Quote Originally Posted by 4X4 UFO View Post
We'll have to agree to disagree, pbkid. If you have taken the trouble to learn how your vehicle works, and what it's (and your) limits are, and you are paying attention ONLY to driving your vehicle, the chances of you causing an "accident" are extremely low. If you are doing anything that causes less than your full attention being paid to your driving, then it's just as "premeditated" as drinking. We've all done it, but it's just as dangerous, and the victims (in the worst case) are just as dead. Current tests are showing that using a cell phone (even "hands free") causes more inattention than drinking, in many cases. The closest I ever came to dying was a near miss by a woman in a Bronco (I was on a motorcycle). She was reading a paperback book while she was driving, but she wasn't drunk. I'm sure if she had killed me, she would have felt badly about it, but her friends would have told her, "It was an accident, you didn't mean to kill him".
agreed....if someone is doing something that severely impairs their driving then they are 'premeditated' as much as drunk driving...to an extent (a severely drunk person has a reaction time up to 4 seconds longer than the same sober person, that is NOT safe)...reading a paperback book->yes you deserve to go to jail for an accident...
picking up a phone call->no, its a momentary distraction, the same as glancing as a bright yellow moon buggy looking car fly's by in the other direction...

and i completely agree and i would even argue that there needs to be more driving education before someone is given a license...people need to be tested on their natural reactions, their control of their vehicle in emergency situations, how easily distracted they are, etc.