reflexblue

I'm sure everyone knew this was going to happen eventually. I've often wondered do these people spend this much time at home on the phone. There could be a thread about the "worst distracted driver" you've ever seen. Mine would be about the women who drove past me one morning in front of my house balancing a large bowl of what i presumed was cereal on the bottom (rung)of the steering wheel. She had the spoon in her rt hand while griping the wheel and the rim of the bowl at the same time. In her Lt. hand she was dialing a cell phone with her thumb,holding on to the steering wheel with maybe two fingers.... Out and out reckless behavior.

Shingletown woman gets six years in prison for fatal texting crash : Latest News : Redding Record Searchlight

A Shingletown woman was sentenced this afternoon to six years in prison after she was convicted last month of gross vehicular manslaughter for ramming into the back of a car in 2007 while she was texting on a cell phone.

Deborah Matis-Engle , 49, must serve 50 percent of her prison sentence before being eligible for parole.

Matis-Engle was speeding and text-messaging on her cell phone on the afternoon of Aug. 13, 2007, when she slammed into a line of cars waiting at a Highway 44 construction zone, causing one of them to explode into flames,.

Petra Monika Winn, 46, of Redding died when her car, which was at the end of the line of the waiting vehicles, became engulfed in fire after being rear-ended.

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DarrylS

I do not disagree with the sentence.. there has been an increase of laws that ban cell phone use while driving.. on one hand it is a good thing, otoh the police have better things to do than stop people for this.

Personally cannot talk on the phone and drive, my brain is not wired that way, have to keep it short or pull over.. suspect there are others with the same circuitry.

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reflexblue

I just feel its dangerous. If i'm going top make a call i pull over somewhere. But thats rare,i'm not going to call someone just to BS while i'm driving.

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sdaniels7114

I try to make it a habit to dial while stopped, but the speed dialing features available today tempt me so I don't always follow my rule. I figure you shouldn't be banning cell calls outright unless you'll ban in person conversations while driving too. You can't get a pilot's license unless you have the ability to talk over the radio and fly at the same time. Imagine the chaos at airports if none of the pilots responded to ATC because they were all 'driving'

Texting is another matter altogether. I got a full-sized split-type keyboard with an ergonomic wrist rest and I wouldn't even dream of composing this message while driving. Doing it with my cell phone seems super crazy. Then again I don't really get texting at all. Why not just call the person? I can see if you just had to give a person something like a phone number or if you were goofing off in history class; but I really don't get why this has gotten so popular.

tanked_as_usual

like what? pulling people over for doing a 43 in a 35?

she is no different than a drunk driver who achieves the same result........if its killing people, then the police have to respond

wistahpatsfan

Some people can do more than one thing at a time...I'm not one of them. If I was in a car and the driver started texting, I'd open the door, jump out and take my chances that way. It's the same as reading the paper. I have a very hard time even talking on the cell when I'm driving. I usually pull over. Did anyone ever have a cell phone "blackout"? You're driving and talking and next thing you know you've missed your exit and are ten miles out of your way and you don't remember a thing about where you went while you were talking. I get that way when I'm listening to Glen Beck.

DarrylS

So you think just passing more and more laws are the answer.. police do have other things to do than chase cell phone users around. Put the focus on the cell phone industry and do not allow them work while cars are moving.

If you read the post I agree with the sentence imposed.. read the post before you respond.

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Wildo7

Take away her license for life, but prison for 6 years? She's not malicious nor is she a threat to society. Draconian punishments like this are a travesty.

"Tell that to the family of the deceased" I'm sure will be the routine right wing caveat, but this doesn't accomplish anything. Eye for an eye justice is no justice at all. Punishing this lady is not going to bring back the dead.

tanked_as_usual

what else do police have to do? like I said, catch people driving 43 in a 35?

I believe it is more important than the seatbelt law since you are only hurting yourself when you do that......

it's not about taking the time to enforce it........it's about providing liability protection for the person in the other car.....or in the crosswalk.......

it is no different than any other law that is 'literally unenforcable'......

Harry Boy

I had sex once at 4:00 AM 0n Rt 128, I was driving, I had to peek around her to see where I was going, speed limit was 55 I was doing 83, I think I hit 90 when she started singing.

I put the seat belt around both of us, when we were all done and she stopped singing we couldn't get out of the god damn seat belt, I pulled into a rest area in Norwood there were two guys having sex in there we waited until they were done then asked them to help us get the seat belt off.
She's dead now, I always smile when I put my seat belt on, my wife thinks there's something wrong me.

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