Posts Tagged ‘driving’
Call for a car-phone ban is about as stupid as banning passengers – How about a ban on stupid bans?
The National Transportation Safety Board’s big, bold stroke encouraging all states to prohibit drivers from using cell phones faces a long, tortuous process in the nation’s statehouses…
This political reality stands out: Since states began legislating distracted driving or cell phone use in 2000, none has gone so far as to impose a complete ban on mobile devices behind the wheel, and only one state — Alaska — has considered such a blanket prohibition, just this year…
Barbara Harsha, executive director of the Governors Highway Safety Association, said opponents don’t like big government intrusions and savor their personal freedoms. “This is a controversial issue so you can assume it’s not going to pass right away,” Harsha said. “It’s going to take a long time for legislatures to pass laws, and a long time for states to begin to enforce the laws, and then a long time for behavior to start to change.
“The first seat-belt law was passed in the mid-’80s, and we’re now at 84 percent of drivers who are buckled up nationwide,” even though all states now have laws requiring drivers and passengers to wear seat belts, Harsha said…
In the past 10 years the NTSB has increasingly sought to limit the use of portable electronic devices — recommending bans for novice drivers, school bus drivers and commercial truckers. Tuesday’s recommendation, if adopted by states, would outlaw nonemergency phone calls and texting by operators of every vehicle on the road…
The initiative would apply to hands-free as well as hand-held devices, but devices installed in the vehicle by the manufacturer would be allowed, the NTSB said…
“There’s conflicting evidence” on whether hands-free cell phone conversations would be as unsafe as those by hand-helds, Harsha said, adding that more “definitive research” is needed. “If it shows both are unsafe, then a total ban may make the most sense,” she said.
There already are beaucoup studies proving that distractions are the cause – not the effect. The source of distraction affecting the human brain ranges from your passenger [if you have one] shouting “look at that!” – to noticing a particularly attractive member of the opposite sex in another car [depending on your gender identification I guess] – to a particularly uncomfortable gas pain.
Give mental pause whilst driving today – and reflect upon the artificial need for politicians to pass regulations to impress upon their peers and constituents alike that they’re earning their keep.
Muslim scholars say women driving will end virginity
I have a special pocket for my driver’s license
Allowing women drivers in Saudi Arabia will tempt them into sex, promote pornography and create more homosexuals, according to some conservative Muslim scholars.
Academics at the Majlis al-Ifta’ al-A’ala, which is Saudi Arabia’s highest religious council, said the relaxation of the rules would inevitably lead to “no more virgins”.
Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world where women are banned from driving.
The academics, working in conjunction with Kamal Subhi, a former professor at the conservative King Fahd University, produced the conclusions in a report for the country’s legislative assembly, the Shura Council.
It warned that allowing women to drive would “provoke a surge in prostitution, pornography, homosexuality and divorce“. Within 10 years of the ban being lifted, it claimed, there would be “no more virgins” in the Islamic kingdom.
It pointed out that “moral decline” could already be seen in those other Muslim countries in which women are allowed to drive…
The Saudi government is currently considering a proposal to ban women – already forced to cover up most of their body in public – from even displaying their eyes, if they are judged too “tempting”.
It’s useful once in a while to be reminded how completely useless and backwards a theocracy can be. Like monarchies. Or Congressional fact-finding committees.
Bus Driver using 2 phones – steering with his elbows
A bus driver in Rome who was caught using two cellphones and steering with his elbows while driving has been suspended, according to a local official.
Video of the driver talking on one phone and trying to configure his e-mail on another while taking passengers to Rome’s Ciampino Airport was posted online by the Italian newspaper La Repubblica on Wednesday.
Using even one cellphone while driving is against the law in Italy…
On Thursday, La Repubblica reported that a regional transport commissioner, Francesco Lollobrigida, said that the driver had been “suspended pending disciplinary proceedings.” Mr. Lollobrigida added that the action was “necessary to protect passengers and also the image of the many public transport workers who have impeccable behavior and who are the majority in this region…”
If the driver does lose his job, he might consider a move to Nevada in the near future. As my colleague John Markoff reported this week, Google, a pioneer of self-driving cars, “is quietly lobbying for legislation that would make Nevada the first state where they could be legally operated on public roads. And yes, the proposed legislation would include an exemption from the ban on distracted driving to allow occupants to send text messages while sitting behind the wheel.”
Har!
Toronto city bus driver recorded texting
The TTC bus driver was texting on a BlackBerry-like device while driving around 50 km/h when passenger Mike Schmitz took an iPhone photo of him.
The shot, taken on a 165 Weston Rd. North bus that was “full of people”, shows the driver focused on the device, and the orange needle of the bus speedometer pointing upwards…
The driver would alternate between holding the device with both hands and steering with his forearms, and driving with one hand while holding the device with the other and texting with his thumb, he said.
“This is incredibly serious,” said TTC spokesman Brad Ross, who got a glimpse of the photo on Thursday. “It would appear … that he’s doing at least 50 km/h while texting, and his eyes are not on the road.”
The TTC has “a clear policy” when it comes to prohibiting its drivers from using personal electronic devices — such as cellphones, BlackBerrys and iPhones — while on the job, Ross said. “This is a serious breach of public safety,” he said, adding that drivers are not allowed to talk on cellphones or text even while the vehicle is stopped…
As of Oct. 26, 2009, Ontario drivers have been banned from talking on cellphones, texting or using hand-held electronic devices of any kind while behind the wheel.
A bit more than an oops! No one needs to see bus drivers volunteering for a Darwin Award.
Dumbest thing to do while driving?
How long can you hold your breath – and why?
Four teenagers were injured after a driver fainted while holding his breath as part of a game being played in a moving car, Wheatland, N.Y., police said.
The teenagers were treated for minor injuries after the car hit a tree and a boulder, the Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle reported Wednesday.
The driver of the car, Bryan Parslow, 19, a paraplegic, and a passenger, Sean Parslow, 16, had to be freed from the vehicle Monday night by firefighters, the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office said. The other passengers were David Fox, 19, and Brian Sinclair, 19.
The driver and passengers allegedly told police they were holding their breath through the town of Garbutt when Bryan Parslow blacked out and lost control of the car.
Alcohol was not a factor in the accident, authorities said.
They didn’t say anything [publicly] about stupidity.
“I only have several mistresses – I’m not a polygamist!”
A French Muslim threatened with being stripped of his passport for practicing polygamy on Monday denied the accusation, saying he had only one wife and several mistresses.
The case of Lies Hebbadj, an Algerian-born butcher who became a French citizen when he married a French woman in 1999, has flared into a major political row with opposition parties accusing the government of exploiting the situation.
Hebbadj’s story came to light on Friday, when his wife complained she had been fined for driving while wearing an Islamic veil on the grounds that it was dangerous.
Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux accused Hebbadj of having four wives, who between them were claiming single parent benefits for his 12 children…
Hebbadj said only one was his wife and the others were lovers.
“If one can be stripped of one’s French nationality for having mistresses, then many French could lose theirs,” he told reporters in the Western city of Nantes, where he lives…
Local authorities on Monday launched an official investigation into the polygamy and benefit fraud claims.
One of the few situations where a trite phrase like “Damned if you do – Damned if you don’t” – fits.
Woman driver crashes – shaving her bikini line while driving
Fashion can be so demanding
A woman driver caused a pile-up after becoming distracted while shaving her bikini line.
Megan Mariah Barnes, 37, crashed into the back of a truck in the Florida Keys after giving her ex-husband the wheel as she shaved her private parts.
Barnes was driving to meet her boyfriend in Key West and told police she wanted to be “ready for the visit,” website WJZ.com reported.
Highway Trooper Gary Dunick said: “If I wasn’t there, I wouldn’t have believed it…
Barnes should not have been driving in the first place. The day before the accident she was banned for five years for drink driving.
There are distractions – and then there are distractions. And then there are crazy people with drivers licenses.
Head of German Protestants resigns after DWI bust
Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission
The head of Germany’s 25 million Protestants resigned on Wednesday after police stopped her for driving while under the influence of alcohol just four months after becoming the third woman to head a major Christian Church.
Known as the “pop bishop,” 51-year-old Margot Kaessmann is a regular on television talk shows and had been a controversial choice as head of Germany’s EKD, the main association of Protestant churches, because she is a divorced mother of four.
Betraying no emotion, Kaessmann told reporters she had made a grave mistake which she deeply regretted…
With immediate effect, she would give up her role as leader of the EKD, an umbrella group of 22 Lutheran, Reformed and United Churches, and as Lutheran bishop of Hanover, she said.
State prosecutors in the northern city of Hanover had said on Monday Kaessmann was under investigation and could lose her driver’s license for a year after police stopped her for shooting a red light on Saturday night.
She was found to have a blood-alcohol level that was more than three times the legal limit, the prosecutors said.
I wonder if we’d get a similar decision from the heads of American religious assemblies? Or would they follow the accepted pattern of shedding a few tears on TV – presume forgiveness from their invisible spirit – and carry on as if nothing unusual had occurred?
When did Brits become weather wimps?
Click on the image for a version NSFW
Fresh snowfall is forecast to hit parts of Britain today, with up to 5cm predicted in northern Scotland and in northern and western Wales, bringing warnings of icy roads.
5cm of snow. That’s about 2 fracking inches! That qualifies as snow flurries.
Lighter snow showers are expected in Merseyside, Shropshire and Derbyshire.
Temperatures dropped well below freezing overnight with a low of -7C recorded in Benson, Oxfordshire…
There were five separate crashes on Bonemill Lane in Sunderland yesterday morning and police were forced to close the road for an hour and a half. And an icy road surface led to a three-vehicle collision at a roundabout near Crowther Road in the city. Nobody was injured in any of the incidents, police said.
Is this the weather forecast from the UK – or Mexico?
“Temperatures will return towards the seasonal average of 4C to 6C, but it will remain quite chilly in Scotland with the potential for snow over the hills.”
It’s always chilly in Scotland except when it’s fracking freezing. But, my kin in the Outer Isles don’t panic over a snowstorm unless it produces serious accumulation.
My relatives up on PEI still tell of the winter a bear fell into the tunnel they would dig every winter between the house and barn – to get out to milk the cows. And my dad didn’t take me out to teach me how to drive in the snow until we had a “decent” 6-inch snowfall in Connecticut.
C’mon, folks. Whatever happened to those brave barechested bruisers I see on the telly cheering on Newcastle? Did the whole nation get relegated?
Norwegian couple busted for high-speed sex
A man faces a hefty fine and a driving ban after being caught having sex with his girlfriend while speeding on a motorway in Norway.
Officers initially trailed the couple’s car after noticing it was swerving from side to side and travelling at 20mph over the road’s speed limit.
But they soon realised the erratic driving was due to the woman “sitting on the man’s lap”, a police spokesman said.
After filming the exploit for evidence, they pulled them over at a rest area.
The 28-year-old man’s punishment will be decided within the next week, but police said he was likely to face a fine of several thousand Norwegian kroner and a lengthy driving ban…
“The vehicle was veering from one side to the other because the woman was sitting on the man’s lap while he was driving and doing the act, shall we say,” he added…
Despite her prominent role in the incident, the 21-year-old woman was permitted by police to drive her lover home.
Phew! I’m glad they weren’t on a motorcycle.
