Tweeting While Driving Cited in Celebrity Surgeon Death New reports indicate that Dr. Frank Ryan, plastic surgeon to Heidi Montag and other celebrities, was tweeting just before his fatal car accident on Monday. Ex-girlfriend Charmaine Blake told People Magazine that the plastic surgeon “lived up in Malibu on a tiny street and he was texting while driving and he accidentally went over the cliff.” People has also confirmed with the California Highway Patrol, although the official cause of the accident has still not been determined. Dr. Ryan was purportedly tweeting about his border collie, Jill, when he lost control of his car. Ominously, this final tweet from Ryan includes a photo of his dog atop some sand dunes in Malibu. The dog, who was with Ryan at the time of the crash, survived injuries. Although often associated with teens, texting while driving is a serious issue for adult drivers as well. A recent report from Pew’s Internet and American Life Project found that 47% of adult drivers admitted to sending or reading text messages while driving. Public service announcements and advocacy campaigns dedicated to highlighting the dangers of texting — or tweeting — while driving have been rolled out by governments, consumer groups and wireless companies, but the problem isn’t getting any better. Beyond additional legislation coupled with heavy fines, it isn’t clear what more can be done to curb this very real problem. Perhaps incidents like this latest tragedy can act as a reminder for others to put down the phone while behind the wheel. http://mashable.com/2010/08/18/tweeting-death-frank-ryan/ Last tweet: https://twitter.com/drfrankryan/status/21353019927
What a dumbass. I'm a bit of a hypocrite because I was ordering Pizza Hut through my phone while driving in rush hour traffic.
Hmm, how about each car comes equipped with jammers that prevent only people who are sitting in the driver's seat from using their phone?
That'd be one heck of a jammer, not to mention, what happens if you get into a wreck and need to make an emergency call?
Do they know for sure that he was texting when he crashed? Because it says he was tweeting before he crashed.
Apparently, this is as necessary as a drunk having to blow into a tube in order to start his/her car. People are too stupid to just focus on driving. They always have to be multi-tasking behind the wheel. Texting or tweeting behind the wheel takes some skill that apparently this surgeon lacked...and he paid dearly for it. It takes skill just to try to read your cell phone display while driving...let alone type stuff. While some people claim they are great at it, all it takes is a mere second or two of a distraction for something to go wrong. I have little respect for people who do this. They are tapping on death's door whether they want to acknowledge it or not. The simple truth is this guy should have been smarter and should still be alive. But, he chose to tweet while driving over his own safety. And, it seems it was very important. A picture of a dog was it? Good Lord. I'm sure he loved his dog. Too bad his dog gets to outlive him.
It was only by luck that was driving on the same road avoided being killed by that idiot. I am relieved nobody else was harmed.
That's a shame. Anyway, is there any more news on Melo coming to Houston??? I think it would be a great deal!
how do you prevent this? you really can't. the guy was obviously book smart but some people just lack common sense.
how do they really know if that was the case? i can't believe the dog survived. the jeep was open and i'm sure the dog was flying out as it rolled over. poor baby.
Just took two mini honeymoons, which involved about 25 hours of driving total over the last week or so. And we charted, probably 90 percent of the people that were outright oblivious to those that were around them -- whether it was going five mph below the limit in the passing lane, staying in a big trailer's blindspot for miles, cutting people off, unaware that their exit was 1/20th of a mile away and cutting over three lanes, refusing to signal, etc -- were on their phones. Some, according to my passenger, were texting. Of course we can drive and talk. We can drive and pass and approximate our usual smart driving style while talking on the phone. We've all gotten away with it. But study after study has shown that we're just an accident waiting to happen while we drive and talk on the phone. It's out there. Are brains just aren't big enough, yet. To toss texting into that is just unfathomable. I don't care who on this board I'm offending when I say that you get exactly what you deserve should you harm yourself or something (god forbid someone) else if you crash while texting. It's the epitome of selfishness. Absolute selfishness. To say nothing of the fact that 90 percent of texts are sent because people are too squeamish to actually talk to the other person on the other side of that phone connection. The person isn't going to pick up? Leave a voicemail, you selfish ass. Don't text. Don't use your phone unless it's an emergency. You're not special, you're not different.
