I have to say I’m for banning cell phone use while driving. It’s not just the young kids doing it. I am 64 and if someone calls me while I’m driving, I completely forget what I’m doing and answer the phone and then I forget what I did while I was on the phone. It’s like I’m daydreaming. I hang up and I’m 10 miles further and I don’t remember those miles at all. I’ve driven daydreaming also where I go through green lights and all kinds of traffic and I don’t remember it. Cell phone in the car is just as bad as drinking or daydreaming.
I’ll admit it, I haven’t read all the responses I got on this forum late. So, please forgive me if some of this has been covered already.
No, cell phone use should not be banned in cars for several very important reasons that are obvious when you look at things from a rational standpoint. First, let?s look at the first hand evidence. When someone says, I?ve had x number of near misses with someone on a cell phone ? or something like that, this is a flawed statement from the standpoint of logic for several reasons. First, you have the concept of significance. Near misses are traumatic ? accidents even more so ? therefore they stick in your mind. In other words, you remember the three near misses with people who were using their cell phones, but the 500 times you?ve passed someone or been passed by someone using their cell phone is insignificant, therefore it doesn?t register. So, there is no way to really accurately register a percentage of safe cell phone drivers you?ve encountered versus the bad ones.
Secondly, it?s not possible to equivocally state that the cell phone use was the problem. Perhaps the person is a bad driver with or without cell phone or had a bad day, etc. Perhaps the exact same thing would have occurred without the cell phone. Without the ability to go back in time and relive it with different circumstances it?s not possible to tell for certain what part, if any, the cell phone contributed.
Next up, let?s look at the slippery slope you will be creating by banning cell phone use while driving. They state in their study ? and this is a scientific study, therefore its results can be considered accurate that hands free usage doesn?t matter. It?s the act of having a conversation that causes the loss of good driving skills. Well, if that?s the case you can?t really tell me that having a person (or more than one person) in the car with you, engaging in conversation doesn?t cause the same distraction. I?d put forth that it probably does more distracting because of the added visual stimulation. So, let?s do that study and ban having more than one person in the car. Oh, wait, that would cause problems with car pooling lanes ? guess we just have to pollute more and use more fuel to avoid the risk.
How about eating in the car? Let?s do a study on that one and then find out that it causes a lack of concentration on driving and ban drive throughs. What about listening to the radio. Certainly if you are concentrating on what?s said on the radio or singing along with your favorite song it takes away from your ability to fully concentrate on your driving. Let?s check those numbers out and ban radios and CD players and any form of distraction from the car. Hmmm?.ladies ? do you ever put on your make up or even check it while driving? There?s our next study and new legislation. What about bill boards? Other cars on the road, certainly those distract you ? especially if they are flashy.
Here?s the thing ? life is risky. It?s all about making decisions that balance the potential risks versus the benefit. You can?t eliminate risk in life. It?s not possible despite legislators ? often lobbied by insurance companies whose job it is to compensate for that risk (and for which they get highly paid) ? best attempts to eliminate risk. If you think so, you are na?ve. You simply understand that any time you get into a car there is a risk of an accident, injury or death. If you are not willing to take that risk, walk ? or ride a bus. But again, neither of those options are risk free either. Every time you get out of bed there?s a risk that you?ll slip and fall and break some bones ? or perhaps your neck resulting in death. We could eliminate that risk by banning beds and making everyone sleep on a blanket on the floor. The far more rational approach is to recognize that life is risky and that?s what makes it so special. Stop trying to cover the whole world with packing bubbles and get on with living your life. The other option just doesn?t make sense.
Sorry, doc but how was this handled before cell phones? Surely a system was in place other than letting patients die due to lack of a proper backup system for a doctor who is not able to immediately respond. I apologize if I sound too sarcastic, but I think we all need to realize that every new piece of technology has positive and negative features. Some drivers are doing 80 or more mph on highways and even if you’re not one of them, you need to give your full attention to driving in case one of the zanys who is in so much more of a hurry than everyone else pulls a stupid and dangerous move near you. susanvz
Whoa!!! Geschlechlichinginieur Unfortunately common sense can’t be taught.
Whitey,
You’ve hit the nail on the head!
As a Paramedic I constantly see bad and distracted drivers on cell phones. I also often enough see the remains of a cell phone in the crumpled passenger area of wrecked cars. These people stupidly believe with every passing second of successful talking that the next secon will also be crash free. They may however learn on the way to the hospital, you never know.
Perhaps statistics on cell phone use in accidents is skewed because it’s very simple to put a cell phone away or turn off a head set. Drunk driving is measurable with a blood alcohol test. My mother-in-law was killed by a drunk driver who crossed the median. Her daughter is permanently brain damaged. The drunk wasn’t seriously injured. I think another thing that frequently happens is that the driver who causes an accident is not involved in it. Perhaps sometimes, if they’re not looking in the rearview mirror, they don’t even recognize what they caused. I don’t have any statistical reports, but logic from what I’ve seen on the road during 45 years of driving leads me to believe that I’m right.
I do too much driving, both commuting and during work. I see it happen all the time. The other day I was almost hit on I-93 in Concord by a trooper who was talking on a phone. I’ve also been distracted and drifted to one side or another. The worst are the young drivers (it seems to be mostly girls) who become oblivious to everything going on around them. I don’t know if it can be enforced or not, but anything to help would be useful.
There are laws on the books already and if the fines were large enough it might get the police to enforce them. The DMV’s of this great land would do better to be a hell of a lot more picky about who they let drive in the first place. There are a lot of people on the road who have no business behind the wheel of a car in the first place. Toughen up the drivers tests!!! The life you save could be mine!
Yes, cell phone usage should be illegal just as is alcohol. But the problem is enforcement. While it’s obvious someone has been drinking, using a cell phone differs as the call can be terminated without after effects. There’s no such thing as cell phone breath.
So, here’s my thought. Why not simply require cell phones be disabled above 10 mph or so? As cell phones can use GPS and travel between towers, determining speed should be possible.
I realize such technology would also stop passengers from using cell phones. However, I consider that necessary such as with open container laws. Such laws apply to the vehicle and all passengers.
I’ve suggested this several times to safety foundations and my local PBS station with no traction. I’d be interested in what others think.
I understand some studies show the risk using a cell phone while driving is nearly the same as drinking and driving.
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Does this risk lessen with practice?
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Should it then be illegal to converse with a passenger while driving? Isn’t this nearly the same thing as talking on a “hands-free” phone?
Of course you have a co-pilot, right? I hope that makes a difference!
No. Existing laws already cover this. There have been times that I’ve needed to communicate on the road for various reasons and it would be more dangerous to pull over to the shoulder. If cell phone talking is banned they may as well ban turning around to reprimand the kids, glancing at the person riding shotgun as you converse, applying chapstick, etc. All of it is pretty much unenforceable anyway. Just drive as though everyone on the road but you is a nut case.
Unenforceable is my thought also, How can a policeman tell if someone has a bluetooth ear thing, but I have to say after watching people blow through stop signs my estimation is 80% on cell phone, stoplights about 20% on cellphone, I think there is a growing philosophy of the road is mine. I remember deadlocks from other people wanting to let the other go first at 4 way stops. Now if the light turns red if you are within 1/2 block of the signal many think it is the same as green.
No!! A blanket ban on using a cell phone while driving is excessively restrictive. There are too many variables. I use a bluetooth headset while driving, which makes it exactly equivalent to talking to a passenger in the car. Are we going to ban talking to passengers?? What about the difference between a country road and a busy urban intersection? Or between an interstate with no traffic vs. high-speed rush-hour traffic? What about being stuck in an 8-lane parking lot at 0.5 mph? Dialing is, of course, different from just talking, but, again, some common sense is needed.
I have found that despite the famous study showing that drivers using cell phones are about as dangerous as drunk drivers, most people are quite sure that they themselves are perfectly capable of driving safely while using a cell – it’s just all those other people who can’t do it and insist on trying that give the rest of them a bad name.
Which sounds to me like a 90/10 rule that many computer programmers will recognize: one out of ten drivers actually can yack on a cell phone and drive safely. The problem is, nine out of ten think they’re him!
I would ban the use of the handset, but not the cellphone. What is the difference between having a cellphone conversation with a headset or carrying on a conversation with passengers in the car? I cannot see that a cellphone when used with a headset is any more of a distraction than two kids fighting in the back seat!
When riding a motorcycle (you know, one of those two-wheeled devil machines), I am required by most states to have a “motorcycle endorsement” on my license. That means that at the time it was granted, I actually had sufficient eye-hand coordination and multitasking ability to follow bullhorn instructions and shift, accelerate, signal, and stop inside an expected regimen set up by the administrators - all at the same time. A similar concept applies to most aircraft pilot’s license testing (only there, they actually try to crash you, on purpose, to see if the training took), and certainly for nuclear power plant operation (same as aircraft - I do know about that)! Why not a “communications device” endorsement? A simple test could be provided to first see if you can eat pistachios and walk simultaneously, then a “real” test in a simulator (or in a real car, for shoestring Motor Vehicle departments) talking on the phone and driving a specified course.
That way, the states can charge $50 for each endorsement, and $1,500 if you don’t have one and are caught (in addition to gluing on a point or two). In addition, it would morph into another status symbol (better than 10,000 Facebook friends), and if revoked and reinstated, it would make things even more lucrative for the state (I’m trying to help the bailout here).
The bottom line is that the folks who grouse about “cellphone idiots” might have far less to talk about (or at least should), the states would have a new lucrative income stream in which to extend graft, and we would have a new status symbol to pursue.
As intimated in earlier comments, the idiots will always be among us - but they should pay for it.
It is all about Freedom. I should have the freedom to drive and use my cell phone at the same time. If I run into you, you have the Freedom to sue me.
We have a law on the books regarding “inatention to driving” which should cover celphone use. Problem is it usually only gets ticketed after an accident. When the chickie pulls out of the parking lot while looking straight at you, I think it aughta apply. Conviction is a few points, and that radically affects insurance rates.