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Comment by justin_d | Hacker News Reader

Worth pointing out that every year millions of people worldwide are killed or injured by drivers using cell phones while driving.

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I didn't realize how bad it's gotten until I saw a guy texting WHILE DRIVING HIS SCOOTER!

Yesterday in a parking lot I witnessed a guy backing out with his face buried in his cellphone (still facing forward). So basically he backed up without looking or even glancing at his mirror.

Maybe he had an turned the front camera on giving him a better view of the back.

I don't think so. His face was fixated on his cell phone while he idled backwards for a bit. Then he finally looked out the back window and finished backing up, then pulled forward.

I was being sarcastic. You must be truly disciplined to not use your phone while driving. I am not, good thing I do not have a functioning phone 98% of the time.

In Vietnam they drive their scooters side by side with their friends and carry on a full conversation while driving and looking straight sideways XD

Honestly, it works fine. Westerners are way too concerned with safety.

I have an office in VN and would disagree it's working fine...

> the majority of those injured and killed in VietNam are vulnerable road users

> road traffic crashes are the leading cause of death for those aged 15 to 29 years.

(PDF) http://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/road_traffic/c...

Edit: deleted comment because it was inaccurate. Apparently accidents still rank higher than suicide in the US, of which most are probably vehicular.

Source? Is this what the dead 17 year-olds tell you?

The suicide rate in the US is 2.5x higher than in Vietnam. Clearly people are a lot more fucked up mentally in the US than in Vietnam.

Also, anecdotally, I was much less depressed in Vietnam than in Canada/US. You don't realize how oppressive day-to-day life is here until you've lived there. Everything in the west requires 'insurance' and 'licenses' and 'regulation' and there's always someone telling you what to do and how to do it.

Driving a car or scooter on the road with other cars is by far the most dangerous thing most people do in their day to day life by several orders of magnitude.

I think that lumping injured and killed together to get nice juicy number is misleading at best.

I don't want to be injured or killed by someone who can't wait until they've stopped their vehicle to use their phone.

Probably. But there is subtle difference between injured and killed.

Yes, but, again, I don't want either. Especially if it could have been prevented by just ... putting ... the ... phone ... down.

Wow, I didn't realise the number was that high - that's shocking. Do you have a link to the source for that stat? (not suggesting it's incorrect, would just like to read more)

Sure, lemme just fi

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