Texting and Driving or Asleep at the Wheel?

[Zanatos]

http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/vi...ists.wdtn.html

[big_sur]

I'm gonna go with texting. I feel like you wouldn't maintain speed falling asleep.

[big_sur]

Also, put one on the board for helmets. That women took a shot to the head.

[TFOGGuys]

I'm going with either distracted driving or road hypnosis.

[Jim_Vess]

Angry Birds or Doodlejump

[mxer]

Probably messing the laptop that is mounted in all cop cars now but he sure doesn't slow down very fast.

[mdub]

Holy fucking shit!!!!! Surprise they are alive... Cop saying/yelling back"are you alright".... Cop caught his Snap quick....

[sag]

yeah i vote laptop. i took a ride in the back of a greenwood village officers ride and he damn near killed us while instant messaging his coworker about eating at chipotle on the laptop lol.

[Aaron]

I'm hesitant to admit this, but I don't see it mattering much. I can just about guarantee that was caused by a MDT, in other words a laptop. A few months ago I totaled my patrol car from reading the laptop while driving.

[Ezzzzy1]

I'm hesitant to admit this, but I don't see it mattering much. I can just about guarantee that was caused by a MDT, in other words a laptop. A few months ago I totaled my patrol car from reading the laptop while driving.

Lets hope the judge in this case doesnt see this post

[Wrider]

I'm hesitant to admit this, but I don't see it mattering much. I can just about guarantee that was caused by a MDT, in other words a laptop. A few months ago I totaled my patrol car from reading the laptop while driving.

Did you get a ticket against your license for distracted driving or something similar?

[MarkT]

Did you get a ticket against your license for distracted driving or something similar?

Aaron was forced to ticket himself.

[Native]

you can't even get an insincere sorry these days

[Aaron]

Did you get a ticket against your license for distracted driving or something similar?

Much to Townie's shock, I did in fact, for Careless Driving. Took a deferred sentence, got a $120 fine but no points.

[usmcab35]

glad they had helmets, only I bet that lady wished she had a full face so her face wasn't ground down. that sucks but glad they are ok

[Wrider]

Much to Townie's shock, I did in fact, for Careless Driving. Took a deferred sentence, got a $120 fine but no points.

Weird, considering you crashed the car and totalled it, you'd think it would be for more. Hell I got a bigger ticket for a one car accident where I totalled my truck. And that was a mechanical failure.

[Aaron]

The only thing that determines the severity of the charges is really injury, unless my driving was reckless in nature (It clearly wasn't, and there were no injuries). As for the fine amount, that depends on where you crashed it, and the traffic fines here are fairly low. The fine for Careless Driving is usually just $85, it got bumped to $120 because I wanted the Deferred Sentence.

I'd like to post pics of the car, but I don't want anyone who doesn't already knowing which agency. It was pretty nasty. I was seriously considering taking the Careless Driving ticket to a jury trial, I think I had a good shot of winning it, but I couldn't take the risk of losing because of the points.

I was catching up on paperwork in a mostly empty parking lot at around midnight, when I got a medium priority call. Now our Dispatchers don't relay all of the call information by radio, only some information goes by radio, the rest goes over the laptop. Now although the critical info goes by radio, when you're in our position you want all of the information on the call you can get, so we always check the laptop. So I put the car in drive, started accelerating at a medium pace, nothing crazy, while performing a shallow arc through the parking lot toward the exit. During this time I was looking right down at my laptop, reading the call, not paying attention to where I was going, because I thought the parking lot was completely empty. And then BAM, the car slammed to a halt from around 20mph. I drew my gun and looked around me, dazed, trying to figure out who hit me. Then I saw it, the bright yellow cement barrier now positioned where my 4.6l V8 should have been. I had to force my door open, but had no trouble as all I wanted was to get out of the damn car at that point. What an embarrassing radio call that was:

"325, I've just been involved in a 10-50 at *location*, single vehicle, no injuries. Go ahead and start a Supervisor and a Traffic car." I considered leaving my badge on the driver's seat and walking home haha.

I'm blessed I didn't hut anybody, or hit anybody else, but I don't see a whole lot of fault to give to this Trooper. The agency decided to put the MDT in the car, and required him to use it in order to do his job. If a normal regular citizen can't be trusted to drive with even a cell phone in front of them, how can we trust our cops, who receive zero training on distracted driving, to do so with a full laptop? Add to that the car stereo, several radio channels, emergency equipment, displays from the digital camera and Lojack controls, etc.

[Aaron]

If anyone knows, or has figured out, which agency I worked for when this happened, please don't share it. I am not violating any laws, policies, or procedures by posting these images.

[mxer]

but I don't see a whole lot of fault to give to this Trooper.

You're right, he shouldn't be at fault for not paying attention driving down the freeway.

How in the world can you train for distracted driving? Practice pointing the wheel straight while looking away?


Gutsy to admit your embarrassing situation though.

[Aaron]

You're right, he shouldn't be at fault for not paying attention driving down the freeway.

How in the world can you train for distracted driving? Practice pointing the wheel straight while looking away?


Gutsy to admit your embarrassing situation though.

If you can't train somebody to handle a situation that the rest of the population cannot handle, why put them in the situation when it's easily avoided? It isn't a necessary feature that's worth endangering people over.

I'm not embarrassed about it, it could've happened to any one of the thousands of cops around the state. Within the past year or so we had a cop fall asleep and crash into the parking garage, a cop blow his engine driving through a flooded street after he was dispatched to the street on a flooded street, a cop crash his car passing a guy on a double yellow for no reason without lights/siren, a cop forget where she left her car, a cop got his car stolen because he left it running with the windows down and doors unlocked, and so many more. Nobody is perfect, and when you do this job, things go wrong.

[#1Townie]

Much to Townie's shock, I did in fact, for Careless Driving. Took a deferred sentence, got a $120 fine but no points.

Why you gotta bring me into this shit yo? You'll never take me alive coppers!!!!!

But for a real note you guys shouldn't have access to those laptops while driving. If a person is worse than a drunk driver while texting I have no idea what kind of driver they are while playing with a laptop. You guys need things like Qualcomm. This way you can't access those messages while the vehicle is moving. Yes I understand you receive important info about calls on those things while in route. This can be easily fixed with text to speech. In route info can be played through the speakers of the cars. Also things like Qualcomm can report things like fatigued driving back to dispatch and maybe save an officers life.

Point is the technology is out there to prevent these things but you guys can't budget for it because for some reason government can't ever budget. State or federal.

Happy you didn't get hurt in your wreck bro but I'm even more happy you didn't kill anyone.

[#1Townie]

Hey look. Again I'm not a dick. WOOOOW.


Another nope.