Texting Killers are getting 6 years

They should double that sentence I reckon!!

 

I have no problem with the sentance.

I see it every damn day and I get angry about it every damn day. I ride with my friends that yack and text on their cell phones and it always makes me nervous. What makes things worse is there's some idiot texters driving 15 mph below the speed limit holding up traffic, then I haul ass around them to get away from them. The pathetic thing is I'd get a ticket for unnecessary acceleration, while the texters just keeps on driving and texting.

Is it just me or is the large number of driving texters women? I'd say 9 out of 10 I see are.

 

I have to agree that most texters do seem to be female. I will only text while stopped as I have done it while driving and was all over the road, no more for me. I also know people who will text while riding a motorcycle, that's just a scary thought, but they also ride and talk. Can't talk him out of it.

The penalty should be higher than 6 years. That almost makes it the easy way to get away with murder.

 

I've seen people doing this before, and I kept thinking they really do have a death wish.

 

i tnk 6 yrs nt enuf

 

I'd put them on the same pedestal. In either case, the person makes a choice that severely impairs driving and risks other lives. Punishment should be the same as well.

 

LOL...!!!

People and their phones - whether talking or texting - are the bane of my existence on the road. They do dumb things, hold up traffic, cause unnecessary congestion - and, as noted, kill people. There's no discernable preventative solution as cell phones - and their myriad abilities - are very useful in emergency situations.


Dave, Web browsers are loaded with very basic dictionaries, so they flag most words that aren't in that (very thin) column of mainstream use.

 

+1

 

Interesting story.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2009/05/ems_49_taken_to.html



Conductor in Trolley Crash Was Texting
May 8, 2009 10:33 PM Email| Comments (3)| Text size – +

By Milton J. Valencia and Noah Bierman
Globe Staff

The MBTA trolley driver who rear-ended another Green Line trolley admitted to police that he was texting at the time of the crash on Friday evening that sent scores of people to the hospital, officials said.

MBTA General Manager Dan Grabauskas said it was difficult ''to contain my outrage'' at the driver's action, which caused a shutdown of a part of the Green Line and left a surreal scene as emergency workers set up a make-shift emergency area next to a circus tent before ushering the wounded to hospitals.

None of the injuries — 49 were taken to the hospital — was considered life-threatening, Boston emergency medical officials said. But the passengers were certainly startled, screaming, and more than a few bloodied, when the collision came without warning at 7:18 p.m. The speed of the moving trolley was not yet known, nor was the cause of the crash.

But the moving Green Line trolley that came from behind had enough force to jolt a second trolley parked at a red light about 100 feet into the tunnel toward the Park Street station. Both trolleys derailed and sustained significant damage at the point of impact.

Officials described a chaotic scene — with metal strewn about, passengers in disarray, and some people who had to be removed from under twisted metal using saws and excavation equipment. Each of the trolleys, which were headed westbound, contained two cars.

The operator of the striking trolley suffered a broken wrist in the
crash, officials said. He was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital, and
was in stable condition Friday night, officials said. He was described as 24 years old, with 22 months on the job.

‘‘There was just noise and the whole thing went black,’’ said Judy
Brenner, a 41-year-old Brookline woman who was heading home on the rear
trolley from her job at an executive search firm. ‘‘Everyone fell on top of
each other.’’

Edmundo Silva, a 49-year-old from Medford, was sitting in the front
trolley. ‘‘There was a big jump, jump, jump,’’ he said, emphatically
pounding his fist into his palm.

At that point, everyone fell down, including him. He tried to grab
for a pole but was knocked to the floor, injuring his side and leg.

‘‘All the lights went out and everybody just started screaming,’’
said Laszlo Panajoth, 28, whose girlfriend was taken to the hospital with
neck injuries.

Brenner said she saw one person with a scalp laceration and, as she
spoke to a reporter, she was on her way to get an X-ray at Boston Medical
Center. At impact, she fell, hit her head, and blacked out momentarily
before fellow passengers woke her.

‘‘It was so black, it was hard to see who was injured the most,’’ she
said.

In total, EMS officials counted 49 people taken to hospitals around the city, after
some were assessed next to the circus tent by Government Center Plaza. Another 75 walked off on their own, according to Steve MacDonald, a spokesman for the Boston Fire Department. Passengers said the response from emergency workers — including 120 firefighters — was swift.

‘‘We went to a three-alarm, just to get enough people here to get people out,’’ MacDonald said.

Next door, at the Big Apple Circus, families were blissfully watching the clowns and dancers, even as ambulances circled them. A public address announcer came on at intermission to tell those in attendance that there had been a crash on the T, but offered few details.

Chris LaCorte, 26, of Quincy, who was there with his girlfriend and her daughter, said he was surprised to walk out of the tent to find the area swarming with ambulances, MBTA personnel, police, media, and emergency medical technicians.

‘‘No one told us how serious it was,’’ LaCorte said. ‘‘You hope it was just a train accident and nothing more. You hope everyone is alright.’’

Service between the Park Street and Government Center stations was expected to resume Saturday.

Friday night’s rear-end crash happened nearly a year after Terrese Edmonds, a Green Line operator, lost her life in another rear-end collision during rush hour in Newton. In that crash, Edmonds’ trolley hit the car in front of her. None of the other 200 people on the trolleys was seriously injured that night. The accident left a scar among T operators and commuters and heightened concerns about the potential for rear-end collisions on the line.

Federal transportation safety officials ruled that Edmonds was speeding, going nearly four times faster than the car should have been on that section of track.

The Green Line is a 19th-century antique and the oldest line in the MBTA, which is the country’s oldest subway system. It has been under scrutiny for years because of numerous crashes and derailments.

In the 1990s, after several incidents, the American Public Transit Association produced a report with 17 safety recommendations for the Green Line. A rear-end crash in 1995 at Copley Station left 32 people injured.

 

texting while riding a motorcycle? What? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7amxE3RLAzQ

 

This week's experience on this subject hit close to home and got personal!

I went to the store with a buddy who is either always on the phone or is always texting. We drove to the store this week (about three miles from his house) and texting was all he did. If YOU text while driving, drive a few miles as a passenger with somebody like my buddy....It's scary! The drive will appear that the driver has had a few drinks and if a kid ran 100 feet in front of your car after a ball, the kid would be toast.

When we walked out of the store, I asked him if I could drive. He said NO and WHY. That's when I told him I was scared to drive with him if he continued to text behind the wheel. He said OK, I won't text. Guess what! A block down the street, he was texting! We pulled up to a light and I said I'm either going to drive or walk! After he said 'Come on!', I got out and started walking back to his house! He drove through the light, pulled over and told me he got the message!


EDIT: It's not just limited to drivers of cars! I just watched on the news that 46 passengers were hurt [yesterday] when two Boston trains colided. The driver of one of the trains has admitted that he was texting while at the controls. Whats next? A pilot on a three miles final into a major airport crashes short of the runway and kills everyone on board because she or he was texting while trying to land? It's gonna get a lot worse!

 

What's the fascination with texting and cell phones in general?

 

I assume you are asking only about the texting feature that is on the cell phone! Texting is an extremely easy way to communicate with people you do not necessarily want to have a long conversation with. You can tag up with somebody and get right to the point, like the following:

Your text: Hey Tony. Got two extra tix to the concert Saturday?
Reply: No
Your text back: Know anyone that does?
Reply: Not sure, but I'll keep an eye out!
Your text back: OK, THNX

The above takes about a minute Vs maybe a ten minute conversation you may not have time for. There are other scenarios in which you may be in a long, boring meeting at work. Texting allows you to get other things done. A quick chat with the wife telling her what to get at the store for dinner.......Getting a text from your kid to pick them up at a friends house in ten minutes.......A text to an employee telling them they are fired! All kinds of great uses!

 

The problem is that people are having long conversations. It seems like all they do is text. It would save me a lot of time (and spare my fingers) if you just call me if you want to just talk. I actually like hearing your voice and tones. Half of the time I don't even know what your saying (or how your saying it-are you mad? happy?) when people text me.

Texting can be a great tool in the the instances you describe (maybe your on way home and stop by the store, text the wife, "Do you need anything?", ect.). However, it seems like the amount of time people spend texting goes beyond that. It just seems like most of the time, it doesn't work that way.

 

The number of texts keeps going up too. I text a decent amount but I can't imagine anyone doing this. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,517363,00.html

 

shouldn't matter what you do in your car as long as you are driving it legally. Texting, drinking, scratching your balls, it's none of your business what i'm doing. If i swerve into your lane, hit a pedestrian or run into another car, there are already laws against all of those things. If i can operate my car safely while texting, or even drinking, i shouldn't be bothered. If you are gonna pull me over for texting, why don't you pull me over for looking down at the radio or nav? eating a big mac? Dangerous driving and all the consequences of that are all already illegal. Stop telling grown ups what they can and cannot do because you think it will make you safer. People that give away their freedom for safety deserve neither.

 

I tend to agree with most of that. I would take a Singapore angle to the problem: not changing the actual laws, but the penalties. I would up them substantially.

 

In general, I believe the punishment for crimes such as murder and rape are FAR to soft in this country.

As it relates to this thread, I feel that if you kill someone in a car crash because you were doing something that in any way impairs your ability to drive a car, such as being drunk, high, or texting... you should get a substantial prison sentence (think 25 yr minumum). Putting criminally negligent murders in prison for a couple years is an insult to society, as well as the victims of the murder.

 

Maybe one of own "Wrong-handed" drivers can confirm, but I believe in Britain the ONLY thing you can do is drive while driving. ALMOST EVERYTHING ELSE is illegal.

Can anyone confirm?

 

Dunno bout Britain, but that would certainly apply to Singapore. Using your phone while driving carries some really heavy penalties, even if it's texting at a stop light.

 

Are you saying that drive-thru's at Starbucks are non-existent in the UK?

 

Dirty texts with the SO can be fun too....