Either cell phone use while driving should be banned or we should take away the open container laws and let drinking and driving become legal again! I think the results of each have the same outcome.
The problem of talking with passengers is seen most often in inexperienced teenage drivers with a carload of friends. They can get more distracted than anyone on a cell. The fatalities have proven this, and the laws limiting the number of passengers a new driver can carry are the response. Just FYI
I’m joining a bit late, but 4 young women died in NY state last year, as apparently the driver was texting! Winter time driving, but I don’t remember the conditions. It’s been illegal to use hand-helds in nYS for a few years, but I still see it all the time. The problem may be not just the actual, provable accidents that are caused, but the near accidents, and those caused by the oblivious chatters who drive off after causing danger conditions for others… I’d love to have a LARGE SIGN, but then I’d be diverting my own attention.
A couple of weeks ago, while driving thru S-curves, in the city of Buffalo, I had a driver (SUV - middle-aged) behind me, cell phone in one hand, and gesticulating with the other! No one else could be seen in the car - holding the wheel.
I have spoken to otherwise intelligent people who tell me that they can text while driving, holding the wheel with their knees!
Scary!
Here’s my take. If “handfree” cell phones are banned, then you have to ban radio and other music devices, because your brain is occupied listening to music.
Self-help and language tapes and CD’s would also have to be banned because these are not only being listened to, but many demand verbal participation.
Eating should be banned as well. I think this is every bit as dangerous as drinking and driving. Can’t handle the wheel while dipping fries in ketchup and holding a Big Mac.
However you would then have to ban passengers…wives in particular! What can be more distracting than a wife telling you how to drive unless it’s a baby in the backseat!
Infants! Now there’s a distraction!
Banning all cell phones from moving vehicles is going down a very slippery slope and while I think hand held phones should be prohibited, banning ALL phones from moving vehicles is not going to really solve the problem.
Now increasing fines and penalties for phone related violations, that could get some traction.
Hit peoples wallets, not their rights!
Allen Facemire
Atlanta, GA
People who use their cars as phone booths are a major irritation to me. How many accidents are wrongly attributed to other causes?
Actually, borderline drunk drivers may be considerably safer than cell phoning drivers.
Also, you can avoid most drunk drivers by staying off the road between 9PM and 5AM, whereas cell phoning drivers are always on the road.
When that car ahead waits 2 or 3 extra seconds after the light goes green before it goes…
When that car ahead starts to meander in its lane
When everyone is going about the same speed on the expressway, but one car is going 5mph more slowly…
When the brake lights on that car ahead seem to go on for no reason…
the odds are that driver is on the phone.
I disagree. I seldom ever use a cellphone while driving and often complain when someone is using a cellphone and NOT paying attention to the conditions around them while driving. Cellphones can be used to alert police of dangerous road conditions or drivers. Prohibiting the use of cell phones while driving completely is not the answer. Drivers that can handle focusing on their driving while using a cellphone should be allowed to do so . Others should be ticketed for distracted driving. The new problem is texting while driving. There is NO way in my mind to do that safely.
I have had too many close encounters with people on their cell phones while driving. Human nature needs to be considered, since many people believe that they can drive while talking on the phone, my suggestion is - mandate that all the cell phone providers incorporate GPS systems in all phones and when the phone detects that it is going over 15 miles per hour then it automatically shuts down. Need to talk?, then pull off to the side of the road and then make your call.
I think the research is flawed. Using hands-free phone should not be any different than talking to a passenger in your car. The study should have included at least 4 groups - a control group with drivers who are alone and don’t use a cell phone; drivers with hand-held phones; drivers with hand-free phones; and drivers with a talkative in-law sitting in the backseat. The results could be to ban phone use and ban passengers from cars.
I think that having a conversation while talking on a cell phone is as distracting as having a passenger in the seat next to you. Or having 3 kids fighting in the back seat. Should we say no passengers or children in the car as well? Sometimes on a long drive I talk on the phone because I don’t have a passenger in the car. When it is snowing and I need to concentrate I put it down. I don’t think a ban is the answer, but we do have a tendency to try to control people however we can.
It is obvious that talking on a cell phone without handsfree is very distracting, and I agree that there is also a level of distraction when talking on the phone using handsfree. However, have there been any studies that show the latter is more distacting than talking to someone actually sitting next to you in the car? Maybe all coversations while driving should be illegal. Obviously, this would be impossible, but I would seriously like to know just how distracting conversations between the driver and passengers are, compared to handsfree phone calls.
A car is a machine. Both hands should be free and the driver should be concentrating on the road, not the discussion. I, too, have almost been killed by drivers talking on a cell phone while attempting to drive. It is inexcusable. Science has proved that the brain does not do well at multi-tasking. Cell phone use while driving (eating at a restaurant, watching a movie, etc.) should be banned.
I agree in priciple, however I am a physician, and when I am on call must answer questions stat about life and death situations while I a driving a vehicle. When my pager goes off, the patient in the ICU cannot wait for me to find the next exit on the interstate and find a safe parking place to respond. I do use a hands free system in the car. The medical system has come to EXPECT physicians to respond on a stat basis. To do otherwise would not only be unfair and dangerous to patients, it would lead to lawsuits and require a total restructuring of the medical system and hiring more doctors, all in a climate of cutting medical costs and dwindling numbers of doctors due to insurance company greed. Restricting my cell phone use while driving would be a disaster.
You sure missed the point!
Any distraction can be dangerous, but that passenger you are talking to is another set of eyes.
Sometime look where someone’s eyes are when they are talking on any phone. They are aimless and not concentrated on anything.
Last year, NJ modified its law to permit police to pull someone over, if talking on a handheld cellphone. Previously, they could only ticket, if there were an accident. It has made zero difference, locally. 40% of drivers are still talking on handhelds, in my town.
The problem seems to be “driving while distracted” … click n clack would say, “driving while stupid” I imagine. Unfortunately, there is no way to legislate against this, and as others have observed, we already have laws for careless driving.
This genie is out of the bottle. The technology isn’t going away. What we need are vehicles with bluetooth links to sound, voice operated dialing, and heads-up display of the dialed or incoming number. Then, inhibiting display of text messages may be the next issue. 
People who drive while on the phone have their brains in a faraway place. They’re oblivious to what’s going on around them. They do drive as though they were drunk. They drive way below the speed limit, and they make dangerous maneuvers. More than once I’ve seen drivers on the phone, slumped into the crook between their seat and the door as though they were at home on the couch. I’ve leaned on the horn to try to jolt them back to reality and safe driving, but they don’t react. Ban cell phone use in cars.
A total ban is not the answer. Soon we should ban all conversation in the car, even with other live passengers? I have occasionally found that a little talk on a boring weekend afternoon drive is just the thing to revive my alertness. Maybe phoning they should be banned in certain zones, maybe they should be banned for less experienced drivers. I don’t know the answer but a ban is not it. As was said - Its not the hands, but the brain that is the problem and people avoid focussing on driving when they ought to do so in a thousand ways that you can never prevent or diminish. Phones are too useful in too many positive ways and there are too many ways to get around a crude ban anyhow. We have to be smarter - that’s all there is to it.
Let your messages go to voice-mail and check every half hour. Better to do that than cause death or injury because you are distracted by your use of the phone.
Cellphone use in the car should ABSOLUTLEY be allowed! I’m a comercial driver and daily rely on my cellphone for my carreer,I regualry have to drive atleast 2 hours daily, this is a major portion of my day I am legally not permited to be persuing my bussines! I have never had even a close call While talking on the phone and have always managed to drive safely and WITH the flow of traffic while talking(and violating a stupid law!) on the cell phone. I do agree there are many incredibly stupid people that endager the driving public while blabbing about such important topics such as what color to have their nails painted at the salon, but these people will be a hazzard on the road with or without a cell phone stuck to their ear. I believe driver training is to blame. why not make drivers ed in highschool a one year long afterschool elective. Aleast then the quailty & skills of drivers will increase. How about a “Driving while talking” test and endorsement on your license, We can call it a class “BLAB” license!
You gotta be kidding me, If it was your child in the ER bleeding to death would you want tobe told the doctor has to wait a half hour to call in ! This law is absurb!
THANK YOU for some sanity in this insane world! You are right on the money!