Knee-jerk reaction or smart move?

[JPINFV]

My question is this:

What is the difference between a cell phone and listening to radio traffic while working/responding? My agency's policy is the driver drives and the rider talks, however it isn't a perfect system and doesn't always work that way. If your partner is mapping and dispatch is hailing you with further info/routing preferences/orders to stage/pt status updates you can't exactly ignore them.

To me, the difference is that I'm not really having a conversation with dispatch. Normally the information is pertinent and short, and the responses are normally scripted. I'm not really thinking about what I'm going to say when I get a page, pick up the radio, and say, "Unit 75, copy page." Similarly, with pages if I'm driving there's one of three responses. Either my partner and I instantly recognize the location, think we know it and just want to confirm, or have no clue. If I'm driving, the first takes no cognition. The second takes minimal cognition (unit 75, confirming that this is the one on ____), and the third is done by my partner.

 

[JPINFV]

Read my whole post. I directly specified allowing handsfree devices and agreed with the national ban of anything other than that.

Listening to something still diverts your attention although not as much as browsing or texting.

"All things are poison, and nothing is without poison; only the dose permits something not to be poisonous."

 

[alphatrauma]

Listening to something still diverts your attention although not as much as browsing or texting.

Point, set, match.

 

[Handsome Robb]

Point, set, match.

?

I agreed with you on that point from the beginning. It wasn't a contest, you don't get a prize, sorry to burst your bubble.

 

[Anjel]

The city where I work has banned everything.

No talking, eating, texting, putting make up on, messing with the radio, messing with a pet in the car, reaching to the back seat to hand something to a child.

Absolutely no distractions, and its enforced. We still have tons of accidets though.

 

[mycrofft]

I still have a manual single-disk CD player.

Although I can change them without looking down, with my older reflexes and despite my experience, it does make me less safe if someone does something unusual or the unexpected occurs.

I bet...if you added age into the equation, the middle of the bell curve would be about 19 y/o. Maybe not a bell curve , maybe an inverse bell, with us oldies swinging back up towards but not touching the youngies' stats (we can't figure out the new stuff to use it).
PS: See thread about texting in class.

 

[Sasha]

I see what your are going with here... but there is a big difference between phone use (aside from talking), and other in-vehicle distractions. The NTSB pointed out that it is the "cognitive" aspect of phone use, when it comes to texting and web browsing, that poses the biggest danger. People are frigging updating Facebook for Pete's sake! :sad:

I am all for a complete ban of phone [and other "uninstalled" electronics] use while driving. The commuter world got along just fine before they saturated the market. Give people an inch, and they will take a mile... "I wasn't texting or checking Facebook officer, I was dialing a number in order to talk hands free". :glare:

That's really silly.

Sooo what's next? Ban driving with passengers and kids because they may cause a distraction??

Accidents happen. It's what you accept when you get your license and start to drive. You just can't eliminate all distractions and to eliminate something like handsfree cell phone is stupid when it's no worse than talking to your passenger or transporting screaming kids. Actually I'd say kids are one of the worst distractions while driving.

They scream, throw crap, cry, get bored, ask a billion and one questions and like to unscrew and dump their sippy cups. With a cell phone I am not constantly checking the back to make sure the kid hadn't managed to unbuckle himself again and is running around the back seat (it's happened.)

Yet we still are allowed to transport kids.

My phone is my GPS. and I will use it while I drive. Regardless of laws.

 

[mycrofft]

Kids, yeah. Especially at the wheel.

Actually, I agree. My wife had a fender bender partially due to the DVD player in our rented van being on too loudly, courtesy of our then-16 y/o daughter. It could have been much worse, and the other driver started complaining about chest pain.

I see people driving with dogs in their laps. I have been told (no authority) that it is not legal. I'd hate to have a Pomeranian on my steering wheel airbag when it went off.

I think we see noodniks driving and either texting or chatting because the responsible ones (like all of us) who take a call are on the device just seconds and not gesticulating or other attention grabbing activities.

 

[Sasha]

Actually, I agree. My wife had a fender bender partially due to the DVD player in our rented van being on too loudly, courtesy of our then-16 y/o daughter. It could have been much worse, and the other driver started complaining about chest pain.

I see people driving with dogs in their laps. I have been told (no authority) that it is not legal. I'd hate to have a Pomeranian on my steering wheel airbag when it went off.

I think we see noodniks driving and either texting or chatting because the responsible ones (like all of us) who take a call are on the device just seconds and not gesticulating or other attention grabbing activities.

I had a dog who HAD to be in a carrier if I took her in the car. She would crawl from my lap to the passenger seat. Then back to my lap. Then back to the passenger seat.

And one of my dogs now will sit, very complacent, in her bed, in the passenger seat.

 

[mycrofft]

Talk about distraction...

If I don't lock the power windows, my beagle will roll hers down without warning and then lean as far out as she can.....

 

[Handsome Robb]

If I don't lock the power windows, my beagle will roll hers down without warning and then lean as far out as she can.....

Gotta love beagles.

My mom's dog once locked me out of my car. I was getting gas an my keys were on the seat. She jumped up on the seat and landed right on the lock button on my key fob. Doh! She's not a beagle, but still a funny dog story.

 

[Chimpie]

Rufus always goes in the back seat. He'll stay back back there but will walk around. He's too curious to sit still, but is never a distraction. When we're stopped at lights he'll sometimes put his head on my shoulder.

If I don't lock the power windows, my beagle will roll hers down without warning and then lean as far out as she can.....

This picture needs to become a motivational poster.

 

[Handsome Robb]

This picture needs to become a motivational poster.

I believe I can fly?

 

[Simusid]

I personally get distracted by cell phone calls. Maybe not everyone does but I KNOW I do. My cell phone audio is complete crap and it's hard to explain but I have to listen harder on the cell than on a regular phone. This means I don't concentrate on driving as closely.

Last night I took a call that I should not have taken while I was at a light, I pulled away and I was so focused on the call that I was driving about 20 instead of 40 for a bit.

Can they be distracting? For me, 100% yes. Maybe not for everyone though.

 

[jjesusfreak01]

After reading the article its clear that although the first impact may have been caused by the pickup truck (and thus, a possibly distracted driver), both deaths were the result of the bus drivers following too closely. This is honestly a stupid case for the NTSB to use as evidence that phones should be banned.

 

[alphatrauma]

After reading the article its clear that although the first impact may have been caused by the pickup truck (and thus, a possibly distracted driver), both deaths were the result of the bus drivers following too closely. This is honestly a stupid case for the NTSB to use as evidence that phones should be banned.

That's an interesting interpretation of the article. I didn't read anywhere that investigators or NTSB officials came to that conclusion. In fact, according to the quoted text below:

It's not possible to know from cell phone records if
the driver was typing, reaching for the phone or
reading a text at the time of the crash, but it's clear
he was manually, cognitively and visually
distracted, she said. "Driving was not his only priority," Hersman said.
"No call, no text, no update is worth a human life."

... that it WAS the pickup driver who was ultimately responsible for their own and another's death, due to the accident . There were many variables involved, yes. Yet I think it is hardly "clear" that following too closely was the catalyst/culprit in this tragedy.

 

[adamjh3]

I have an idea... instead of making every little thing illegal, when someone dies, gets hurt,whatever, how about stepping up enforcement of the laws already on the books?

"Inattentive driving" anyone?

Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk

 

[bw2529]

That's an interesting interpretation of the article. I didn't read anywhere that investigators or NTSB officials came to that conclusion. In fact, according to the quoted text below:



... that it WAS the pickup driver who was ultimately responsible for their own and another's death, due to the accident . There were many variables involved, yes. Yet I think it is hardly "clear" that following too closely was the catalyst/culprit in this tragedy.

The article also says the fleet of buses had bad brakes so it isn't much of a stretch to say that poor maintenance on the part of the school (or responsible party) was a major contributor.