Should cell phones be treated as deadly weapons?

"No, I don't thank you for the fish at all" (notindetroit) 04/26/2014 at 13:31 • Filed to: Drivers' Education

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As many of you know, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in an ironic twist not even Jimmy Fallon can make up. !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , despite contradicting reports of cell phone use either !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! or !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Regardless of how dangerous texting and driving is, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

Drunk driving is such a hard problem to pin down and eliminate mostly in that, other than in directly catching them in the act (mainly through DUI checkpoints - which are not only !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! but are !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ) it's very hard to prevent once someone decides to throw their own personal responsibility out the window. DUI enforcement still relies on a great deal of after-the-fact investigation, including increasingly from !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! A complete return to Prohibition has been written off as impractical since the first time around - and, admittedly, is legitimately unfair to "the rest of us." That said, many jurisdictions are starting to implement programs requiring repeat offenders to !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! as a requirement for even starting their car - including, ironically enough, using !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

Of course, cell phone providers have been floating around the idea of actively jamming or shutting off cell phones in moving vehicles, but such measures have trouble gaining traction. Unlike alcohol, however, it's pretty easy to track down cell phone possession and usage - most smartphones have apps built right in that at least can be modified (or perhaps more accurately, misused) to track users down.

So what can be done? Should service providers implement jamming and blocking technology? Or, to the absolute extreme, should cell phones even be registered in the same way firearms are? Given how it's a political hot potato even within the firearms issue it's almost certainly a non-starter - but I can imagine a wave of concerned parents eagerly getting behind such a movement who would no doubt welcome such surveillance.

As with DUI enforcement, it will likely remain problematic as the present solutions come with chilling implications towards other freedoms and daily activities unable to outweigh public safety concerns.

image shamelessly stolen from the Gawker main site via Fox8 .

Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis > No, I don't thank you for the fish at all 04/26/2014 at 13:38

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Continuing tickets is a good way to start. Possibly going and making it a criminal offence if you cause an accident due to your distracted driving. But thats about it.

But the idea of stopping use of cell phones while driving is flawed at best because if you are a passenger there should be nothing stopping you from using your phone. But it is impossible for technology to tell the difference between a driver and a passenger.

ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) > No, I don't thank you for the fish at all 04/26/2014 at 13:39

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Not cellphones.

Cars.

Cars should be considered a weapon and registered as such.

Zipppy, Mazdurp builder, Probeski owner and former ricerboy > No, I don't thank you for the fish at all 04/26/2014 at 13:41

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No, they shouldn't. Too much work, and the responsibility falls on the driver. I feel that it should be treated like alcohol in the car in most cases, as the driver is technically driving under the influence.

jariten1781 > No, I don't thank you for the fish at all 04/26/2014 at 13:45

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Or, to the absolute extreme, should cell phones even be registered in the same way firearms are?

Most places firearms are not registered, as it should be.

Deaths per mile driven continue to fall every single year even as cell phones become more present. Until our overlords declare we must all ride in computer driven cars people are going to die (and kill people) doing stupid shit behind the wheel. Stigmatization and harsh consequences will work as well as anything else without catching up a bunch of innocents.

BlazinAce - Doctor of Internal Combustion > No, I don't thank you for the fish at all 04/26/2014 at 13:45

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You know... Drunk Driving I can actually understand where it comes from. I'm not saying I understand it in the sense of supporting it, nope, not even close, but I get that there are people who have issues of a physiological or social nature with alcohol, people who have actual problems with it. This, however is just too stupid.

AthomSfere > Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis 04/26/2014 at 13:45

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Not to mention using the phone for activities that are no dangerous or distracting. For example streaming music.

BlazinAce - Doctor of Internal Combustion > No, I don't thank you for the fish at all 04/26/2014 at 14:07

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Also, I don't think I'll ever understand the big fuss over DUI checkpoints. Unconstitutional, maybe, but what's the big deal? It's just stop, blow a thing, go on with your life.

M54B30 > No, I don't thank you for the fish at all 04/26/2014 at 14:40

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it's tough. If I text and drive, I get a ticket. but if I flip through a music album that's ok - though much more dangerous.

Also this lady is exactly what I'm afraid of when I'm on the road. Some idiot texting or taking pictures or posting on Facebook and being near me.

Diesel > No, I don't thank you for the fish at all 04/26/2014 at 14:41

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The thing that killed her was stupidity. Idiots should have to be registered.

Fred (FreddsterExprs) > No, I don't thank you for the fish at all 04/26/2014 at 17:51

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You can buy deadly weapons in most US states without much ado, or at least not enough ado for an object that is primarily designed to kill people. Why would seeing cellphones the same way change anything?

wiffleballtony > No, I don't thank you for the fish at all 04/26/2014 at 23:29

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No cell phones shouldn't be registered as weapons. Outside of all of the bureaucratic incompetence and enforcement complications that would add, people would continue to use phones while driving all it would serve is to punish them afterward, and make cell phones a burden for.the rest of us.

On a side not you dont have a constitutional right to a cell phone or a car.