in the definition stakes and the brain sweeps the macular view around to give the impression of a full colour detailed image. If you are however distracted and concentrating on one thing, you can miss another one completely, as in the famous Gorilla video. Brian

This is one of the many reasons I saw a need to install dashcam.

I can vouch for this!

Brian Gaff (Sofa) submitted this idea :

Absolutely, as I learned very early on in my driving career. A PC was by the side of the road with a group of youngsters. I fully expected the PC to see them across the road so my entire attention was on him. What I had missed was a lollipop lady, who actually stepped out in the road leading the kids and had abrown trouser moment trying to stop in time. Always scan and keep on scanning the entire road ahead, don;t be distracted by a single potential danger.

Don't most cars come with bluetooth connection to your phone anyway these days?

I don't believe that's true. I know I'm far more distracted talking to someone on the phone, than eating a sandwich. The sandwich is totally passive, you don't have your focus on what it's saying, trying to hear it, needing to answer to avoid an awkward moment, etc. Something unexpected happens, a change in traffic, you just stop eating for a moment. With a call, if you do that, you're going to miss what they are saying, have them saying "are you there, did I lose you, etc."