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Obama Bans Federal Workers From Text Messaging While Driving

Agent009 submitted on 10/1/2009 Official Bell & Ross Timestamp: 4:20:05 PM

14 user comments | Category: Misc News | Source: | SOURCE: www.detnews.com

President Barack Obama signed an executive order barring federal workers from sending text messages while driving government vehicles, the White House said Thursday.

The directive, ordered Wednesday night, also applies to privately owned vehicles if the employee is on official business.

Obama's order encourages federal contractors and others doing business with the government to adopt and enforce their own policies banning texting while driving on the job.



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Obama Bans Federal Workers From Text Messaging While Driving

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Agent009

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User Comments

BSBB

Ban away, Obammy. People are still going to text away while driving. Until you put some kind of cellphone signal scrambler in cars that prohibit talking/texting while the car is in motion, people will continue to snub their nose at common safety sense to assert their independence.

— BSBB (View Profile)

Posted on 10/1/2009 4:38:12 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: -3   

henbmw

What do you propose? A cell phone scrambler is absurd, is creating a law not enough for you? If laws aren't enough, I guess we should build some anti-crime robots and make sure they stop people from potentially breaking laws that you seem to scoff at.

I appluad Obama for finally attacking something that needs to be addressed. Texting and driving should be as illegal as drinking and driving - it's just as dangerous, if not more.

— henbmw (View Profile)

Posted on 10/1/2009 5:30:06 PM | | Votes: 8   

1UAW

So with this scrambler in place, what do you do if you get into an accident? How do you CALL for help?

— 1UAW (View Profile)

Posted on 10/1/2009 6:24:17 PM | | Votes: 2   

veyron1001

If you were paying attention to the road in the first place then this would not be a problem

— veyron1001 (View Profile)

Posted on 10/1/2009 8:55:22 PM | | Votes: 2   

BSBB

You folks need to carefully read my words before you reply. I said "...prohibit talking/texting while the car IS IN MOTION." Obviously, if you are in an accident your vehicle is most likely not in motion. What I propose is something like if the ECM detects wheel spin or some other evidence of vehicle motion, then it would somehow (in a sci-fi sort of way) scramble any incoming/outgoing cellular signal. At least that is more of an absolute than the Obammy administration opening its stupid mouth again.

— BSBB (View Profile)

Posted on 10/2/2009 12:03:45 PM | | Votes: 0   

AdmiralT20

Communist!!!! now he is going to tell us when we can text, what next banning drinking and driving???
I can imagine what the right-wing will be saying soon...

— AdmiralT20 (View Profile)

Posted on 10/1/2009 4:53:44 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 7   

BSBB

As long as they don't ban driving and drinking.

— BSBB (View Profile)

Posted on 10/2/2009 2:40:51 PM | | Votes: 1   

EL34

Obama, why don't you mind your business and get the economy moving!

Also get off my TV and get to work!

Stupid dictator Obama.

— EL34 (View Profile)

Posted on 10/1/2009 6:03:00 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: -4   

bfghemicuda

Obama is at work. Doing what the far left is about. Socialism. He thinks the general public is to stupid to live there own lives and big government is the answer. Government is in place to provide roads, national security and basic rules for fair business practice,etc. You have people like badgehore and his handfull of blind followers that are ok with being a government puppet. They call it "let out the old and bring in the new" What a load!!! To those I can expedite the process,, Just move to China. And if your not willing to go then you dont really believe it yourselves.

— bfghemicuda (View Profile)

Posted on 10/1/2009 11:26:15 PM | | Votes: 1   

HyundaiSmoke

I FU--ING LOVE TEXTING WHILE DRIVING!!!!!!!!!!

— HyundaiSmoke (View Profile)

Posted on 10/1/2009 10:27:48 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: -2   

dotuno

"If you were paying attention to the road in the first place then this would not be a problem"

And what happens when someone else sideswipes you? Or when there's a natural disaster and you're trying to contact family or they contacting you? Now, of course, it is arguable that one could step OUT of the car and make a call or text, but you could very well be pinned inside your car after an incident.

Signal scrambler inside a car is severely draconian. The goal is to prevent calling/texting WHILE driving, not inside your car period.

The executive order is more than welcome; hopefully, it will be universal soon. Calling while driving is dangerous enough as it is; texting, which actually takes your eyes off the road periodically, is much worse.

— dotuno (View Profile)

Posted on 10/2/2009 11:04:21 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

BSBB

"Signal scrambler inside a car is severely draconian. The goal is to prevent calling/texting WHILE driving, not inside your car period."

And how do you propose to PREVENT calling/texting? Hoping people will turn honest and actually obey a traffic law? Apparently, you haven't been driving for long, or at all, or are totally oblivious to the other drivers around you. People violate traffic laws all the time. Just because the White House and/or Congress come out with a new law, doesn't mean everyone embraces it out of the goodness of their hearts. Either effective, absolute measures need to be imposed in these cases, or society needs to start using some common (safety) sense.

I can see it coming now....someone is texting and gets in an accident, and sues the cellphone company. That seems to be the way society is headed.

— BSBB (View Profile)

Posted on 10/2/2009 2:48:31 PM | | Votes: 1   

dotuno

Of course I do not expect people to obey out of the goodness of their hearts (seeing as there's very little goodness in many hearts anyway).

"Apparently, you haven't been driving for long, or at all, or are totally oblivious to the other drivers around you."

Trust me, I cannot count how many times I wish I could reach into some driver's car and yank the phone from them as I pass them while they're holding up the inner lane with their (probably pointless) babbling or texting.

Aggressive measures definitely need to be put in place: fines, license suspensions, jail time for repeat offenders, etc. Yes, yes, I know it is more difficult for cops to spot someone texting over a drunk driver, but the ones who do get caught (the ones you and I and the cops I'm sure pass by) are made the scapegoat.

Cops only need to drive along with morning traffic and there'll be fish to catch. People typically cut their speed when cops are about; now they'll be getting off their phones too. Not so easy though, seeing as the phone would be distracting them in the first place; so best bet is to simply stay off the phone - the intended goal of the enforcement. And no one will say, "It was an emergency call!" Then you pull off to the side of the road.

The idea will be to make people think twice about the heavy penalty should they be the one caught. I'm sure after a teen's parents are made to pay hundreds of dollars a second time for their daughter's texting-while-driving, they'll probably revoke her mobile service (with the driver's license she just lost).

Better yet, make it a CRIMINAL offense of life endangerment; people would shape up.

But try and enact such measures and there'd be an uproar about "suppressing civil liberties and freedom of speech" or some other nonsense like that. The people are their own worst enemy.

In the end, signal scrambling is still foolishness; you still did not address what is to be done when there's an accident off a lonely road and one is pinned in one's car, needing to call for help.

— dotuno (View Profile)

Posted on 10/2/2009 9:51:36 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

dotuno

PS: Your "wheel spin detection to initiate scrambling" is actually a good point; sorry I hadn't noticed that bit.

But I wonder (and this is a genuine question, not sarcasm): if a car in an accident is upturned in a ditch, engine still running and floor mat or other item jammed against the accelerator, would the wheels not keep spinning? If this (admittedly rare) scenario were possible, it would indeed be an obstacle to motion-based signal scrambling.

— dotuno (View Profile)

Posted on 10/2/2009 10:01:49 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

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