Plan B Forum

Accidental cell call causes SWAT team ruckus at middle school
By Liz Goodwin
Wed Jan 5, 9:35 am ET
Here's a reminder that drivers shouldn't keep their phones bouncing around in their pants pocket: One suburban Chicago school employee inadvertently triggered the emergency deployment of a 30-member SWAT team after he accidentally pocket-dialed his wife. "Gangster-like" music was playing in the background, leading his wife to believe that the call indicated he was being held hostage, as a district superintendent later explained. So the emergency-response squad turned out in full force at the Winnetka middle school campus that houses the district offices where he works.

"You know how when you sit on your phone when it's in your back pocket and it calls the last number that was dialed? His wife was the last number he'd dialed," Winnetka Police Chief Joseph De Lopez told the Chicago Tribune.

Three news helicopters joined the scrum, until police eventually announced there had been a misunderstanding.

Neither the paper nor the police named the employee at the center of the ruckus, who is reportedly pretty embarrassed. If he pocket-dials his wife from behind the wheel again, though, he'd be well advised to tune into an easy-listening station.

I do not won a cell phone, but last time I checked it's illegal (at least in NY and many other states) to use it while driving. So shut the F***ing thing off when yo get in the car.

If I were the cops/emergency response, I would charge him for whatever costs incurred responding to the situation.

ETA
LINK

Maybe he had a hands-free kit oldr...

It illegal here in AUS to use the phone while driving.
But what sort of police service responds to a call like that because they could hear Rap in the background noise?

When it is one of their own, they never take a chance.

Butt dialing is a common problem. One must master how to lock the keys on the phone.

oldr_n_wsr wrote:

Accidental cell call causes SWAT team ruckus at middle school
I do not won a cell phone, but last time I checked it's illegal (at least in NY and many other states) to use it while driving. So shut the F***ing thing off when yo get in the car.

It is illegal to use a hand-held device. If you are hand free it is perfectly legal.

Sean wrote:Maybe he had a hands-free kit oldr...

"You know how when you sit on your phone when it's in your back pocket and it calls the last number that was dialed?

Well I guess it was a "hands free device", as his ass dialed it and not his hands.


If it was up to me, even hands free devices would be outlawed (although seeing how many people celling with the phone on their ear it would amount to no tickets).

Some might say distracted driving is distracted driving be it a cup of coffee or a cigarette or a cell phone call. The difference is a cigarette or sip of a drink lasts a second, a cell phone distracts you for minutes. Also it take brain power to answer/talk on the phone, it is not an essentially mindless activity like smoking or drinking. When on the phone you are not where you are, you are in some "space" halfway between yoru car and the other person.

Now I don't own a cell phone (thus never phone while driving) but I do understand the disconnect between driving and talking to someone while driving. I took a 6 hour trip with my brother to go snowmobiling upstate. The whole time we are talking about whatever and when we got up there, I barely remembered the trip nor anything about it. We were so busy talking (and I am especially careful not to be one of those who turn their heads to the person they are talking to as it's better to look at the road) that I could hardly remember the road we took and the signs and sights on that road. Wondr if it's the same for cell phone drivers with/without headsets?

I have seen talk/studies that cell phoning while driving is as bad drunk driving (of course drunk drivers can't hang up).

oldr_n_wsr wrote:Also it take brain power to answer/talk on the phone, it is not an essentially mindless activity like smoking or drinking.

depends who you're talking to.

Actually I believe the NHTSA studies are showing that cell phone use distracts drivers to an even greater degree than impairment from alcohol or drugs.

Scary, because DUI is pretty bad as it is.

oldr_n_wsr wrote:

Sean wrote:Maybe he had a hands-free kit oldr...

"You know how when you sit on your phone when it's in your back pocket and it calls the last number that was dialed?

Well I guess it was a "hands free device", as his ass dialed it and not his hands.


If it was up to me, even hands free devices would be outlawed (although seeing how many people celling with the phone on their ear it would amount to no tickets).

Some might say distracted driving is distracted driving be it a cup of coffee or a cigarette or a cell phone call. The difference is a cigarette or sip of a drink lasts a second, a cell phone distracts you for minutes. Also it take brain power to answer/talk on the phone, it is not an essentially mindless activity like smoking or drinking. When on the phone you are not where you are, you are in some "space" halfway between yoru car and the other person.

Now I don't own a cell phone (thus never phone while driving) but I do understand the disconnect between driving and talking to someone while driving. I took a 6 hour trip with my brother to go snowmobiling upstate. The whole time we are talking about whatever and when we got up there, I barely remembered the trip nor anything about it. We were so busy talking (and I am especially careful not to be one of those who turn their heads to the person they are talking to as it's better to look at the road) that I could hardly remember the road we took and the signs and sights on that road. Wondr if it's the same for cell phone drivers with/without headsets?

I have seen talk/studies that cell phoning while driving is as bad drunk driving (of course drunk drivers can't hang up).

You've never heard of bluetooth then oldr? The phone doesn't have to be in your hand or even in plain view. Not that I'm saying this guy had bluetooth... we don't know.

If you ban hands-free you will also have to ban CB radio, talking to passengers and swearing at the radio for the very same reasons. Soon it'll be no passengers allowed (with the possible exception of Helen Keller...).

sue

That's because contrary to what MADD would like you to believe alcohol impairment is a sliding scale

I've learned not to keep my cellphone in my front pocket, while I'm work. Sitting at the weld table sets it right over my pelvic bone. When I get a call, and it's on vibrate; I get a jolt through my whole skeleton ...which is even more worse when you think what's happening is: you're being electrocuted!








...I've nearly had a heart attack from that!