Those anti-texting ads.

[hifiguy]

Seriously, am I supposed to feel sorry for these imbeciles? One popular one features the supposed sister (I have no way of knowing whether the details in these ads are truthful or scripts) of a girl who was killed in a car crash while responding to a text.

Are people so incredibly fucking stupid that they cannot realize that they should pay atttention to driving while behind the wheel of a 3000 pound machine? Jesus Henry Christ in a Maserati. This is Darwin sorting the blithering nincompoops from the people who are putting their priorities in a straight order. Texting your BFF about the condition of the bathroom in the club or the cool song the band just played isn't worth putting a dent in your car much less getting killed for. Nobody fucking cares about your opinion about how your shoes look today..

[niyad]

1. if people had any sense, we would not need laws about texting while driving.

[jberryhill]

2. You don't feel sorry for people who die from stupid mistakes?

Or for family members they left behind?

It is a stupid and dangerous thing to do. I found out this week that a friend of mine from years ago was killed by a distracted driver.

I feel sorrow at someone I knew and loved to be dead, and I also feel sorrow for the driver who must live with the memory of what he did.

[RB TexLa]

3. How could one care after they come to the realization of how much smarter they are

than everyone else. To not continue to look down their nose at those who are such lesser human beings simply because they died, of course they could never do that.

[hifiguy]

5. The problem is the imbeciles who look down their noses

to see what the fucking text message is instead of focusing their attention on driving a motor vehicle. Good riddance to bad rubbish. The sad thing is that others have to die or be grievously injured because some moron can't wait to tell their friends about the decor at the fucking club and how rad it is.

Have a flat in a deserted area? Text your ass off. Driving at 65 mph in traffic? Pay attention to driving. Shut your fucking phone off or ignore it I've driven 120 mph on deserted roads in cars that could stop on a dime Your wanna-be foodie's best friend's retaurant review can fucking wait.

[jberryhill]

7. Do you know that "imbecile" used to be a clinical term?

How about we administer IQ tests and impulsivity testing, and just kill them now.

People do stupid things. People do impulsive things. You might be the most brilliant thinking person on earth, and be having a bad day or a moment's carelessness.

Humans brains did not evolve to survive what some of our impulses and drives lead us to do with the technology we have created.

I suppose you say the same kinds of things about people who contract lung cancer from smoking, or indeed many who contract sexually transmitted diseases.

They should employ you as the greeter at the emergency room, where you can personally convey your teaching to the majority of folks on their way in.

[KT2000]

4. Those are good ads

I hope they are effective in explaining to young people what can happen.
I am sick and tired of cars coming at me, crossing the centerline, and it is a teenage girl looking down at her phone. I have had to drive onto the shoulder, with hope that honking the horn will at least get their attention.

There are some teens who think that their social connections are the most important thing in their life - even while operating a vehicle. Something besides a vehicular homicide charge should get them to consider the consequences of their immature behavior. Maybe the ads will encourage discussion among the kids and also with their parents.

[gkhouston]

6. I've had far more close calls with women in SUVs with a phone in their ear and their

mind on the conversation and not the road. I'm wondering if there's some sort of SUV rule about talking on a cell at all times.

[Mopar151]

12. I don't think an Escalade will engage drive until it detects a cell transmission n/t

[Drunken Irishman]

8. Any time a life is taken, it's sad...

We've all done stupid things in our life and we're fortunate they haven't cost us our lives. I'm sure you've jaywalked, looked away from the road while driving once, sped when you weren't supposed to, failed to stop at a stop sign and countless other innocent actions that you didn't think about because it didn't ultimately lead to disaster.

Yes, texting and driving is stupid. It should be ridiculed. People losing their lives should not, though. These are often young kids who generally don't know better or haven't learned better - which is exactly what these ads are supposed to change.

You're lucky that every mistake you ever made in your life didn't result in your death or the death of others.

Some people aren't lucky, though.

I had a friend who was out taking photos and decided to do something extraordinarily stupid. Instead of walking a few feet to avoid an Amtrak train, he thought he could get through the divide in the cars. The train started and it crushed him. Stupid mistake. Stupid all around. But I felt sad. It was sad. He was a father and a son and a husband. Stupidity doesn't change that.

A friend of mine's cousin lost her legs after trying to climb aboard a train in Colorado. She slipped and the legs were severed. Again, stupidity. Innocent stupidity. It was sad. It doesn't change the fact a mother and father nearly lost their daughter and now this girl has to live the rest of her life without her legs.

I guess it's your right to not feel sad. But hopefully these ads work because I know there are people out there who don't believe they're risking their lives, and others, by texting and driving.

[demmiblue]

15. Well said!

[kentauros]

9. I suppose the alternative

is that they show this kind of anti-texting ad:

(Warning! Extraordinarily graphic video! It's upsetting enough that I only had to watch it once, and that was months ago.)

The only one shown on our airwaves that I've seen is the one with the young man that ended up severely brain-damaged, with the body of his text simply "Where r".

Anything to get it through people's thick skulls that distracted driving is stupid, both for them, and for everyone else on (or near) the road. Of course, I'd like to see us have tougher driver's education classes that include test track time (put people in a hydroplane/ice skid to see what that's really like.)

I do feel sorry for these people. It's not that they are stupid; it's that they make stupid decisions and/or mistakes. And education helps prevent those bad decisions and mistakes.

[LadyHawkAZ]

10. Yes they are that fucking stupid

they will not put the damn things down, and as the person they keep near-missing on the motorcycle in the next lane, I can testify that they don't just try to kill themselves.

Eta probably should mention that I do have sympathy for their families.

[RZM]

11. Some of the subjects were young when they did this

It's not exactly news that kids do really stupid shit. And plenty of adults do the same thing.

I was treated to a voicemail from a 50-something the other day, where the only words were 'Hey, asshole.' Turns out he was yelling at another driver . . . which means he was on the phone at the time, since he left me a voicemail.

[jberryhill]

13. Ah, you got my voicemail message

No, I wasn't driving.

[tblue]

14. As a mom, I know it never hurts to remind them

of the obvious. The prime target for those ads is teenage drivers, to 'scare them straight,' because teens don't always do what they know they are supposed to do. If the ads seem ridiculous, it's cuz they are not necessarily intended for you, or me maybe. I think the campaign is worth it, however off-base or contrived, if it saves even one life or prevents just one horrible injury. There's plenty other crap that I would rather have taken off the tv, truth be told.