On Wednesday, August 19, 2015 at 9:05:19 PM UTC-5, Ashton Crusher wrote:
On Wed, 19 Aug 2015 08:18:45 -0400, "(PeteCresswell)"
wrote:

Per Ashton Crusher:
I have heard a local cop remark that he found driving a police cruiser
with all it's radios and other distractions to be something of a
frightening experience.

No doubt it is when you are new to the job.

Middle-aged cop... definitely not new on the job.

So he never really learned to handle it as second nature?

One thought that occurs to me in this discussion is that many people
simply refuse to believe a person can manage to use a phone and still
safely drive. Yet pilots do essentially that all the time. I used to
fly small planes and entering the pattern, flying it, and landing a
small plane at a big airport, esp with crosswinds, can be a bit of a
challenge to make sure you don't screw up something. The part that
comes into this discussion is that during that process you have to
ready the whole time to respond to air traffic control, both to
understand and follow their instructions and to talk to them on the
radio, you can't just ignore them cuz "I'm busy with the flaps". They
need to know you heard them so then can then talk to the guy following
you. Pilots do this all the time because they LEARN to do it. There
is no reason to treat drivers like children as if they can't be taught
to use cell phones safety but instead you have to ban their use.

Pilots are wearing a headset if not using a microphone on a coiled cord and don't take their feet off the rudder peddles (steering) to dial a phone. A pilot talks to the tower and other planes by pressing the mic button on the control yoke or stick unless using a corded microphone and he's not going take both hands off the controls unless the autopilot is on. The throttle isn't popping closed because a hand isn't on the control and small planes don't have air brakes and even those on the larger planes plus military jets will not bring them to a complete stop in midair. A pilot isn't going to fly 10 feet off the tail of another aircraft because there is often a lot of separation between planes unless flying in a formation where no pilot is crazy enough to takes his attention off flying the plane to dial a fraking cell phone and the greatest difference off all, there are often TWO pilots at the controls.

You might compare driving a police car to multitasking while operating a motor vehicle but the police officer isn't going to take both hands off the wheel to use the two-way radio especially when in pursuit of an evildoer. I doubt a police officer is going to take his eyes off the road to dial a cellphone or text someone. I believe in the right for anyone to be a dumbass and do what you want until your actions harm someone else or you inconvenience others who must cleanup the mess your bloody corpse makes when it's splattered all over the place. If I'm ever going to be talking on a cellphone while driving, I'd be using a Bluetooth earphone and voice command for my smartphone. When I was driving I wouldn't turn my cellphone on until I arrived at my destination. Voicemail is a lot safer. O_o

[8~{} Uncle Crazy Monster