In Belgium, a non-profit organisation called Responsible Young Drivers told people taking their driving test that they had to prove themselves “able to use a mobile phone while driving” as part of their driving test, which meant they had to avoid an obstacle while texting and driving at the same time. As you can imagine, the tests don’t end well.
Cones are hit, the driving instructor is thrown around his seat, sudden turns are made, and a really great guy goes into a soliloquy about how if texting and driving is legalised like this he would stop driving because people would die. It’s very sweet. It’s very dangerous. And it’s very true! Texting while driving is dangerous and it’s sorta silly that many places around the world are so lax in policing it. Don’t do it, people! And don’t drink and drive and text either, because that’s just the worst. [YouTube via Neatorama]
*E-mails to girlfriend*
Don't be an idiot!
That's what Siri is for!
Yes.. Siri is an idiot :)
Where's the send all button ... >__>
finally something that we all can aggree on?
I agree with not texting and driving, of course, but these people already couldn't drive ... they might have failed their test anyway!
Also the instructor is giving them the message to send so they have to concentrate on his orders. Listening for orders is one more distraction.
So the distractions are doubled to an inexperienced and already nervous driver.
I'm not advocating texting but this is a very unique scenario.
I can do it. I have Siri ;)
Typical extremism to prove a point. Obviously you don't text while you're on an obstacle course. I bet if they had been asked to change the CD while on an obstacle course they would have failed too and that's legal. Texting is easy on the freeway.
"Texting is easy on the freeway."
Are you f***ing serious??? Please let us know what freeways you drive on and when so we can avoid ignorant people like you.
This attitude is scary. Did you not read about the woman killed by a bus yesterday? You cannot assume that you won't have an obstacle to avoid at every second you are driving, therefore what you see here is a possibility every time you get behind the wheel. It is the fact most motorists don't take driving seriously enough that we have accidents at all because they are ALL avoidable. I've only had one in 6 years of driving and that was 100% down to me being more focused on being late to an appointment than on the road ahead.
But the most pathetic part of you comment is to suggest that because one dangerous and largely unenforceable thing is legal, then that is enough to justify making every dangerous thing legal. IT is like using the fact that alcohol is legal to make a case for legalising heroin - it completely ignores the countless thousands of lives ruined by alcohol or at worst is saying that if we already accept thousands of ruined lives, then a few thousand more is no big deal. Lines must be drawn and if there are others out there like you, then clearly they need to be drawn very firmly and policed diligently.
And for the record, when I have to change a CD in my car, I'll wait until I'm stopped in traffic or I'll drop 20-30km/h off my speed on the freeway to do it as safely as I can.
I agree with MotorMouth (OMG I can't believe I just said that). In 35 years of driving, I've only ever had one minor accident and that was because I was in someone else's car and wasn't used to the heavy brakes and rolled into the car in front. The reason I don't have accidents is that every single time I get behind the wheel, I am accutely aware that I am in control of a machine capable of killing me or someone else.
I remain entirely focussed on the act of driving. Nothing else is happening in the world at that time. I assume that every other driver around me could potentially do something completely unpredictable for no apparent reason and I'm prepared to react accordingly. Drivers, especially younger drivers, seem to think that once they've mastered the act of driving, they can focus on other stuff which they consider more important or more interesting. The simple truth is that you can never master the act of driving because every journey is unpredicatable.
What's worse is that people never look objectively at their own driving. I can tell after only a few seconds if the driver in front of me is distracted by a phone or text. Their behaviour changes and they clearly have less control of their vehicle. They drift in the lane and react more violently. I usually allow another car to get between me and the other driver to act as a buffer.
Simple message, just drive the damn car. Everything else can wait.
I should point out that I meant to type 36 years of driving experience, but my 1, 2 and 3 keys are a bit dicky.
"Texting is easy on the freeway"
That's because you're under the assumption that you're going to keep going straight at the same speed, with no interference. You will keep saying it's easy until someone suddenly breaks in front of you or someone cuts you off and you weren't watching.
The problem with this attitude is that you've been able to text whilst driving on freeways, leading you to the assumption that it's not as dangerous as what other people think. Texting and driving does not equal crashing. It's the same as all those speeding ads at the moment "will you A: be 5 minutes late the the bbq or B: crash, roll your car and break your girlfriends spine". These are not the only options. Many people speed and text and don't crash and therefore don't believe they need to obey the rules. This is a BS attitude. Texting whilst driving massively increases the likelihood of a crash and also increases the severity of that crash because you are severely under prepared to react to the situation. Sure, its not gonna happen everytime you do it, but it only takes once to ruin someone's life (yours or someone else), do you really want to run that risk?
Trolololol
Please, just goto the police station, hand over your license and say you're expelling yourself from driving. I don't want to ever be on a road near you, I hope you realize your actions before you kill someone with that dumb idea that "Texting is easy on the freeway". Clearly you're a moron.
I had no need to watch the video to know the result ...It's common sense !
Then again seeing the responses here I wonder I thought this was a site of intelligance not trolling and boganism
"texting is easy on the freeway " LOL can't wait to read about your death, you really missed the point of the story didn't you ...... just hope you don't take someone with you :)
Texting is easy on an old phone like mine. You can do it all by touch, you don't have to look at the screen or take your eyes off the road at all.
The driving instructor isn't wearing his seat belt for half of the takes... not a good example to start with.
+1!!!!!!
I was more surprised to see the instructor isn't wearing a seatbelt some of the time...
He clearly paid for it too, almost launching his face into the windscreen.
i vote for a harsher sentence or penalty for people who drive and text / call
if they hit someone, move the sentence to attempted murder
if they kill someone, move it to first degree murder
I vote for a much more stringent licence testing system. Driving quality is up shit creek nowadays. Most drivers can't even stay in their own lane in roundabouts, multi-lane turns and even on straight roads!
There's a couple of times there when the instructor isn't wearing a seatbelt.. that's dangerous too. Obviously this a stunt to make it clear that it's dangerous.. but to re-iterate what others have said, the problem is that people generally don't text while they are on an obstacle course.. even the people in this video know it's stupid.. what happens is people use it when driving slowly on back streets, or on highways, or places where they "feel safe" and then something goes wrong.
If they want to advertise the risks, they should just make an instructional video.
Having been on the receiving end of a driver who was on the phone whilst driving, who ran a red light into our car. Wrote off the car, permanently disabled my wife and nearly killed my unborn daughter (who is now a happy healthy 4 year old!) all I can say is just please stop using phones whilst driving. Please.
I agree with you - and am sorry to hear about the unfortunate consequences that eventuated for your family on that day. Just last week I had plaster casts on both arms removed, after a motorists who turned right (failed to give way to me travelling straight through) at an intersection displaying green lights... Now I have a couple of handy titanium plates holding my forearm bones in place, but I regard myself to be be a lucky one who avoided much more serious injury
The amount of times I have nearly been hit crossing at a round about with people not indicating and using there phone is ridiculous. I just don't get why people do it.......