Cop claims hes issued nearly 800 tickets for texting and driving and expects to reach 1000 by years end. He gets most people at stop lights due to their erroneous thinking that it is OK to do so since the vehicle isn't moving. He counts the number of times someone taps a screen to determine whether or not someone is texting.



http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/local...xting-a/nZ34P/

 

Good. He needs to write more. I drive 37 miles each way to work. You wouldn't believe how many people I see texting and driving every day.

 

^^^ I agree 100% I do a lot of driving for work, the amount of stupid things I see people do when driving is insane. People need to start paying attention to the road!

 

Anyone who's even heard of Atlanta shouldn't be shocked by this.

Otherwise, if you ever see a Georgia plate look at the county sticker. If it says "Cobb" or "Gwinnett" give that car a very wide open area and consider going the opposite direction. It may look harmless at that moment, but it's actually in the process of crashing or otherwise traffic related foolishness. And you don't want to be associated with the results.

 

Truer words have not been spoken sir... (I'm from Northeast Georgia originally, but I've done my fair share of trying to drive through Cobb and Gwinnett. yuck)

 

Just another a tool, abusing his power IMO. As if he( the cop) isnt' typing away on his keyboard?



Isn't the law, texting while driving? Not texting while operating a vehicle? I would fight it if I was the ticketed, challenge the law. What constitutes 'driving or operating'? What if you are in a parking lot in park and decide to text real quick? What if you you are in a parking lot and in the drive gear, or have a M/T so you have no park, but you are on the brake, and you are texting? Depending on what the law is, he could up his "douche" level, by ticketing people in parking lots.



Now if he said, he gives tickets to people who don't go right away when the light turns green, because they were disctracted and texting, I might be a little bit more for that. The cops need to understand they are there to protect and serve, not to try to obtain quotas or brag about how many tickets they can give and abuse their power. IF what someone is doing is affecting their driving, by all means, pull them over, you are then saving other lives, protecting and serving. But if they are driving fine, have their head on a swivel, are aware of their surroundings, why should you care what they do? Know what the intent of the law is, and enforce that, don't be a nazi and and use the law to your advantage to be a douche. You don't give people tickets for texting, or becuase you can count the number of times the touch their screen. you give them a ticket because the moron isn't paying attention to their surroundings and miss a green light.



The law has actually made it more dangerous....Before, people could put their phone up to their face, and have a periphery of other things while texting, now that it is illegal, people have to hide it low and look away. Though if you don't learn how to text and drive properly both methods are dangerous. But holding your phone up to your face is much safer if you do it right and not focus on your phone, rather type a bit here and there, it is actually safer than pooking down to check your speed. Maybe instead of outlawing it, knowing it is something peole are going to do anyway (like prohibition) teach them how to do it responsibly, it is possible.... cops do it all the time.



And make a law outlawing distracted driving, so you can use it to issue tickets to bad drivers, ones putting on makeup, texting, or whatever people do, that causes them to not be aware of their surroundings and swerve and miss green lights ect.



IT IS possible to type a few letters or words, and look around and keep that up to type a text safely when there is little traffic. It depends on your current situation, how heavy is traffic, is it raining ect. Sometimes it can be dangerous, so I won't text, but I do it all the time, and I thankfully have never gotten a ticket for it, mostly because I see the cops first and put it down until they can't see me. It takes about as much time to do that as it does to change the radio station or check your speed or look at your gps...should that be outlawed too? It is a problem when morons stare at their phone and type paragraphs at a time in heavy traffic. When they swerve, or don't see the cop watching them text, or miss the green light, that is distraction, that is bad, they should get a ticket for that.



The same thing with talking on a phone and driving.... The act of talking and holding a conversatoin is what is distracting, NOT the act of a phone being next to your head. We only mostly use one hand to drive anyway, what does it matter if my hand is next to my head or not? Blue tooth is super safe though right? I mean, your hand could be next to your hand, but now it is.....doing nothing, so that is so much safer . Some police need to use thier head and think, "my job is to protect and serve, and enforce laws that infringe upon others safety, NOT to be a nazi douche who has power and enforces the letter of the law even though that person wasn't endagering anyone".







Same thing with speeding, this brainwashing non-sense that tells people higher speed= higher danger is BS. Sure it has qucker reactions times and other higher risks...but those risks can easily be mitigated and pose less danger. If you are on the open road, you should be able to drive as fast as the conditions allow. Rarely is this more than 30 over the speed limit. If someone is over the speed limit and is tailgating or changing lanes erradically, even if he is under the speed limit. Give THAT guy a ticket, he is a danger. Or if they are angry, or not paying attention, they are dangerous, give them a ticket. But if they aren't causing any real danger, why give them a ticket other than to abuse your power because you can? We should have speed suggestions based on a clear day with moderate traffic, if it is rainy or heavy traffic, slow down a bit, if it is sunny and low traffic, faster should be allowed.



/rant

 

TL;DR.

Possible cliff notes: Texting while driving = bad. Texting while in a stationary vehicle, not impeding traffic = acceptable.

 

I agree with the cliff notes.

 

I read the whole post and I disagree with pretty much everything posted. If you are doing anything other than paying attention to the road while driving, you are distracted and at an increased chance of having a crash.





No, what is BS is that statement. There are actual study's that proved that higher speeds = higher danger.





While you may have no problem sending a text while driving, there are 1000's of other people who can't. I don't know how many times I've had to swerve out of my lane because of some dumb ass who was talking or texting on their phone. What I don't understand is WTF is so important that it can't wait till the car is parked/off?



PUT DOWN THE PHONE AND DRIVE!

 

When driving, you should be doing absolutely f*cking nothing else. Period. Not talking on the phone, not texting, not reading, not shaving or putting on makeup and not f*cking with your kids in the back seat (if they dropped their toy, let them f*cking scream. It's not going to kill them. You hitting the car in front of you might). Oh, and you should be 100% sober, not "just a little buzzed".