RadioBanter - View Single Post

[email protected] · August 11th 09, 07:27 PM posted to rec.radio.amateur.moderated

wrote:
Sure. But we have to go with the data we've got, and that data proves
over and over that cell phone use while driving seriously reduces
driving skills.

If someone did a lot of testing, they could probably find certain
individuals whose driving skills with an illegal blood alcohol level
were better than those of certain other individuals who were stone cold
sober. IOW, exceptions that prove the rule.

But the law has to be written and applied the same for everyone.

I guess I think the problem is we're concentrating too much on
preventing behaviors that *might* lead to dangerous activity and not
enough on preventing the dangerous activity itself.

For example (bear with me here!) DUI is not in itself dangerous.* Heck,
on any given night the vast majority of drunks on the road get home
without harming anyone or anything.

The dangerous activity is running red lights, driving way too fast,
moving out of your lane without regard for the presence of other
vehicles, etc...

Of course, being drunk makes you FAR, FAR more likely to commit one of
these dangerous activities. Being drunk is not an *excuse* for these
activities. I do not mean to suggest DUI is a good idea, nor that we
should make it legal.

But if your mom gets run over by someone blowing through a red light at
30 over the limit, should that person get off more lightly because they
were sober and just thought they were too important to obey traffic
signals?

IMHO we should be spending more resources patrolling our roads and
stopping those who are actually doing dangerous things, *regardless* of
why they're doing it -- and stop diverting those resources to people who
are doing things that *might* be dangerous.

--

Doug Smith W9WI
Pleasant View, TN EM66

* For the record, I don't drink and have never been pulled over for DUI.