Thank $DEITY for the lawmakers!

[draco664]

After all, if it wasn't for them passing laws against texting while walking, who knows what calamity would befall mankind?

Link

[MrsEclipse]

I like the guy in the comments who points out that there are a lot of injuries caused by people texting while walking out into the street.

I work for the town as an EMT. And I live there. And I'm not stupid. This law wasn't created by us. PD was already able to issue tickets for dangerous behavior while walking, which primarily involved jaywalking. They just decided to include texting as well due to the steadily increasing number of accidents involving texting pedestrians.

And no, this is not a moronic law. If you're going to fucking text, just stop walking. It's the same thing as texting and driving. You say this is a moronic law because you haven't seen what happens to the pedestrians who get struck by vehicles. Why should I have to be in the middle of traffic to treat them and transport them, putting my own life in potential danger, just because the moron was too busy texting to see where he was going?

When they walk into traffic and get struck, you have a potential for additional motor vehicle collisions because of cars suddenly stopping. Now you've just injured several innocent drivers due to that one moron. And then now you're putting EMTs and the Police in danger because we have to be in traffic extricating the one moron and the other innocent drivers who were injured. It's a waste of the Borough's resources when morons cause accidents. Issuing tickets reimburses us for the cost and deters idiots from texting into oncoming traffic.

[crashhelmet]

I'm curious how much or how often this is going to be enforced. Are they going to wait and tack it on to those that cause accidents or will they have cops stopping and citing offenders as they find them?

[Andara Bledin]

I'm with the author; it's a stupid law.

It's not the texts that are the problem; it's people engaging in dangerous behavior. Educate the idiots and they'll not only stop walking into the street in front of traffic, but they'll stop doing a whole range of dangerous behaviors.

Or, you can just slap down a ban, which won't really stop the idiots at all (they'll figure, much like the ones who think accidents happen to other people when they text and drive, that it hasn't happened to them, yet, so they're perfectly safe doing it ), it'll just stop the people who wouldn't have been a hazard in the first place and waste an awful lot of police time and effort.

They talk of the time spent on people who get themselves hit, but how many 'real' crimes were committed while the cops were wasting time writing tickets for texting and walking (117 already written, says the article)?

Situational awareness, like internet safety, is a course that should be taught in school. We've made childhood so safe that kids are getting to their teens and never really learning how to watch out for themselves in the real world.

^-.-^

[PepperElf]

I'm curious how much or how often this is going to be enforced. Are they going to wait and tack it on to those that cause accidents or will they have cops stopping and citing offenders as they find them?

I suspect... this.

So that when pedestrians try suing after they get hit, the city can say "but you were in the wrong".

Or if they get caught almost causing an accident.

[Lady_Foxfire]

So, it turns out that the original report was less than stellar reporting. What actually happened was the police in the town in question were cracking down on jaywalking, and suggested that people should maybe stop texting while crossing the street and instead pay attention to the traffic signs, and that was somehow conflated into "texting while walking is illegal". cite

[jackfaire]

It's not the texts that are the problem; it's people engaging in dangerous behavior. Educate the idiots and they'll not only stop walking into the street in front of traffic, but they'll stop doing a whole range of dangerous behaviors.

I disagree repeated attempts to educate my peers, not by me, through the years has always been met with, "Who the hell are you to tell me what to do I don't care if it's dangerous it's my life and I will risk it if I want to" "but you could hurt other people at the same time" "Nuh uh"


The idiots stay idiots

[Andara Bledin]

There's a right way and a wrong way to educate people.

Starting early is important; as I said at the end of that last post, situational awareness and internet safety both should be taught in school.

^-.-^

[jackfaire]

Starting early is important; as I said at the end of that last post, situational awareness and internet safety both should be taught in school.

^-.-^

they were taught in my school and focused on heavily and most of my peers scoffed at it. We even had hands on classes in things like bus safety and such.