Learn to Drive, argh!!!!!

[SoonerDave]

Okay, stand by for Personally Observed Rant Mode.

I'm driving my family home from a birthday lunch for my mother-in-law, who lives in the Mustang/Yukon area. I'm going east on (as I recall? 15th), and I notice in my rear-view mirror a small, pukish red car weaving in and out of their inside line as if they were drunk. And I mean big swerves; halfway into westbound traffic, then swerves back halfway into the rightmost lane.

I have to slow and move to the rightmost lane to turn south, meaning this joker is going to be at my side. And as they pull up...I notice its some idiot about 18 years of age, head stuck on her phone, texting her brains out. And she's still weaving. I slow even further to allow her to get distinctly ahead of me, and then I honk my horn in abject frustration. When we get to the intersection, I notice she's put the phone down, so I at least make my turn in the hopes the horn-honk startled her out of her texting mode for a couple hundred yards. That's the kind of thing that gets people killed. I would have called the cops myself and reported her myself, but the only way I could have done that was to use the phone while driving myself. Didn't think hypocrisy was the best course to take.

I don't know what we've got to do to keep idiots like this from using their phones and driving their four-wheeled missiles into innocent drivers, pedestrians, or other bystanders. But I'm ready for selecting tasing. These idiots have to be stopped. I'm beginning to realize that it is so pervasive, its actually more of a public health and safety risk than drunk driving.

Rant mode off.

[Just the facts]

Banks are also closed. However, are you insinuating that the government employees are bad drivers or that government employees make other drivers worse? Myth Busters tackled this subject and found that frustration, stress, and pressure are the sources of bad driving. Add more cars and frustration/stress/pressure go up causing otherwise sane people to do insane things.

[SoonerDave]

Banks are also closed. However, are you insinuating that the government employees are bad drivers or that government employees make other drivers worse? Myth Busters tackled this subject and found that frustration, stress, and pressure are the sources of bad driving. Add more cars and frustration/stress/pressure go up causing otherwise sane people to do insane things.

Even during normal days of operation, bank employees aren't adding traffic at 6-7AM.

[RadicalModerate]

Okay, stand by for Personally Observed Rant Mode.
And as they pull up...I notice its some idiot about 18 years of age, head stuck on her phone, texting her brains out. And she's still weaving. That's the kind of thing that gets people killed.
I don't know what we've got to do to keep idiots like this from using their phones and driving their four-wheeled missiles into innocent drivers, pedestrians, or other bystanders. These idiots have to be stopped. I'm beginning to realize that it is so pervasive, its actually more of a public health and safety risk than drunk driving.

Rant mode off.

Question: How many accidents have been caused by not wearing a seatbelt?
Answer: Zero

Question: How many accidents have been caused by the use of mobile devices while steering?
Answer: Thousands upon thousands.

Question: How many traffic stops and tickets are based on not wearing a seatbelt?
Answer: Too many.

Question: How many traffic stops and tickets are based on failing to pay full time and attention to driving, specifically in regard to using mobile communication devices?
Answer: Not nearly enough (if any).

Does this really make sense? (no)

[rezman]

Just watched this. I can't find a single flaw in the reason for the stop or the procedure.
(as long as the person who was pulled over was only given a warning/suggestion for improvment)
(dang . . . i actually had something positive t' say about Edmond PD . . . =)

Thanks Anon . . . I guess that nice friendly wave-back from that danged ol' bicycle rider a corner-cuttin' a parking lot who realized I wuz a-watchin' out for him kinda made me more aware of stuff like this here . . . =) (again: thanks, sincerely.)

How about this: New Oklahoma Vanity License Plate (including bringing back the "Dreamcatcher/WarShield" icon:
Drive Friendly Or Else OK?
Oklahoma is OK Stupid Driving is Not =)

I would say they are dead on as well. The problem I have is that there is little education pertaining to this matter, and no signs or street markings anywhere, so just like the seatbelt laws, this is used as probable cause to see what else they can dig up.

[SoonerDave]

Question: How many accidents have been caused by not wearing a seatbelt?
Answer: Zero

Question: How many accidents have been caused by the use of mobile devices while steering?
Answer: Thousands upon thousands.

Question: How many traffic stops and tickets are based on not wearing a seatbelt?
Answer: Too many.

Question: How many traffic stops and tickets are based on failing to pay full time and attention to driving, specifically in regard to using mobile communication devices?
Answer: Not nearly enough (if any).

Does this really make sense? (no)

Unfortunately, this very notion is in keeping with our general trend in terms of government - protect you from yourself rather than from the other guy. Combine that with the fact that seat belt laws make for lucrative, high-opportunity, low-overhead enforcement, and the rest falls out pretty readily.

Can't quite remember the last time I was quite as angry at another driver as I was this woman I mentioned earlier. Not just that she was texting while driving, but that she was completely oblivious to the fact that she was weaving every bit as recklessly and dangerously as a drunk driver. My first thought was that she was either drunk, high, or maybe both. (Who knows; in retrospect, maybe she was). And she goes merrily along her way until she kills someone. But we're safe from all those non-seat-belters! (Insert more Yosemite Sam swearing...)

[Just the facts]

No seat-belt laws would be great if the taxpayers and other insured people didn't have to pick up the bill for the injuries. But since we do, buckle up.

[kevinpate]

FWIW, not all banks are closed today. A to the friendly folks at IBC (my local branch was open anyway.)

[MustangGT]

No seat-belt laws would be great if the taxpayers and other insured people didn't have to pick up the bill for the injuries. But since we do, buckle up.

Agreed. SoonerDave in OKC a seatbelt ticket is only $20.00. Hardly a high profit/lucrative enforcement tool.

[kevinpate]

a seatbelt ticket is only $20.00. Hardly a high profit/lucrative enforcement tool.

But makes for a right handy LEO excuse .... sometimes.

[SoonerDave]

No seat-belt laws would be great if the taxpayers and other insured people didn't have to pick up the bill for the injuries. But since we do, buckle up.

Go after the real cause of the overwhelming majority of the things that create the need for seatbelts - the drunks, the junkies, the texters, the chronic incompetents, the red-light runners, the speeders - and you'll drop "taxpayer/other insureds" costs a bunch more than ticketing the perpetrators of the cause of exactly *zero* accidents - seatbelt violators.

Just a matter of proper priority.

[Just the facts]

Are you saying that seat-belt enforcement is taking preciously law enforcement time and money away from those other issues?

[SoonerDave]

Are you saying that seat-belt enforcement is taking preciously law enforcement time and money away from those other issues?

If *one* seat belt ticket is written, youbetcha.

Sorry, just not a fan of seat belt laws. I buckle up, always did, always will, but don't need the Nanny State to require it. As for the rest, its because of the reasons I've already stated - plenty of other urgent actual threats on the road that should be addressed.

[RadicalModerate]

I believe that focusing on accident prevention is more important than focusing on accident survivability.

(e.g.: If the f**in' moron hadn't been texting in traffic the accident--that I was buckled up for--wouldn't have happened in the first place. Even insurance companies--and the rest of us--should be able to get behind THIS order of priorities/cause and effect.)

Oh! And if seatbelts are such a great idea then why aren't automobile drivers required to wear helmets too as some states require of motorcycle riders? If one ounce of survivablity is good then a couple more pounds has to be great!

But this thread is about sh*tty drivers . . . not sh*tty laws. Please forgive my swerving off topic. =)

This one just flew in from ancient childhood memories (I don't know how because I wasn't even born when this was):

I guess it's true that the more things change, the more they stay the same (except for a general downtrend in common sense and intelligence)

[ljbab728]

Are you saying that seat-belt enforcement is taking preciously law enforcement time and money away from those other issues?

It obviously takes time away from this important issue.

http://www.okctalk.com/current-event...fine-hike.html

[RadicalModerate]

It obviously takes time away from this important issue.

http://www.okctalk.com/current-event...fine-hike.html

Surely, you can't be inferring that the funds generated from The Littery couldn't be used for a wee bit o' pavement paint in the vicinity of . . . oh, i dunno . . . left turns adjacent to "traffic islands" . . . say . . . in Edmond to provide motorists with a reminder of proper vehicle placement in terms of safely executing the turn without fear of being pulled over and reminded of their mistake . . . r' u'? =)

BumperSticker/Vanity License Plate Suggestion:
"Don't Lay That Trash on Oklahoma. Not OK. Or Else."

(p.s.: i don't litter.)