Texting while crossing a road - should you be fined?

Biggins

Something to dwell over - should a person be fined for texting while crossing a road?

...someone can be fined for ‘texting' or playing with their mobile phones while crossing the road in Fort Lee, New Jersey. Police in the town say doing this constitutes jaywalking, and have so far issued 117 tickets to residents crossing the street while glued to their mobiles, resulting in fines of 68.17€

Jaywalking is defined as recklessly crossing the road, and in the US is a traffic safety violation.

According to Fort Lee local newspaper The Record, the move shouldn't come as a huge surprise to residents. It said that already three pedestrians had died in the city this year and "pedestrians contributed to 20 per cent of all traffic fatalities in New Jersey in 2010".
So following a short educational and warning period about the dangers of being distracted when using a mobile phone and walking across the road, the authorities upped the ante. To get their message cross they have begun issuing on-the-spot tickets for people using their phone when crossing the street.

Source: http://www.computeractive.co.uk/ca/news/2182615/jersey-town-issues-fines-texting-crossing-road

I have to agree with the fines.
The texter is not only putting themselves at risk but also others, besides the risk to vehicles and emotional pain/stress to others involved.

Anyone agree?

Diego Maradona

Biggins wrote: »

Something to dwell over - should a person be fined for texting while crossing a road?

No, that's just stupid TBH.

af_thefragile

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXMjaxtE6LI

Oh and tick ALL the boxes!!!

mikemac1

Start with the unfit mothers who push their childs buggy onto the road to "test" the traffic.

I see it almost every day

Fromthetrees

Yeah lets fine people who don't use a tissue when they sneeze, I don't want to catch your cold. :rolleyes:
Yeah and lets start to fine people who don't tuck their shoe laces into their shoes, I hate having to see other peoples shoe laces, yucky.
This is fun, that's just a few ideas of how we can fine people, anyone able to come up with more?

Abi

If you can't stop texting or dicking around with your phone long enough to cross a road then you deserve to be fined / hit.

_LilyRose_

If someone crosses the road without looking because they're texting and gets knocked down it's their own fault. And the driver should have been able to stop in time.

If all road users treated the roads properly, there would be far less accidents I think.

Pushtrak

Fromthetrees wrote: »

Yeah lets fine people who don't use a tissue when they sneeze, I don't want to catch your cold. :rolleyes:
Yeah and lets start to fine people who don't tuck their shoe laces into their shoes, I hate having to see other peoples shoe laces, yucky.
This is fun, that's just a few ideas of how we can fine people, anyone able to come up with more?

Yeah, and lets fine people who use sarcasm on forums...







Crap.

Abi

mikemac1 wrote: »

Start with the unfit mothers who push their childs buggy onto the road to "test" the traffic.

I see it almost every day

I can't believe how much this happens. I see people cross the road without looking all the time, but I can't believe the utter carelessness of women crossing the road without looking while pushing a buggy.

It's the fúcking kid that gets hit first, not even the daft bint that is pushing it.

FloatingVoter

Anyone proved to be knocked down while texting is roadkill.
Scratch that, cats and dogs are not aware of the existence of cars or the damage they can do.
Use texting roadkills as compost and nominate them for a Darwin award. Perhaps salvage the mobile and recycle it.

Mr Benevolent

It's interesting to note how many drivers don't know that in Ireland pedestrians have absolute right of way over everything else. Technically pedestrians can step out into the road and cars should stop immediately. So fines against people who cross the road while texting couldn't work as a driver who hits a pedestrian is automatically at fault.

Irish Guitarist

Only if people that cross the road without texting get a reward. €100 for every road you cross maybe.

BIG BAD JOHN

mikemac1 wrote: »

Start with the unfit mothers who push their childs buggy onto the road to "test" the traffic.

I see it almost every day

I was that soldier as a child though it was an aunt rather than my Mum who diced with death in this manner.

The Big Red Button

mikemac1 wrote: »

Start with the unfit mothers who push their childs buggy onto the road to "test" the traffic.

I see it almost every day

I've seen this happen twice where an accident occurred.

The first time was when I was a young teenager, maybe 13-14. The baby in the buggy died in hospital, several weeks later, as a result of the accident. The mother's four-year-old son was also hit, and his leg was badly broken - my friend and I sat and talked with him after the accident until the second ambulance came (the first one that arrived was busy with his baby sister, the buggy had been thrown quite a far distance from where the accident had happened.) Something that really bothered me at the time was how few drivers left their cars to come to the little boy, they were happy to leave him there crying on his own - there was torrential rain at the time, but that's no bloody excuse! :mad:

The second time was just a couple of weeks ago, where I was in traffic, and a father walked out with a buggy and his toddler, right into the path of an oncoming car. The lights had just changed, so the car wasn't going very fast. I don't think the buggy was hit - the toddler and the father were, though, and although the toddler was (obviously!) very upset and bawling crying, he seemed to be OK.

It's absolutely disgusting carry-on. If you can be so selfish, that you'll risk your baby's life just so that you might be able to get to where you're going a little bit faster, well it's pretty clear that you just don't care about them all that much.

southcentralts

Instead of a fine how about a "there is a car coming, Idiot" app for the phone, people stuck in their phones all the time have an addiction. Addiction to technology requires technological solution.

Abi

Confab wrote: »

It's interesting to note how many drivers don't know that in Ireland pedestrians have absolute right of way over everything else. Technically pedestrians can step out into the road and cars should stop immediately. So fines against people who cross the road while texting couldn't work as a driver who hits a pedestrian is automatically at fault.

Rules need to be changed. I can think of a few instances where I'd be backing up traffic at lights to turn right. One area in particular is a road regularly crossed so pedestrians may make their way to the local schools.

No pedestrian crossing = I've the right of way imo. Rules or not, I'd rather not hold up heavy traffic behind me. If the pedestrian can't hold on till I make a swift turn, then we're looking at either blissfully ignorant person or an ignorant cúnt.

RaRaRasputin

No, they shouldn't be fined.
This way the idiots will be encouraged and more of them will be run over. Natural selection always wins in the end.

Ficheall

If I'm in the middle of writing a text, I'll check that there's no traffic coming and continue texting as I cross the road. If there's traffic on the road I wait until I've crossed the road to resume texting. Would I be fined?

I'd sooner fine the people who text while driving...

BigBabyTaylor

No.

Sure it would be just as distracting to be reading a book, changing song on I-pod, even staring into space. Stupid decision in my opinion

Fighting Irish

Too much effort is being made to prevent stupid people from doing stupid things

cartell_best

This subject is just mad out! someone is texing without paying attention to whats going on! all of a sudden they test impact from the latest volvo! in fairness...its not just the driver of 1.5 tonnes of metal that needs to realise what has just happened!

gurramok

RaRaRasputin wrote: »

No, they shouldn't be fined.
This way the idiots will be encouraged and more of them will be run over. Natural selection always wins in the end.

Tell me about it :mad:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xruseseP67k

Mint Sauce

Whilst its a terribly stupid thing to do, I would rather the Guards dealt with the increase in people using mobiles whilst driving that I have noticed first.

PizzamanIRL

How can you tell if they're texting?

Also, no.

Mint Sauce

PizzamanIRL wrote: »

How can you tell if they're texting?

Also, no.

Using a mobile whilst driving includs just have the thing in your hand, I'd imagine they would come up with something similar for this.

The King of Moo

Definitely. It's easy to say let them get killed by a car, but they could also cause an accident by making a driver swerve to avoid them.

And if they walked out in front of a cyclist they might cause serious injuries for both parties.

As a cyclist, I get frustrated enough by people, pretty much every day, swerving suddenly from the footpath onto the road without looking. Sometimes they'll even see me coming and still cross anyway. Sure it's only a bike, it wouldn't hurt that much!
People with no excuse for being unaware of their surroundings are bad enough, so I'm definitely against texting while crossing.

laoch na mona

I can picture it now a garda who is on the phone while driving having to pull over and fine some one for texting oh the irony
that said its a good idea but only if you fine drivers who ignore pedestrian crossings

Jester252

yes if only you can pay the fine via texting

the groutch

the sooner jaywalking is made an offence over here the better, if drivers have to abide by the rules of the road, why shouldnt a pedestrian?

Oranage2

But i can text and walk across a road responsibly -why should i have to suffer.

Fromthetrees

Pushtrak wrote: »

Yeah, and lets fine people who use sarcasm on forums...







Crap.

:rolleyes:

I was being facetious. Are we going to legislate against everything that anyone can think up now?
Trying to ban smoking in parks and on beaches. It's all just getting ridiculous at this stage.
One has to multiply thoughts to the point where there aren't enough policemen to control them.