<p>UW student was killed by texting driver.</p>
<p>[Woman</a> accused of texting while driving in crash that killed UW student](<a href=“http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/crime_and_courts/article_7bbdd7ca-8657-11e0-a028-001cc4c002e0.html]Woman”>Woman accused of texting while driving in crash that killed UW student)</p>
<p>Sad story … for both the victim and the accused. Kudos to the Police Dept, which took the time and effort to do a thorough crash reconstruction.</p>
<p>Very,very sad for the dead college student and his family, but I have NO sympathy for the POS moron who killed him. Mego-kudos to the Police Dept for nailing this young woman for her incredible negligence. Hope she does lots of hard time and is required to pay out big restitution to the victim’s family.</p>
<p>Different laws in different states. We have a situation here where a Sonoma State student was speeding and texting when she struck a mother and a 2 year old in a crosswalk. Child is dead, mother has horrendous injuries. The most jail time the student can get is 1 year and then 4 years probation.</p>
<p>We were reminded again this past weekend at D2’s graduation of the story of a young woman who, on her way home with her parents three hours after graduation three years ago, suffered massive brain trauma when their car was hit by a semi-truck driver, who swerved to avoid hitting a car being driven by a texting teenager. Both of the newly graduated woman’s parents were killed in the crash. </p>
<p>The young woman has gone on to make texting and driving her life’s primary focus with her boyfriend who has stood by her the entire time. </p>
<p>So not only do we have these parents, who are gone forever, but the young woman will never recover 100%. And we have a semi-truck driver who has to deal with the guilt of crashing into the parent’s car which killed them for the rest of his life, even though it was explicitly the texting teen driver’s fault. Sooooo many lives changed forever because of one texting teen.</p>
<p>My son’s driving class had a student that had to take the class again as he caused an accident while driving - he dropped his cell on the floor and tried to pick it up and had a head-on collision with a pickup truck. A girl in his car had to be airlifted to Boston (she was also in the class), and the driver of the truck survived. I believe that the upgrade in NH’s distracted driving law was upgraded because of his incident. The instructor pointed out the student and what he did to the class.</p>
<p>My son told me that many of the students in the class appeared to be reckless. One of the attractions of driving was being able to go to other homes to party, as in drinking alcohol.</p>
<p>Regarding large trucks: I basically minimize my time driving near them to the best of my ability. If there’s a truck following closely behind on the highway for a long time, then I may just get off the highway and get back on or slow down to encourage the truck to pass.</p>
<p>(from the article)
Not only did she send a text but she sent several texts every minute or two over the course of 5 minutes. </p>
<p>I hope they nail her big time. Her trivial self-absorbed habits have cost another his life.</p>
<p>Can we just designate one road for all the idiots that talk on their cell phones and/or text while driving? That way the idiots can just take each other out and the rest of the population can just go on living. It would be a great Darwinian exercise.</p>
<p>I am seriously considering putting off learning to drive for my son until he’s 17. Even then, he could be in the car with someone who’s driving and texting, or hit by someone who’s driving and texting. Why can’t there be some kind of chip in the driver’s phone that disables it when they put the key in the ignition? Why does anyone need to be able to talk on the phone and/or text while they’re driving? What is so vitally important to convey that it’s worth putting others at risk?</p>
<p>Classof2015: I would not put off having your son learn to drive. Just make sure he understands and agree to the rule that no talking on his cell phone or texting while driving. If he must, carefully pull off the road and call the person back (he might have to move to the side too quickly to be done safely to answer the call).</p>
<p>CA has a requirement for 50 hours of driving before you can get your license. My son had (just barely) the 50 hours when he got his license. He was still a very inexperienced driver at that point. We controlled his usage of the car for quite a while before we really felt comfortable that he could handle all situations that could arise while driving. </p>
<p>I was glad he got his license and got the experience to be a good driver while he was still at home and under our control and not off at college. </p>
<p>We also did not allow him to take his car to college his freshman year (many other college students and the school themselves discouraged freshman from having cars). He learned to get around school OK and took the Amtrak train back and forth from school to home most of the time.</p>
<p>The worst death toll caused by texting was the crash of a Metro train in Chatsworth, CA a few years ago. The train’s engineer was texting, missed a signal and crashed head on into a freight train. Nearly 30 people (IIRC) died. </p>
<p>I have zero sympathy for anyone who would be so careless of others’ lives that he/she would text while operating a car or any other vehicle.</p>
<p>I’m familiar with Madison, where this accident occurred. The street where this incident occurred is extremely busy, connecting downtown to the east side. It’s a residential neighborhood, with cars parked on one side, short blocks, many driveways. It is hard to drive as carefully as one should on this street while totally focused. To think that someone was texting there…</p>
<p>Does anyone find it interesting that the driver’s selfishness continues as she calls her mom first, before 911? I just can’t imagine making that choice.</p>
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<p>You see this frequently on crime shows: the person calls his lawyer and then calls the police to report a murder.</p>
<p>Blocking a phone in a car isn’t always useful. When I get a call and I’m driving, I give the phone to a passenger.</p>
<p>Geez - she didn’t admit to the texting (if I’m reading the article correctly) and lied about braking to avoid the victim -</p>
<p><a href=“she%20said”>quote</a> she saw a man standing in the lane of traffic and slammed on her brakes, the complaint states. She told police that she skidded, and that her brakes were to the floor.</p>
<p>But according to the complaint, a police officer at the scene found no discernible evidence on the pavement of braking by Kanoff’s minivan and only saw colored streaks on the pavement that were similar to the color of Ellefson’s clothing.
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<p>Maybe the time in charm school will allow her to reflect on dishonesty.</p>
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<p>I would not advise this. My friend’s cousin was killed this way - having pulled off the road to read a map. Drunks follow tail lights, and one slammed into the young man.</p>
<p>Life has many dangers. You can’t assume the worst every time or you will never leave the house. Pulling off onto the shoulder is generally normal and safe. Much safer than trying to read and drive.</p>
<p>most people have a hard time driving while NOT distracted (at least in this city i live in)! that ANYBODY thinks they can handle driving while doing anything else is beyond me. </p>
<p>the highway patrol really needs to come down hard on these idiots. and a $100.00 fine isn’t enough!!!</p>
<p>I have had a 23 mile commute on the freeway for the last four years. It’s not just teenagers that text and it’s not just texting that makes the roads unsafe because of other drivers. I have seen people reading, shaving, and applying make-up while driving. Once I saw a driver with a cigarette in one hand and a mobile phone in the other. I can often tell who is using a phone because they are either weaving in and out of their lane or they are driving well below the speed of traffic. Using a mobile phone while driving has been shown to be as bad as driving while intoxicated. When you realize that perhaps 10% of drivers are on the phone, it gets to be pretty frightening. No wonder my 18 y/o daughter is afraid to drive even though she has her license.</p>
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<p>Have to agree, especially after a 12-hour ride back from school with D2 yesterday. When she wasn’t sleeping, she was on her iPhone, texting, checking FaceBook updates, twittering, etc. When she was driving, I, too, was on my iPhone, checking weather updates, traffic updates, email, etc. </p>
<p>I don’t think banning all cell phone use in a car is the answer.</p>