Texting to blame for crash that killed 5 teens?

[grydth]

Great reply, I do not have reps for you I must spead the wealth first be back later for you.

MADD is always around every highschool in the area right before prom or graduation and still they drink and drive, at there age they do not believe it will happen to them.

Yes, but maybe those are having some effect with many kids....after all, we never see the accidents that don't happen.

 

[jks9199]

I just sent that link to my 16-year-old, text-crazed daughter, who is soon to be getting her drivers license.

Just a reminder...

As a parent, YOU are in control of your daughter's license and her opportunities to drive. Make sure you know the laws, and don't forget that... I've run into quite a few parents who seem to think that there's nothing they can do once their kid gets licensed, or who don't pay attention to the details and limits on the license. (I found one parent who was absolutley shocked to discover that they couldn't give their kid permission to drive later than the law permits...)

 

[BrandiJo]

Laws wont fix this problem, Teens need parents who are active and alert, my dad caught me txting on my cell phone once when i was 17 i lost my phone for a months ...guess what i didnt do it again till i was 19 and away at college!
I would also agree that teens arnt the worst drivers out there. i have been for fearful of the elderly man driving 45 on the interstate thats marked 75 then the teen whos flying past him doing 80.

 

[Flatlander]

I'll chime in here with my opinion that new laws are totally unnecessary. There is very likely already a law on the books - here it's called "driving without due care and attention". It isn't a criminal law, and is punishable only by fine, but it exists nonetheless.

These types of tragedies are generally all resultant from the same issues:

- the belief that operating a motor vehicle is a right
- the belief that safe operation of a motor vehicle and good driving habits can be learned by anyone with minimal training
- the belief that road safety can be effectively controlled with relatively light penalties such as minor fines and, in extreme cases, temporary license suspensions.

It seems to me that we'd have safer roads if significantly more training was required, drivers licenses became much more expensive, and disobedience of traffic laws resulted in much more serious consequences. However, these things are very unlikely to happen, because people are generally more concerned with convenience than safety. Simply put, "Bad things can only happen to other people", right?

 

[Mr. E]

People need to start thinking....We have enough laws.
We need more brains.

But it seems to qualify as a "civilized" society we need to insure that those without brains never have to live with the consequences of their stupid decisions. Usually at great expense to the taxpayer.

Where is the need to be smart when others will clean up after your mess?

Take a trip to the local library and find some of the variants on the classic Aesop fable of the grasshopper and the ant. You will have to look hard to find one that has the grasshopped dying of starvation now.

But lets remember that we expect kids to be brainless. That is why Americans do not let them buy pistols or alcohol until they hit 21. But even in America far more people die because of car crashes than firearms and yet at age 16 you can get behind the wheel of a car and drive.

Maybe that needs to change. Why on earth do kids this age need to be able to drive? Why give something that kills as many people as automobiles to people that are not considered responsible for their own actions yet?

 

[Grenadier]

You can enact all the laws you want, but people will still violate the laws, plain and simple. I could, for example, get all sorts of laws making it illegal for people to use text messaging while driving, yet, there will be plenty of violators. Or, I could enact more laws that make murder even more illegal, yet, there are going to be people who will still commit murder no matter how unlawful I try to make such an act.

I've always been of the belief, that the solution to such a problem, takes much more time than any quick fix, feel-good law that an opportunistic politician can make. Such an approach requires that a parent strongly emphasize a good sense of what is right and wrong within a child, when the child is much younger.

This way, perhaps common sense can be instilled, and more strongly developed as the child grows older. Even at the tender age of 16, when they start driving (or 15 in some places...), those who follow common sense, are going to be much less likely to get into accidents than those who defy logic.

Despite a certain shrieking politician asserting that "it takes a village," I'll simply say "hogwash" to that claim. It takes good parenting, since there is no greater influence on a child's life, than what the parents do. Maybe it's time for those who are parents of young children to step up and make sure about their levels of common sense. Otherwise, by the time that they really need that common sense, it may already be too late.

 

[Darksoul]

-Just a reminder, to all young people and to all parents, and to everyone. Driving, i.e. a driver's liscense, is a PRIVILEGE, not a right. It can be taken away. You either learn the consequences of your actions, or you don't and then you and/or others suffer.

Andrew

 

[CoryKS]

I can't imagine that there's any law you could pass that would have more impact than the cold hard fact that IF YOU DO THIS, YOU CAN ****ING DIE. Once a person has said "fiddle-dee-dee" to that inconvenient truth, no law is going to change their behavior.