Cops on Cell Phones

[Tee]

I spend anywhere from 2-4 hours per day on the phone. As a tech who runs a route through western Kansas, I handle many support calls while in route to other calls. All of my calls are closed using a voice recognition dispatch system, again, using the phone. If I pulled over every time I used the phone, I'd be on the side of the road for half the day and wouldn't get anything done. I am a very good multi-tasker and use a bluetooth handsfree headset to minimize inattentiveness. Do I think I am as safe driving while on the cellphone? Absolutely not. There will always be some degradation in attention while talking to another party. But this applies to both talking on a cellphone or talking to a passenger in the car. Actually, I would think it is more distracting talking to another person in your car, as most people glance over at the converser from time to time. I can use/answer my cell phone simply by tapping on a button on my ear, not having to even take my eyes off the street. I implement the use of speed dialing entries, and automated macros to close my calls on the phone with little to no distraction from my driving. I am ever conciense of the responsibilities while driving and try and be very careful while multitasking. Do I think it is as safe as just driving? NO.

So, what do we do? We could ban eating in the car, cellphones in the car, CB's, Scanners, Radio's, and conversing with other passengers while in the car. We could ban brushing your hair, shaving, toothbrushing, flossing, and putting on makeup in the car. We could ban drinks, sunflower seeds, mints and gum as well.

I agree there is a problem with driving inattentiveness. I don't claim to have the answer. I do cringe at the thought of letting the government decide how to solve the problem. I don't relish the idea of giving them more latitude to say what I cannot do in my car. Not every problem can be solved by legislation that whittles away our freedoms.

[Made in the USA]

In most of the areas that I cover in my daily routine, I can put the ol' gear shift in "auto pilot"; so I can go about my daily routine. That Lee Iococca thinks of everything! Then I can jump in the shower, make breakfast, read the newspaper, and brush my teeth on the way to my first stop. If I have time, I can have a "quickie" (if I can get the inflatable sheep blown up), then it's "workie" time. On the continuation of the day, I pop open the deep fryer, so I can have my "chitlins" at lunch time, followed by intense diahrrea as I use the "pilot relief tube"! As afternoon passes by, I whip out the rolling bar and DJ, so I can have a "social hour", and as the vehicles rolls into the next overniter, the "Trunk Monkey" turns the girls loose for lap dances. And most people can't even talk and drive at the same time!

[Bubba]

Originally Posted by jeezeweeze

Im like detector..... I let the phone ring and call them back when I stop...
I just dont feel comfortable, even tho I can multitask pretty well... I find it enough of a multitask just to drive in a defense mode.

That is the problem...you shouldn't be driving defensively, you should be on offense. Then you are in control. "The best defense is a good offense." Have you ever heard that quote? If you are driving defensively, you are always reacting to a situation after the fact. If you drive offenseively, you are in control and avoiding situations in which you have to react. Granted, you do need some defensive skills, because no matter how good your offense is, sometimes somebody will slip by and you have to go into defensive mode and react to their situation that they created.

[Tee]

Originally Posted by Bubba

...you shouldn't be driving defensively, you should be on offense. Then you are in control. "The best defense is a good offense." Have you ever heard that quote? ..... sometimes somebody will slip by and you have to go into defensive mode and react to their situation that they created.

If you are driving offensively, you just blast through them when they get in your way! LOL

[lurker]

Most times a quote is posted for the sake of argument.

This time it's because it's simply a great post. Tomorrow's technology will offer this:

Originally Posted by Made in the USA

In most of the areas that I cover in my daily routine, I can put the ol' gear shift in "auto pilot"; so I can go about my daily routine. That Lee Iococca thinks of everything! Then I can jump in the shower, make breakfast, read the newspaper, and brush my teeth on the way to my first stop. If I have time, I can have a "quickie" (if I can get the inflatable sheep blown up), then it's "workie" time. On the continuation of the day, I pop open the deep fryer, so I can have my "chitlins" at lunch time, followed by intense diahrrea as I use the "pilot relief tube"! As afternoon passes by, I whip out the rolling bar and DJ, so I can have a "social hour", and as the vehicles rolls into the next overniter, the "Trunk Monkey" turns the girls loose for lap dances. And most people can't even talk and drive at the same time!

[Detector]

I see nothing wrong with the "hands free" system Tee described. What does chap my ass are the ones like yesterday. And it wasn't the first time.

At my favorite intersection, sixth and Comanche, As I pull up to the stop sign I see a guy on my right already stopped and on his cell. Another car stops to my left, after me, and one directly across from me. We all wait as this idiot, who has the right of way, on my right is busy talking. After what seems like a minute of us all staring at this guy and waiting, he motions to me like WHAT THE HELL YA WAITING ON?

This guy obviously had no idea he was there before anyone else and we were all waiting on him. I'm sure he thought he was also a good multitasker. I've ridden with drivers on cell phones that normally are good drivers but do some really stupid driving and have no idea it's them and not the other drivers they blame.

In my 37 years behind the wheel I have only been involved in 1 accident, and it was back in the 70's. Some old feller pulled out of Wright Park on to second street then changed his mind and tried to backup back in to the park. I had pulled up to the stop sign and he hit me. I drove a truck for quite a few years hauling produce. I was rated #2 in the State of Texas for the fastest time on the Malibu Race Track in San Antonio back in the 80's. I was asked to represent them(San Antonio Malibu race track) in the national Malibu races.

So, I consider myself a better than average driver but I still wouldn't trust myself on a cell phone while driving.

I compare it to drunk drivers. They have no idea how bad they drive until they see a video. I wish I could video tape some of these people to show them just how it affects their perception of things around them. I think most would be very surprised. I've seen some people who could drive quite well while intoxicated but thats the exception the vast majority can't drive worth a crap. For that reason it's against the law.

[lurker]

I don't trust drivers who are on their phone... especially young drivers.

Cell Phone No. 1 Driver Distraction
By Joe Benton
ConsumerAffairs.Com Edit: I'd hotlink this but that site's too bloated.

April 20, 2006
Drivers who don?t pay attention or are distracted are three times as likely to be involved in a crash as drivers who pay attention to the road and don't eat breakfast, talk on cell a phone or put on make-up, a new study finds.

The study, sponsored by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and conducted by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, offers detailed evidence that inattentive driving causes accidents and that young drivers are much more likely to be distracted.

The report labels cell phone use as the most frequent behavior distracting drivers.

"The number of crashes and near-crashes attributable to dialing is nearly identical to the number associated with talking or listening," the report says. "Dialing is more dangerous but occurs less often than talking or listening."

According to the report, almost 80 percent of crashes and 65 percent of near misses occur within three seconds of some form of driver distraction.

Reaching for a moving object multiplied the risk of a crash or near-crash by nine times, according to the study. Reading, applying makeup, or dialing a handheld device tripled the risk.

The study found that drivers between 18 and 20 were four times as likely to have inattention-related crashes and near-crashes as drivers over 35.

Drowsiness is a significant problem that increases a driver?s risk of a crash or near-crash by at least a factor of four. "But drowsy driving may be significantly under-reported in police crash investigations," according to researchers.

"Drivers who engage frequently in distracting activities are more likely to be involved in an inattention-related crash or near-crash," according to the report. "However, drivers are often unable to predict when it is safe to look away from the road to multi-task because the situation can change."

Researchers tracked the behavior of 241 drivers in 100 sensor-equipped vehicles for more than a year. During the 2 million miles of the study, the drivers were involved in 82 crashes and 761 near-crashes.

"This important research illustrates the potentially dire consequences that can occur while driving distracted or drowsy," said Jacqueline Glassman, acting administrator of NHTSA. "It's crucial that drivers always be alert when on the road."

It's the unpredictable/unavoidable events that get'cha. Cell phone distractions are avoidable.

[musicmaker1]

Beat cops on their cell phone is normal. If you listen to the scanner dispatch will ask them to "Public Service" them, and that means call dispatch. They (the PD) know at this point loads of people listen in on police calls and really can't give out any sensitive info on the radio. They also have a scrambled channel "B" for use on calls where they can't be on the cell phone and need to use the radio to communicate. When I get a cell call I usually pull over if possible, but I multi-task with extreme precision (goes with the work I do) so talking and driving for me really is second nature. musicmaker1

[J_Kidd]

I would simply like to add that I believe most people in the public rarely consider how many things our officers have to do at the same time while they are on the job.

While the distraction of trying to talk/listen on a phone while driving is a very real concern, it does seem to me that most people in the public who are engaging in the practice have likely never undergone any kind of specialized training to learn how to multi-task at this level... at most it's a skill that they've acquired through long hours of personal practice. However, even before police carried cell phones, specialized training in multitasking was a necessity. They have to be able to monitor their radio traffic - sometimes on more than one channel at a time, observe their envoriment in detail (details that they also have to be able to reliably recollect later if something that seemed incidental in passing turns out after the fact to have been important), and still operate their vehicles to a standard of safety and responsibilty that should exceed that of a casual civilian driver. Adding the cell phone into the mix is probably a drop in the bucket by that point...

At any rate, that's my perspective...you may see things differently ; )

[miskitka]

are cell phones really necessary i mean what did people do before cell phones??? i have a cell phone, so im not really knocking it, and if i do use it while driving its quick, because i dont feel like iam totally aware of whats going on around me.... and i get very angry at someone who is on the phone who about hits me, and has no clue of what they just did. and what about the people at the movies! that is annoying.... what is so important???