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Student fined $400 for Distracted Driving with Apple Watch

I hate any kind of distracted driving. It’s incredibly selfish, a quality I despise in people, a thought process of “the rules apply to everyone but me” level of ignorance.

Ask anyone who rides a motorcycle (as I do) how many times they’ve almost been killed because of someone who is paying attention to everything else except for the road. My count is eight.

Make it a $1,000.00 fine and maybe people will stop doing it.
 
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barkomatic said:
What do you think? Have you or someone you've seen been distracted by their Apple Watch while driving?

https://www.howardforums.com/conten...acted-Driving-with-Apple-Watch#comments_start
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Its Called inattentive driving in my state and that’s a traffic stop violation. If they’re distracted by something (In this case the Apple Watch), they pose an accident factor and the risk other drivers safety and themself on the roadway.

I work in law-enforcement for a living, and if I were to observe someone swerving in the lane of traffic because they’re distracted by their smart phone or Apple Watch assuming they openly admit that or I can prove It myself, I would not hesitate to cite them, which they can learn their lesson by realizing that they’re being neglectful to other drivers on the road. Use better judgement and common sense. I Also Have learned that *warnings* do not always suffice, sometimes you have to issue a monetary citation, which will inevitably make them think twice before make the same mistake again with a substantial fine and demerit points subracted off their license.
 
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I think so many people are over-confident and believe that they are skilled enough to take liberties that other, less skilled drivers can't. I've actually had this conversation with people who believe that. They are quick to call other drivers "idiots" while they check their devices at every traffic stop.
 
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barkomatic said:
I think so many people are over-confident and believe that they are skilled enough to take liberties that other, less skilled drivers can't. I've actually had this conversation with people who believe that. They are quick to call other drivers "idiots" while they check their devices at every traffic stop.
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And I also think we live in a world where you have those who are so addicted to their smart phones, Apple Watches, ect, they literally can’t help themselves but take their eyes off the roadway and focus on their electronic devices, thus resulting in accidents. There so many distractions in the car, there is a reason why laws Have been altered to cite those for texting while driving or where you can’t use your phone while you’re driving.
 
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NSW has employed a new equipment that can detect some electronic device related distracted driving behaviours. Demerit point deduction is also heavy for such behaviour.

My thought is to turn off the god damn phone altogether during driving. If used for navigation then have guided access or sth.
 
Good! Fines for distracted driving should be more like $4,000 to get the attention of the media outlets and have any effect. The problem is that this same person will be right back at it the next day and may kill you or your entire family because they could not wait 5 minutes to read a trivial message.
 
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As a runner I'm always going against traffic. It is amazing that almost 1 in 4 people visibly have phones in their hands or are looking down as they pass me. This means many more just don't happen to be looking at the time but will be or have been. As a bike rider I'm too scared to ride on the roads now. Self driving cars can't come soon enough.
 
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Glad they was fined!

checking the time, every car I ever had has a clock in it, digital or analog.
Even my 1966 austin has one!

The fine may have been more lenient as they was stationary at the time of offence.

I still see many drivers here in uk on phone even though they increased the penalty.
It is mostly commercial vehicles, trucks/vans/etc that I see using them.

I get that delivery drivers need be in contact but, BUY A HANDS FREE KIT.

My own car has a bluetooth head unit and thus my radio in my hands free.
It auto switches to phone mode when a call comes in and shows number on the radio screen.
 
In UK if keys in ignition you can be prosecuted for using a phone while in charge of motor vehicle.
Engine running or not.

A friend got caught using phone after pulling over with keys still in ignition, to answer his phone.
police pulled up behind him and asked if he had broken down.
When he said no officer they ticketed him.

He had pulled over but was not off the road. He had just pulled to the side to answer the call.
He was partially blocking the road in doing so. No lay-by or parking bay.
 
Julien said:
While this is safe it does lead to it's own problem we see all the time. The light turns green and the lead car just sits there.😱[honk]😀
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I drive a Subaru with EyeSite and it actually has an alarm that lets you know when the vehicle in front of you has pulled away. It is a work vehicle but still links with my phone so I seldom have to pull it out.
 
Newtons Apple said:
I drive a Subaru with EyeSite and it actually has an alarm that lets you know when the vehicle in front of you has pulled away. It is a work vehicle but still links with my phone so I seldom have to pull it out.
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I'm entertained easily so I love using the adaptive cruise on my Subie in traffic, stops you then just tap resume button to start up again 36 mile commute very rarely touch brake or gas, again I'm, easily entertained😉
But officer it's the car's fault I was in the back having a beer!
 
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burgman said:
I'm entertained easily so I love using the adaptive cruise on my Subie in traffic, stops you then just tap resume button to start up again 36 mile commute very rarely touch brake or gas, again I'm, easily entertained😉
But officer it's the car's fault I was in the back having a beer!
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I am more impressed with the Forester XT every day. My new Audi Q7 sits in the garage while we go play!
 
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A lot of European countries actually take your license away for most minor violations. I'm ambivalent on fines because they don't teach rich people anything. Taking away the right to drive makes a much better point !
 
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Relentless Power said:
Its Called inattentive driving in my state and that’s a traffic stop violation. If they’re distracted by something (In this case the Apple Watch), they pose an accident factor and the risk other drivers safety and themself on the roadway.

I work in law-enforcement for a living, and if I were to observe someone swerving in the lane of traffic because they’re distracted by their smart phone or Apple Watch assuming they openly admit that or I can prove It myself, I would not hesitate to cite them, which they can learn their lesson by realizing that they’re being neglectful to other drivers on the road. Use better judgement and common sense. I Also Have learned that *warnings* do not always suffice, sometimes you have to issue a monetary citation, which will inevitably make them think twice before make the same mistake again with a substantial fine and demerit points subracted off their license.
Click to expand...

It will either make them think twice (the fine), or it will insure they will look around to see if there's any cops around before they text their friend that they need to stop and get a coke before they meet.
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Julien said:
Self driving cars can't come soon enough.
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They have, and have killed a biker in Tempe Arizona, and had a couple of accidents too.
 
I’m not sold on the vehicle automation or lane assist (or any other “safety”) features on these newer cars just yet. Just because you switch on autopilot doesn’t mean you can hop in the backseat and start making omelets.

Drivers still need to be aware and pay full time attention to the road.
 
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oeagleo said:
They have, and have killed a biker in Tempe Arizona, and had a couple of accidents too.
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Tragic accident that happened on March 20. And no doubt self driving cars will continue to kill people. However since March 20 (day of that accident) in the US HUMAN drivers have ran over and killed about 1,120 pedestrians/bikers and about 500 more will die next month and 500 more in July and 500 more Aug and 500 in Sep......(bout 6000 a year)😱😱. Even worse about 35,000 people in the US die in HUMAN caused auto accidents.😱😱😱😱 That is about 100 people TODAY and EVERY day. 🙁How many of these make the national news?????? So that is about 40,000 deaths each year caused by HUMAN drivers. Even if self driving cars could only cut this in ½ (and they will likely do a LOT better out the gate and improve exponentially) that would be 20,000 people that would LIVE each year. However the click bait headline would be that 20,000 people a year were killed by self driving cars and NOT that 20,000 lives a year were SAVED.
 
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I see using a smart watch or texting while driving almost as the same thing. The driver makes the conscious decision to get in the vehicle and allow themselves to be distracted on the roadway, which usually can or will result in an accident. Even law-enforcement can be seize a smart phone if the officer believes that the phone played a role in what caused the accident and they can find out specifically what was happening at the time.

And somebody as myself who runs regularly, I see this all the time with drivers not paying attention to the road, let alone their speeds as well.
 
Julien said:
Tragic accident that happened on March 20. And no doubt self driving cars will continue to kill people. However since March 20 (day of that accident) in the US HUMAN drivers have ran over and killed about 1,120 pedestrians/bikers and about 500 more will die next month and 500 more in July and 500 more Aug and 500 in Sep......(bout 6000 a year)😱😱. Even worse about 35,000 people in the US die in HUMAN caused auto accidents.😱😱😱😱 That is about 100 people TODAY and EVERY day. 🙁How many of these make the national news?????? So that is about 40,000 deaths each year caused by HUMAN drivers. Even if self driving cars could only cut this in ½ (and they will likely do a LOT better out the gate and improve exponentially) that would be 20,000 people that would LIVE each year. However the click bait headline would be that 20,000 people a year were killed by self driving cars and NOT that 20,000 lives a year were SAVED.
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All of what you said. All of it. Everything above!!! We're still firmly in the assisted driving era and have not yet switched to the fully autonomous era although that is surely coming. I don't know about any of you, but I feel far more confident on the road if I see a Tesla trailing behind me than an ancient Ford or Toyota with a driver who clearly has a poor concept of what a safe distance is. It's ok to be critical of these new technologies, but they do far more good than they do bad and they can't fully replace someone's inability to drive safely. They are there to assist and compensate, but not to take responsibility completely. Human drivers are still far more dangerous!
 
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Endorphine88 said:
...I feel far more confident on the road if I see a Tesla trailing behind me than an ancient Ford or Toyota with a driver who clearly has a poor concept of what a safe distance is...
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Yes but 1000s of Ford or Toyota cars (some using adaptive cruse control too) can smash into other cars and kill 1000s of people and other than the people effected no one knows or cares. However let 1 Tesla 'bump' into another car and it is full on click bait headlines covered by every major media outlet about how dangerous they are.
 
Julien said:
Yes but 1000s of Ford or Toyota cars (some using adaptive cruse control too) can smash into other cars and kill 1000s of people and other than the people effected no one knows or cares. However let 1 Tesla 'bump' into another car and it is full on click bait headlines covered by every major media outlet about how dangerous they are.
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Well there's a lot of rich people out there who want to see Tesla fail and they actually invest money into it (including paying "reporters" to circulate exaggerated articles) but that's a whole other topic 😉
 
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