[SDCBC] FW: bike safety and good neighbor relations

[Serge Issakov]

There are huge differences between drunk driving and "inattentive
driving" in general.

First, you can objectively determine how drunk a driver is - you can't
objectively determine how inattentive a driver is.
At best, even using a cell phone is an indicator of inattentiveness,
but it is not nearly as cut and dried an indicator of being dangerous
to others as is a BAC level of .08 or higher.

Second, drunk driving is easily preventable.  How much control one has
over not being distracted is not nearly as clear.  In fact, we
probably have much less control over it than we would like to have.
It's unrealistic to expect disciplined jet fighter or race car driver
focus and attention out of ordinary folks on their way to work.

Serge


On 10/11/07, mark wolfe <markw at wolfenet.org> wrote:
> Abulifia wrote:
> > Yakking on a mobile phone while driving should be ::BANNED:: period.
>
> Be careful with what you wish for.  Eating when driving will be banned,
> smoking while driving should be banned, putting on makeup while driving
> should be banned, changing radio stations should be banned, etc..
> Anything that can distract a driver while driving should be banned if
> you think along those lines, and that could be a long list.  Personally
> I think laws like this are useless. If anything, stricter penalties for
> being stupid while driving can fix the problem.   It's just too bad in
> our society that we don't punish people.  Look at DUI's more people
> actually think about taking a DD or cutting the drinking off early than
> they did 20 years ago.   Same thing has to happen for driving
> distractions.  If you cause an accident due to your inattentiveness, you
> get hung out to dry, huge fines, etc.   A DUI in CA will cost you a
> minimum of $10k, similar should happen for causing an accident while
> being inattentive.  Banning all these activities that people do won't
> stop them from doing it.
>
> Mark
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-- 
NOTE: Any opinions expressed above are mine and not necessarily shared
by any organization in which I am involved.