it's illegal in UK to use mobile device whilst driving. In some places in germany, traffic lights have been put in the pavement to stop people on their phones walking in front of moving traffic. It would appear that some - predominantly young - device users have stepped out in front of moving buses to their severe injury.
anonuk Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > it's illegal in UK to use mobile device whilst > driving. In some places in germany, traffic > lights have been put in the pavement to stop > people on their phones walking in front of moving > traffic. It would appear that some - > predominantly young - device users have stepped > out in front of moving buses to their severe > iit's illegal in the state of New York, as well.
Ugh. A pet peeve. It should he considered a wanton disregard for life if they harm someone else. Phones can be set to answer calls and texts with "I'm driving."
I was stuck behind a young man on the interstate, 65mph, amd could see the position of his head in his side-view mirror. He almost ran into the guard rail on the left side, then the semi-truck on his right, and both times his face was pointed down. When I got the chance, I raced to pass him. Nothing else I could do.
I wouldn't say phones make people stupid, just distracted, sometimes to the point of being dangerous.
I take my phone with me on dog walks in case there's an emergency, or in case I lock myself out of the house accidentally (I can call a friend who keeps a key). The phone is clipped to my waistband and I wear bluetooth headphones to listen to music because OMG dog walking gets boring around the 1,000th mile, lemmetellya. But I keep both hands free to deal with the dog at all times. My mission is to empty the dog; distraction is dangerous.
Yesterday, I was walking the dog and saw this woman walking her goldendoodle (which are not aggressive dogs in general, just aggressively friendly) with her phone glued to her ear. She had one hand on the leash and was paying exactly ZERO attention to her dog. Her dog spotted my dog (75 lb pitbull who LOVES other dogs), and started across the street for a nice butt sniffing session. This woman got dragged out into the street -- and the dog is maybe 50 pounds -- before any situational awareness kicked in at all. She switched hands and pulled herself and her dog back to the sidewalk without ever putting the phone away. One hand, she's trying to control a 50-pound dog. The dog was in total control of her instead. She's lucky it wasn't a busy street or that the BUS route doesn't run down that street anymore. She and the dog could have been smack run right over and she'd have literally never known what hit her.
I don't use my phone at all in my car. I can even answer hands-free, by pressing a button on my steering wheel. Unless I am expecting a call, I don't. I let it go to voice mail. Because even if my hands are free, my brain is not. I am trying to keep myself and others around me alive and I've noticed how distracted I am trying to have a conversation while driving.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/24/2016 09:58AM by dogzilla.
It amazes me how many people have stepped out in front of,or walked behind my moving vehicle in parking lots while they're on the phone. I guess they think they're safer there?
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/24/2016 02:29PM by madalice.
kolobian Wrote: ----------------------------------- > They bought their tickets. They knew what they were getting into. I say... LET 'EM CRASH! ================================== I would say that too... Except these kind of butt-brains might just hurt or kill an innocent person. Or dog.
Several years ago at one of the Trax stations (light rail) in Salt Lake, an SLCC student was busy texting on her cell phone, so busy that she walked right into the path of the oncoming Trax train. Killed her instantly. I don't know if cell phones make you stupider but in her case, she isn't going to get any smarter.
My pet peeve is when you have someone who is on the phone and they are at the cash register trying to pay. Had that happen yesterday and the person was so distracted that it took her forever just to pay. The lady behind her was not to happy for having to wait on her to get her act together and I don't blame her either.
It is so rude to the cashier when people go through the line yakking on their cell phones. The cashier is required to be polite and acknowledge the customer, maybe to say did you find everything you need.. in the meantime the customer is totally tuned out, just as if they were at a machine instead of interacting with another human being. They don't even make eye contact. Oh my gosh. I would last about 3 minutes in that job and then I would slap somebody silly.
Sometimes people use their cell phones to price match at whatever store they're at. I often do it at Best Buy and Walmart. But I try not to hold up other customers.
I never talk on my phone checking out at a store. It's just rude.
Many stores will allow you to buy an item that another store or online source is selling for a lower price, which you prove to them via your smart phone.
In other words, the bluetooth speaker you're looking at in a Target store is $3 less at Fry's. You take it up to the Customer service desk where they confirm this and you pay $3 less than their store price PLUS the 5% off with your Red Card.
Even when the difference is slight, it's just fun to do!!
I know and my TBM dad's mouth sometimes drops at the price difference.
When I first got my Blu Ray player, I was often upgrading my DVD's to it. My TBM parents and I often went to our Best Buy in Twin Falls. I'd often either use my phone or write of list of prices cheaper than them. Sometimes even their own website. When we got done with the transaction, my parents mouth dropped.
Now I do for my TBM dad since my mom passed during November of 2013. He's harder to do it for. But sometimes he asks my to price match. It's run.
See that I don't mind. Plus a lot of my customers use their phones to pull up their coupons and I can scan them off the phone itself. Makes it easier for both my customer and I.
I stopped at a red light and she stopped behind me and took our her phone to talk. She didn't notice that her car hit mine three times before I beeped to get her attention and motioned her to wake up. The person in front of me was angry of course because he thought I was beeping at him.The woman gave herself a sock in the head to show she hadn't been paying attention. I motioned for her to pull over but she sped around the corner and was gone.
No damage to my car, but the impact hurt my neck and I had to have expensive chiropractic care for two or three months until the pain abated.
We have laws against using handson cell phones in cars where I live. I wish a policemen would have seen this woman and given her a ticket. I'll bet she didn't learn a thing from the experience.
uh, no. People were stupid long before the mobile phones showed up to reveal their stupidity. But today I decided to rename our Office Call and Exam Examination Fee to "Professional Supervision of Cell Phone Bonding Time". I'm a veterinarian and it is often a complete waste of my time talking to clients as I'm examining their pets, because they are f*ing with their phones their entire time I'm looking at their pets. And they NEVER (or almost never) have ANY questions for me when I finish my examination. What a waste. They're paying for me to help them and assist them with their pet care and their pet's health care, but they'd rather screw with their "screen job" instead. Arrrg.
When I lived in Las Vegas, Clark County adopted really strict bans on using phones while driving. It was supposed to go into effect on January 1, 2013 (IIRC). The first of October they started giving warning tickets, starting with $50, then the next was $100 and the next was $250.00, which would then result in suspension of driver’s license.
I worked with a girl in her 20’s and she literally was never away from her phone. The job she did for our company was to answer customer emails and she kept getting put on notice for not doing the required amount (because she never put her phone away.)
On the way to work the first day in October, she got stopped and got that $50.00 ticket.
The next week, she got the $100 ticket IN THE EXACT SAME SPOT on her way to work. Her husband took her phone away and didn’t give it back for several weeks and she was just miserable.
She was assigned to work on January 1, and on the way to work you can guess what happened. She had her driver license suspended and had to find rides to work, and had to work without her phone. And of course, she bitched and moaned about it the whole time.
We didn’t work together much longer so I’m not sure what happened after that.
I was driving home from work and my phone rang. I did not answer it. My boss hollered at me for not answering my phone when I saw that he'd called and called him back when I got home. When he got on my case for not answering the phone "right away" I told him that I don't talk on the phone when I am driving and never will!
He told me I was stupid and walked away scowling. I said to his back: "I'd rather be stupid than dead!"
Wow. HUGE liability issues for the company. We had to sign a no-phones while driving for company policy, no answering bosses or anything. Bosses signed, too. When a company agent (boss) might threaten an employee's livlihood if the employee refuses to engage in reckless behavior, that is just begging for a lawsuit.
Sorry - a primary concern was being sued by the family of whomever the employee might crash into/harm. Not so much the employees, though that was a concern as well.
Cell phones don't "make" people stupid. They can be a tool for revealing who among us is stupid enough to not pay attention to their surroundings, though :)