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Utah Law Punishes Texters As Much As Drunks In Driving Fatalities
The NY Times reports on legislation in Utah which harshly penalizes people who cause fatal car accidents while texting. Instead of merely facing a fine, offenders may now get up to 15 years in jail — the same as drunk drivers.
"In effect, a crash caused by such a multitasking motorist is no longer considered an 'accident' like one caused by a driver who, say, runs into another car because he nodded off at the wheel. Instead, such a crash would now be considered inherently reckless. 'It's a willful act,' said Lyle Hillyard, a Republican state senator and a big supporter of the new measure. 'If you choose to drink and drive or if you choose to text and drive, you're assuming the same risk.' The Utah law represents a concrete new response in an evolving debate among legislators around the country about how to reduce the widespread practice of multitasking behind the wheel — a topic to be discussed at a national conference about the dangers of distracted driving that is being organized by the Transportation Department for this fall."
I agree with Utah.
Wow, that felt dirty.
"Useless organic meatbag" -HK-47
I've got superhuman reflexes, godlike judgement, and 99.99th-percentile driving skills, so those rules constitute an unconstitutional burden! I can easily thread through cross-traffic in an intersection or use the two-millisecond rule for following, with perfect safety -- as long as all the other drivers refrain from their usual rank idiocy.
Oh, sorry, I though this was a speed-limit thread.
I didn't think it was that funny.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
My biggest beef with public transportation is the seats are generally set up in pairs of two. I take up almost 1.5 of the seats, I'm not fat, they're just rather small... I need to literally turn my shoulders on a 45 degree angle if someone is to sit comfortably beside me, and I'm not really that large of a person.
Now, enter the obese person who is all sweaty from lumbering to the bus... who literally COULD take up both of the seats in a pair... who somehow doesn't realize they can't even fit a single ass cheek on the .5 of seat that is left, and then proceed to try to fit into that space, ramming me against the side of the bus with their sweaty fat folds. Not really productive when my cell phone in my pocket is buried under a wave of someone else's sweaty fat. 2 weeks ago, one guy did this who smelled so bad that when I got to work, my boss could smell the fat sweat off of me. Thank god I bring a change of clothes for working out, I just wore them instead.
I've been taking public transportation for years and ignorant fat people are my longest running complaint. If it was once or twice, I wouldn't care... but it's more like once a month. /rant
I would estimate I've done it about 30 times over the last 6 months of driving.
That is roughtly 30 times too much.
Give or take 0.
No sig for you. YOU GET NO SIG!
I personally prefer "cops at my door brb in 25 to life"
why can't more drivers get the message?
I thought that's what they were doing that was causing all the problems.
An SQL query goes to a bar, walks up to a table and asks, "Mind if I join you?"
We need to reduce the cost of running the prisons.
Put the prison out in the dessert = no need to build expensive walls.
Here in Australia it costs more to keep an inmate than it does to put a worker on a mining site. If the private sector can put fly-in fly-out workers in the dessert cheaper than the current prison system, to me that solves the problem.
Build a prison in the bottom of an abandoned mining pit and a single rifleman at the top of the access ramp will be sufficient to thwart any escape attempt, even if they do escape who cares they will die long before they reach any settlement.
An SQL query goes to a bar, walks up to a table and asks, "Mind if I join you?"