I hope this doesn't make sense to you folks.

[cjsmith]

Seen in someone else's journal, a story: a maniac driver runs a red light at apparently a pretty good clip, and hits a car whose female driver is on the phone.

First comment indicates a wish that the cellphone got permanently implanted in the head of the woman who was hit. It goes on to say she was probably putting on makeup at the time.

Wow. First off, let's note the casual bigotry. If the driver who was hit hadn't been noted in the story as female, that lovely throwaway comment about the makeup wouldn't have been in there. Would the first part have been? Next let's take a look at the fact that the commenter is more ticked at someone for being on the phone (and yeah, being female) than at someone who RAN A RED LIGHT AND HIT ANOTHER CAR. O-kay. I know there are links between cellphone use and distraction while driving, but this gal DIDN'T run the light, and was thus to my mind quantifiably less dangerous at that time than the person who did run the light. I sure know which driver I'd rather share the road with. But this commenter defended his comment, saying it was every driver's responsibility to look out for others and he just hates it when women put on makeup in the car.

Bat shit, holy man.

Comments

[platypus]

Yes, and I HATE GOLF PENCILS! Hate them!

What, your story had nothing whatsoever to do with golf pencils? But but but... I hate golf pencils!

[wcg.livejournal.com]

I know! You can't get any kind of a decent swing with them! Try to use them as tees, and the balls fall right off! And they don't fly worth a flip either. What good are they?

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

Hey, I beg to differ. If you stick them in the ground point *down*, and there's no wind, and the landscape is perfectly level, sometimes, if a miracle also occurs, you can get the ball to sort of hover there for a few seconds before it falls off. So, yeah, they can be used as tees. Sometimes. Sort of. :P

[wcg.livejournal.com]

That's just bizarre.

[msmichelle.livejournal.com]

I just happened to see a guy in my neighborhood pull over for a call today, instead of drivin' and yappin'. I was impressed.
I agree though. How ridiculous a statement regarding the woman who was the victim of a crazy driver.

[fuzzygruf.livejournal.com]

That person's comment really caught me offguard. Sorry you took flak for speaking up appropriately.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Oh, no prob. I don't attribute it to you. :) I like your reply wondering what the conversation was like! That was funny!

[ericainohio.livejournal.com]

So she can put on makeup AND talk on the phone at the same time? What is she, a squid? Dude, decide on a sexist stereotype and stick with it. Using too many stereotypes at once can be fatal to those with such limited intelligence.

[cathepsut.livejournal.com]

Didn't you know that women can multi-task? That's why, in a larger group of us, we can have several coverstaions at the same time.

Poor, simple men, who can only do one thing at a time...

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I wonder if any of the studies about driver distraction actually take sex into account. It would be interesting. I doubt anyone will do it though -- it might produce data we don't want to see!

[cathepsut.livejournal.com]

Well, in Europe there are CHEAPER car insurances around for WOMEN ONLY, because it is a known fact that they have less accidents then men. Probably because they don't drive with their d%$&.... :)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

People in the US would never for an instant believe there is something women do better than men... except childcare.

[kimatha.livejournal.com]

Why do you hate America? Why do you hate freedom?

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

*splorfle* Perfect! :)

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

I roll my eyes like an eye-rolly thing.

I, of course, am the Devil Incarnate because I own a...dare I say it? I own a Sports Utility Vehicle. *scream* Run away!!!!

[elflet.livejournal.com]

So, if I see you on the road, I'm supposed to say "Get thee behind me, Sportsman"?

[dawnd.livejournal.com]

Actually, there have been studies that show that, although cell phones ARE a distraction and can lead to accidents, they are no more likely to do so than any other distraction, such as talking to another passenger in the seat next to you, or changing the channel on the radio, or trying to deal with an unruly child in the backseat, or any of a number of other things that are currently still legal and likely to remain so. The problem is a lack of attention, not the phone in particular.

But yeah, what a load of horsecrap that the woman was somehow to blame in this scenario. Glad you spoke up.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Another good point. I don't subscribe to the Cell Phones = Satan religion, but I've learned not to argue with those who do.

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

I can't cite anything, but I had read somewhere that eating while driving is far more distracting and causes more accidents than cell phone usage. This makes sense to me - dripping ketchup on your pants leg *is* distracting.

[lkeele.livejournal.com]

There was a story in the news (when I was just learning to drive, thus I had it shown to me many times) about a young girl who was changing the station on her radio, and ran over some pour soul mowing his lawn...

[lkeele.livejournal.com]

Hmm, that's funny, because I just hate bigots, myself.

[submarine-bells.livejournal.com]

First off, I would like to agree with the main point made in the original post that the driver of a stationary vehicle is unlikely to be hugely to blame in that sort of accident just because they're using a cellphone at the time of the accident. However, as a road safety researcher I will say that I believe that using cellphones while driving is *really* dumb. I don't have time to dig out a nice long list of research papers about this right now, but for a start I will point folk who are interested at this (http://www.monash.edu.au/muarc/reports/muarc206.html) for a start... it's a review of recent-ish (2003)literature on driver distraction issues, including mobile phones. The abstract I linked to does mention the thing that klwalton refers to: A recent study revealed that a greater proportion of drivers involved in traffic accidents are distracted by eating or drinking (1.7%) than by talking on a mobile phone (1.5%).

However, one point that often gets overlooked in such debates is the issue of task pacing. It's very true that distraction of any sort while driving can be dangerous. However, a critical difference between cellphone use and other in-car distractions is that CD-player twiddling and eating stuff are tasks that the driver has control of the pacing of and can stop doing during times that external driving conditions require more attention. Coversation with someone else in the car can ebb and flow according to driving circumstances also - a passenger can see that the driver is about to perform a u-turn and hold off nattering or asking questions at that point, which makes it easier for the driver to apply more attention to the driving task. However, someone on the other end of a cellphone conversation has no idea what the driver is doing, and is going to expect that the driver has their full attention, and will converse accordingly. This is likely to lead to more attention being required by the conversation at nconvenient-to-driving times, which in turn increases the chances of an accident occurring because the driver wasn't paying attention to their driving at a critical moment.

So yeah, I have a cellphone but I refuse to have telephonic conversations while driving. On the rare occasions that the phone rings while I'm driving, if it's within easy reach I'll pick it up and say "can't talk now, driving" then put it down again. If it isn't, I'll leave it. I truly believe that doing anything else is irresponsible, by and large.

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

I haven't read the studies, but your comment fits wiith my intuitive feelings on the subject. At least with passengers in the car, they can sense when traffic's bad. The one thing that's almost as bad as a cell-phone is inquisitive children, because they tend to not be aware of traffic and tend to repeat questions. And mine always ask deep philosophical questions just as I'm merging onto 101. But even there you can yell at them to shut up if necessary.

I still sometimes talk on my cell-phone when driving, though. And yes, it's stupid. If it's an intricate conversation, I pull off.

[jupiter29.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's just wrong. I hate cell phones as much as anyone, simply because they cause people to drive stupid. I have no study to back this up, in fairness, other than my own experience watching people drive 10 mph too slow for the lane they're in or decide a mile too late that they need to get over to exit, and then passing them and seeing a cell phone nine times out of ten. :) On a related note, I hate tractor trailers for the same reason. Even when they are driven perfectly safely, they (indirectly) make other people drive stupid and it annoys me. My definitions of what should and should not be legal are made from a very self-centered point of view. :)

Having said all of that, though, there are more dangerous things out there than cell phones. I was driving down the road the other day and saw a woman (yes, it was a woman, but I make no broad statements here) eating an ice cream cone. What the heck? First of all, why would you even try to drive while eating an ice cream cone? You're not going to enjoy the cone particularly. But that's not the issue, I guess. What the he** do you do with an ice cream cone if you suddenly need your other hand for something?

But, anyway, I digress. I agree that trying to put the blame on the driver that was hit was silly, although I do admit that I might have been tempted myself to say something like "Hmm, I bet she wishes that guy had cared enough about the people he was on the road with to pay full attention while he was driving." Because I'm a jerk, I admit it. Still, bringing sex (or, for that matter, any activity that she wasn't actually engaged in) into it is just ridiculous.