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07/04/00
Outlaw Cell Phone Use In Moving Cars?
by Jake Davenport
Please read this article before proceeding...
Once again, this type of absolutism begets questions such as:
Are ALL cell phone users negligent when they drive and talk at the same time?
Does driving while eating meals obtained at the Burger King drive-through window pose the same level of distraction and risk? What if you drop a french fry?
Should cell phone usage in moving vehicles be outlawed outright? If so, it will need to be a stoppable offense... Therefore, should cell phone use while driving then be probable cause for police to search a vehicle for drugs, prostitutes, or escaped felons?
Could there be possible exceptions to the rule, like when driving through a "bad" neighborhood and attempting to obtain directions or assistance? Who decides if someone has the "right" to be afraid or lost?
Would any law prohibiting cell phone usage in a moving vehicle also apply to CB radios? How would that affect the trucking industry?
Are there other things that could conceivably cause a driver to be less attentive to his driving and are those outlawed? For example, is it illegal to read a map while driving? How about the newspaper? Or a good book? I've seen people reading novels at traffic lights, if you can imagine that. Should these, too, be illegal and stoppable offenses?
What about lighting a cigarette? Your typical smoker stops looking at the road anywhere from 1.5 to 10 seconds while attempting to light a fag, longer if there's a breeze and/or the car is moving and the windows are open. Perhaps smoking should be outlawed, too, but that's not today's topic.
What else can we outlaw while we're at it? What about putting on make-up while driving? How about spilling a soda while driving and subsequently veering all over the road? Or ogling young women in halter tops as you drive by? Or appraising beefy construction workers, for those of you who'd rather do that?
It's been my experience that many people generally drive poorly. They're inattentive, rude, aggressive, reckless, and sometimes downright dangerous. They're also woefully under-tested and ill-qualified to drive in this country or anyone else's.
But drawing a direct correlation between cell phone usage and traffic accidents is fishy at best.
Go ahead and read their "statistics" for yourself. The first "statistic" cites a study of 699 Canadian drivers in 1997 - hardly an adequate sampling of the population either now or then.
Note that in their second citation they admit that states aren't tracking cell phone usage as an accident factor - which means that there aren't enough statistics available to draw a meaningful conclusion one way or the other. In fact, cell phone usage is lumped in with other distractions like dealing with children. Perhaps outlawing parenthood would be a good first step toward reducing traffic accidents....
Even more amusing, they declare that hands-free devices are MORE dangerous than a regular old cell phone, saying that "the single most risky behavior is the conversation itself." One can only conclude from such a statement that the government will soon require auto manufacturers to install Plexiglass dividers between each vehicular occupant in order to make it impossible for dangerous discussions to erupt.
The only statistical assertion they make that's viable is that incoming calls are possible accident catalysts, although they avoid citing how many individuals were sampled and also source the survey as Japanese. Not that Japanese people are worse or better drivers than we are, but wouldn't it be interesting to get some data closer to home?
Some things that AREN'T mentioned in their "statistics":
How many traffic accidents are there in a year?
How many traffic accidents are clearly the fault of drivers who were talking on or responding to their cell phones at the time?
How many people own cell phones and use them while driving?
If we compare the results of the above questions we should be able to get a percentage of cell phone users who have been involved in traffic accidents while using their cell phones. We then need to compare that number to how many people are in auto accidents in total. I'd wager that the total number of auto accidents that can be DIRECTLY correlated to cell phone usage would be less than 1% (prove me wrong, though - I'd be interested in learning the truth no matter what bend it takes).
Pet peeve it may be, but causal relationships proven there are not. This type of advocacy is discriminatory and fails to address the real causes of traffic accidents: poor driver education systems, illiteracy, licenses-for-bribes, driving over the yellow line, sleeping at the wheel, speeding, etc.
I strongly advocate that anyone involved in an accident while using a cell phone should receive an additional ticket. Additionally, I would support a measure that forced cell phone manufacturers to make speaker phone systems for automobiles both available and affordable, in spite of their assertion that the conversation is the true killer.
Beyond that, keep the government out of my car.
Thank you, and good night.
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