Banning Sign Language When Driving ????????

Demise said:
Law is made to be broken, you know. I know everybody still answered their cell phone anyways. I mean C'mon, it's not fair that hearing get to talk in the car, while driving which deaf people can't. By the way I can sign with one hand with my family that no one able to read. My family and I know each other for many years and we can communicate with each other really well in car.
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Broad generalizations like this are totally counterproductive period. Hey it is against the law to rob a bank so based on what you said..."Lets go rob a bank!" Oh, I don't think so! On the other hand, I do agree there are some laws (that are old and no longer apply, no merit anymore and so on) that should be removed from the books.

Getting back to your assertion about being not fair for hearing to talk while the deaf can't is hogwash. Life isn't fair and never has been. Now, I agree that people shouldn't be allowed to use cell phones while driving. That is very distracting and the accident rate has probably gone up a bit just due to that activity.

I will say there are no simple answers dealing with DWS. As long as the data doesn't support restrictions on DWS, I'm content to leave it be.

Cell phones are a whole different ballgame and I think that should be regulated more. In fact here in NC, they are considering passing a law to not allow young people under 18 to drive using cell phones. Eventually, I hope they go further...
 
sr171soars said:
Cell phones are a whole different ballgame and I think that should be regulated more. In fact here in NC, they are considering passing a law to not allow young people under 18 to drive using cell phones. Eventually, I hope they go further...
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I personally think it should extend to all ages--targeting teenagers alone is unfair considering the number of soccer moms I see doing 30 in the left hand lane and all sorts of other stupid stuff, all while yapping on the cell phone.
 
Rose Immortal said:
I personally think it should extend to all ages--targeting teenagers alone is unfair considering the number of soccer moms I see doing 30 in the left hand lane and all sorts of other stupid stuff, all while yapping on the cell phone.
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If you read my last statement carefully, you will see that I hope any cell phone ban to extend to all in an oblique way... ;)
 
I saw. I just get ticked when teens get picked on when there are SO many other dangerous people on the road. ;)
 
Rose Immortal said:
I saw. I just get ticked when teens get picked on when there are SO many other dangerous people on the road. ;)
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I understand but please remember statistically teens are amongst the worst drivers simply due to inexperience. In NC, we have a graduated license program where one's license privileges are increased as they are "graduated" from one to another (there are 1, 2, 3). For example, if you have a '1', I think you are limited to one passenger. Our state and some others who have similar programs have seen a significent decrease in driver problems in respect to teens. In this way, they can focus on learning to drive instead of engaging in activities that can lead to accidents and whatnot.

I agree with you that we have many folks who are simply dangerous out there and are not teenagers. We have drivers who don't even have a license and maybe multiple DWIs and the whole nine yards...what do you do with these idiots? There are no simple answers...
 
Personally, I don't accept programs like that because I think they're incomplete. Where is the stepped removal of privileges for those elderly people who become a danger? Now, not every elderly person would need this if they could test that they were still competent all-conditions drivers, but picking on teenagers alone when there are other MAJOR problems that need to be handled isn't right. Probably because the AARP has huge lobbying power and teens are politically apathetic as a whole. ;)

I learned to drive in a state where at the time, there was no graduated licensing. There were also tons of adult immigrants learning to drive. You got your permit right at 15 years old, and I actually think that lowering the age was smart because having a full year's experience with a permit helps with when you get your license. I don't understand why more states run it like that (and why the state I was in then abandoned it).
 
I think that is coming over time as the elderly population grows larger. By the same token, they vote and that has enormous implications... It will be interesting to watch all this down the road.
 
This was in today's local paper:

SATURDAY, JUNE 03, 2006 12:00 AM

SUV hits 3 on King St.; 2 remain hospitalized

BY GLENN SMITH
The Post and Courier


A woman struck three people with her sport utility vehicle on King Street early Friday after she reportedly took her eyes off the road to see an incoming text message on her cell phone, Charleston police said.

Jennifer Poto, 22, of Charleston, told police she looked up and saw three people in front of her car on King between Radcliffe and Mary streets, police spokesman Charles Francis said.

She hit the brakes but was unable to stop before her Ford Explorer hit the victims, he said.

Two College of Charleston students and a young woman from Columbia were rushed to Medical University Hospital for treatment, authorities said.

...When officers arrived, all three victims were lying in the road and the Explorer was parked nearby. Poto, a former College of Charleston student, told police she had been distracted by her cell phone. She insisted she had not been drinking and refused to say more without a lawyer present, according to a police report.

...She told officers she was driving north on King Street when she felt her cell phone vibrate. She stated that she only took her eyes off the road for a second to glance at the text message, Francis said....

http://www.charleston.net/stories/?newsID=91360&section=localnews
 
Before I got my CI, when I drove, my passengers knew not to engage me in conversation. Sure sometimes it made for a boring drive, but I felt more comfortable having BOTH eyes on the road rather than turning my head to lipread/read sign while driving. I'd seen too many accidents happen because people weren't paying attention to the road. Its a different ballgame now that I can usually understand most of what is said to me by my friends/family and if I don't they know to either rephrase it in a diffeent way, or wait until I've stopped to repeat it. That "split second" you take your eyes off the road is sometimes all it takes to cause a fatality - and it could be your own. Life's too short to take that kind of risk.
 
neecy said:
Before I got my CI, when I drove, my passengers knew not to engage me in conversation. Sure sometimes it made for a boring drive, but I felt more comfortable having BOTH eyes on the road rather than turning my head to lipread/read sign while driving. I'd seen too many accidents happen because people weren't paying attention to the road. Its a different ballgame now that I can usually understand most of what is said to me by my friends/family and if I don't they know to either rephrase it in a diffeent way, or wait until I've stopped to repeat it. That "split second" you take your eyes off the road is sometimes all it takes to cause a fatality - and it could be your own. Life's too short to take that kind of risk.
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According to some here, you are an audist and anti-ASL person if you suggest taking your hands of the steering wheel is dangerous driving, (so tell it it to the dead person's family, who I am sure will respect that right).
 
OK, I do agree that cell phones while driving does need to be banned. However, the signing while driving is another thing altogether.

My question being, the directions. If you can't sign and drive at the same time how are you going to get directions to where you are going?

It's impossible to learn a *whole route some 3,000 miles long* before driving. Isn't it better to have someone helping you with the directions than to have the person driving reading directions or worse a map?


I have seen people do far worse while driving. He!! one time I was driving along and looked over at the car next to me and here was a woman putting eyeliner on while driving!!! OMG wanna talk about feeling unsafe?

I have seen people with a drink in one hand and a sandwhich in another and a cell phone to their ear all at the same time while driving!!!

Ill take the signer over any of those anyday!

Granted there has been times when hubby and I are talking and forgetting we are in a car moving. That does prove it is unsafe. HOWEVER banning it altogether is not the way to go.

What if it was banned and then say my husband's driving and suddenly I feel very sick and need a hospital? Can't sign to tell him!

Same thing with a cell phone, I watched a tv program one day and a cell phone actually saved one woman's life. While she was driving her car completely locked up somehow. No brakes at all, parking brake didnt work either, and couldn't get the gear shifter into neutral and the car ignition wouldn't shut off. She was fast excellerating and not able to stop.

What did she do? She used her cell phone and called the police and explained the situation and where she was. This lady was terrified! The police then got her and cleared the roadway for her and followed her. Luckily, she was on a freeway. They just kept following till the car ran out of gas. Took forever too cause she had just filled up before getting on the freeway!

They couldnt stop her by letting her hit something she was going too fast! They couldn't stop her by flattening the tires because of the speed it would have been a horrific crash!

Thank god she had that cell phone eh? But I do believe that if you are pulled over for using a cell phone and cannot prove that you were talking to emergency personnel then you should be fined!

Just my opinion though for what it's worth.

Bear
 
(lol) I often use my cell phone - to text message my dad and my boyfrieind and I nearly drove my car out of the road. (lol)
 
Unegawahya said:
LOL! :giggle: Hmmmm....gosh...mini T.V. on a steering wheel. No way am I gonna install it on the steering wheel. Eyes are sooo glued to any show. :eek2: Tehehehehehehe...Mookie. :)
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Hmmmmm, miniTV on a steering wheel, oops it's 12:30pm and my favorite soap opera is on, switching to specific channel... :ugh3: *eyes on steering wheel and eyes on road back and forth many time* :ugh2: *GASP* 'WTF, an affair?' "I KNEW IT!" *Honking* *head look up* *screeeeeeaaammmm!!!!!* *DAMIT, gonna sue the car company for it!* :deal: NICE TRY!!!!
 
Bear said:
OK, I do agree that cell phones while driving does need to be banned. However, the signing while driving is another thing altogether.

My question being, the directions. If you can't sign and drive at the same time how are you going to get directions to where you are going?

It's impossible to learn a *whole route some 3,000 miles long* before driving. Isn't it better to have someone helping you with the directions than to have the person driving reading directions or worse a map?
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I agree with you there. So far by the far worst driver I've seen is my dad, a brief story: Our family tend to go on vacations every summers in a Recreational Vehicle "RV", my mom always offers my dad to help him out with the driving route etc but my dad is soooo stubborn he tends to look at the map and drive at the same time with other 4-6 people in the RV oh geez. I wouldn't be alive today if it wasn't for my brother who jumped at the steering wheel to turn left to follow the road otherwise the whole family would have drove over the edge of the highway for a rollover or something...

Bear said:
I have seen people do far worse while driving. He!! one time I was driving along and looked over at the car next to me and here was a woman putting eyeliner on while driving!!! OMG wanna talk about feeling unsafe?

I have seen people with a drink in one hand and a sandwhich in another and a cell phone to their ear all at the same time while driving!!!
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About that... yes I do admit im a bad driver at some times but I try to improve my best... One time my ma was at a intersection waiting for the light to turn green, guess who drove by with a head down focusing on a sidekick for a moment... me! I was so embarassed when my mom send me msg thru sidekick so from that on, I do check email when I'm driving in less traffic or if it's urgent email otherwise I tend to ignore my sidekick until I'm at a intersection waiting for the light to turn green. Also one morning few days ago, I was driving home from work in the morning. I spotted a cell phone driver with a coffee, he came out of a intersection onto a street where I was heading home, it was a 3-lanes each north/south street mind you, which I was on the farther left lane, he got onto right lanes toward the left lane, he didn't bother to turn his head to check if there was any cars in the left lane which I was there in the wrong time or he could have check his side mirror, oops I blared my car horn and he swerved onto the farther right lane and look like he spilled his coffee on himself, possibly on his cell phone cuz his face got :mad:, although i gave him a nice finger and a no-no cell phone sign langue on my ear. So he pulled over to clean up his mess so poor him
 
Outlawing signing while driving is as absurd as outlawing talking while driving. The only problem I ever had when I would sign to my son while driving was this:

I would sometimes place my signs behid my head so he could see them from his carseat in the back. He started to make those signs behind his head, too!
I had to explain, No, no! This is where the sign goes, not behind head!

If he wanted to tell me something, he would kick the back of my seat and wait for me to look at him the the rear view mirror. Never had an accident.
 
jillio said:
Outlawing signing while driving is as absurd as outlawing talking while driving. The only problem I ever had when I would sign to my son while driving was this:

I would sometimes place my signs behid my head so he could see them from his carseat in the back. He started to make those signs behind his head, too!
I had to explain, No, no! This is where the sign goes, not behind head!

If he wanted to tell me something, he would kick the back of my seat and wait for me to look at him the the rear view mirror. Never had an accident.
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Just remember there is always the first time...never say never.
 
sr171soars said:
Just remember there is always the first time...never say never.
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Right! Have not had accident yet while signing. Could always happen. But could also have accident while TALKING. Or just not paying attention. THINKING about something else. Can't outlaw that. :D
 
jillio said:
I would sometimes place my signs behid my head so he could see them from his carseat in the back. He started to make those signs behind his head, too!
I had to explain, No, no! This is where the sign goes, not behind head!
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LOL, that's adorable.
 
jillio said:
Right! Have not had accident yet while signing. Could always happen. But could also have accident while TALKING. Or just not paying attention. THINKING about something else. Can't outlaw that. :D
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Indeed the truth...in fact all the above have happened before and will happen again. :bump:
 
Ok.. regarding signing and driving.. My boyfriend and I have our way of communicating when I am driving.. It's mainly modified signs because he was still learning sign language at the time and he knew I didn't want to talk while driving, so he'd keep his hands in my line of vision and tell me something. I never took my eyes off the road because I could watch both at the same time.


we all know that some signs are hard to see while driving which is where the modification came in. This was in no way meant to insult sign language. We only did this for driving because when I am driving, I get extremely nervous, and somewhat aggitated.. which is why my boyfriend had to modify some signs so he could communicate with me while I am driving.

while he is driving, we just talk normally.. lucky him. Hey, he drives like he's picking up chicks!!!!!
 
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