What Call is Worth a Life?

Washington Post ^ | 2/9/2004 | Dan Carney

[TerP26]

What Call Is Worth a Life? It's time to admit that hands-free is not a solution. It's time to ban phone driving.

By Dan Carney Wednesday, February 9, 2005; Page A23

Phone driving is the drunken driving of the new millennium. Seemingly everyone does it, and all of them seem to believe that they are skilled in a way that prevents their powers of perception from being clouded by the fog of isolation that envelops drivers who talk on the phone.

Everyone who isn't on the phone while driving sees evidence of it every day, as drivers weave and stutter drunkenly through traffic while negotiating peace in the Middle East over the phone, or their kid's allowance, or some other question that, while too important to wait, doesn't merit pulling over to the side and parking for a few minutes to make the call. Those who are on the phone not only don't see others weaving in their lanes, they don't realize that they themselves are doing it.

[stylin19a]

I don't talk & drive. Period. Did that when I owned a limo and it was scary.
I tried hands free today for the first time ever, while driving. Never again.

Course, my uncle paulie, while he was driving, used to turn all away around to talk with his passengers in the back seat. I'm thinking hands free has to be safer than that.

[Mr Ramsbotham]

Add cell phones to the speeding and tailgating that have become epidemic all over the country and you've got a recipe for many needless injuries and deaths.

That said, I don't like the idea of having a laundry list of specific laws to ban everything in the vehicle that might be a distraction. Reckless driving is reckless driving, and should be prosecuted as such, no matter what the cause.

[GATOR NAVY]

There will always be idiots on the road, phones or not. Just this afternoon I was behind a guy who was weaving back and forth across his lane. All I could see is that he kept looking and leaning over towards the passenger seat. I don't know what he was doing, but he wasn't talking on a phone. I got past him as soon as I could.

[BullDog108]

[BigBobber]

OK, I'm waiting for the law to ban airline pilots from talking to the control tower while flying or taxiing on the runway. Tell me how that's different from a hands-off cell phone.

We have all this great research they quoted in the article so we might as well put it to use.

[VinceJS]

Here we go again. Because a very small minority of people can't handle talking and driving that justifies making criminals out of those who can. Why not just ban driving altogether. After all, there are millions of people injured every year in auto accidents

[shubi]

The banners are all over the place. Ban smoking, ban free speech, ban vioxx, ban big corporations, ban fast food blah blah blah.

If we don't stand up for our freedoms soon, it will be like living in an Islamic theocracy. All the wussies better get their burkas ready.

[Grut]

Tell me how that's different from a hands-off cell phone

It isn't, but airline pilots are a lot different from the average driver; also, the sky is a lot emptier than the roads. That said, I think this law is just another attempt to make an intrinsically dangerous world safe and that it needs to be defeated because it promotes a foolish mindset.

[Jokelahoma]

Banning cell phones just isn't enough! We here at B-BAD (Big Brother Against Driving) feel that there are other distractions every bit as worthy of banning. For example:

We should also ban car radios! Fiddling with the knobs, or even humming along quietly, means you aren't safely in the 10-2 position and concentrating on the traffic around you.

No passengers in cars! Conversation can kill!

Especially no children in cars! Parents correcting children must kill millions a year.

No drive through windows at restaurants, either. That could lead to eating and driving. Someone could drop a french fry and kill 200 people.

No thinking while driving, either. You could be thinking about something other than driving, and WHAM! 2 billion car pileup, thereby wiping out nearly 1/3 of the earth's population. If you even LOOK like you're thinking, the cops should have the right to pull you over and kill you on the spot!

Applying makeup in the car? Capital offense, sentence to be carried out on the side of the road.

We at B-BAD feel that if these rules are adopted, the road will be a much safer place, and no one wil ever die. Ever.

[Maurice Tift]

All this reminds me of the story about the guy who died in his sleep... ironically, the passengers in his car all died screaming.

[stylin19a]

you have a point, but I'm thinking the pilot of a 737 doesn't have stop lights every so often, nor does he have someone on his butt nor is he on someone else's butt and he probably doesn't have to deal with pedestrians, etc....

I'm sure it works for some people, and it still seems that it should be no different than holding a normal conversation with someone in your car, but I felt detached from driving and that's not a good thing for me or anybody else on my path.