The tips would be reported to SOS Ticket verbally, not through text message. So there won’t be drivers composing messages on the highway. They will, however, be receiving them.

And Munoz actually agrees that the driver makes all the difference. He thinks that we don’t get enough driver training here, and that more education, not ticketing, is the answer.

Either way, he smacks of a man playing fast and loose with the road safety of the general population and every single one of his lame responses to your questions can be effortlessly torn to shreds! Thanks blork for taking care of his ridiculous insinuation that retrieving a text msg is akin to chewing gum while walking, or glancing at a billboard for a second. What a joke.

Let’s tackle the ‘Autobahn’ is safe and there are no speed limits. While about 60% of the autobahn has no posted speed limit, the other 40% does. But the real measure of why those highways are safer is right behind every Mercedes and BMW steering wheel; the driver. Yes, a skilled driver who knows when to pass and more importantly, knows when to be passed. Drivers who use their turn signals and almost all wear their seat belts. And the fact that their highways are designed and not just assembled like in Quebec has to help in reducing road accidents.

Favourite Munoz quote:
“I’m a businessman, that’s clear. But I have a social conscience.” LOL

A billboard flashes by in a second. You can look at it and still watch the road (they’re designed that way). Nothing to it. Compare that with the process of receiving and reading a text message:

- Phone rings. For many people, that alone is a huge distraction as they wonder “where’s the phone? Who could it be? Should I answer?”

- Get out the phone. Maybe it’s in your shirt pocket (easy). Maybe it’s in your pants pocket (difficult when you’re driving). Maybe it’s in your knapsack in the back seat, and you’re the kind of person who must answer, so now you’re driving while reaching into the back seat and fumbling around with a zipped up knapsack.

- Open the phone (if it’s a flip) and navigate to the message. You’re changing you’re eye’s focus from virtual infinity to eight inches or so. Doesn’t sound like much, but it can take a second or two, especially for people over 40. (When reading a billboard, you never have to refocus your eyes.)

- Now the tricky part: cognition. Reading a text message on a screen uses the brain in a whole different way than reading a billboard. Studies have shown this. The amount of attention given to the text message is an order of magnitude higher than is given to the billboard.

Now do all that while negotiating traffic in the rain, while the radio is on.

Right.

BTW, if you don’t believe me regarding the amount of attention needed, here’s something related to think about. Compare someone walking down the sidewalk and talking on a cell phone with someone walking down the sidewalk and talking to a person who’s with them. The cell phone person is often oblivious to surroundings. They’re in their own little world over there. But the person talking to another person is aware of their surroundings and flows with it.

Unfortunately I can’t cite the studies, but I have seen them referenced, and there is also tons of anecdotal evidence. Talking on a cell phone is NOT the same as talking to a person in the flesh. (And reading a text message is not the same as reading a billboard.)