To the editor:
The National Transportation Safety Board has adopted a recommendation for all states to ban motor vehicle drivers from engaging in electronic activity, even talking on a cellphone with a hands-free device. That made me reflect on what is the difference between banning a driver from talking on a cellphone using a hands-free device and talking with a passenger in the vehicle.
An NTSB spokesperson said their recommendation was motivated by the desire to save lives lost in fatality accidents where drivers are distracted by electronic activity. Safety is, of course, always the goal, and the loss of freedom is always, of course, the best solution. If banning a driver from talking on a cellphone using a hands-free device makes sense, then it makes sense for the same driver to be barred from talking to anyone in the vehicle.
Actually, I would favor making it illegal for a drivers to talk with themselves as well because conversations with yourself are also not protected by the First Amendment.
Comments
grimpeur 5 years, 8 months ago
False. Cell phone use is more distracting, more frequently, and for longer durations than talking to a person. There's also the sharp consciousness of making sure people can see you using your cell phone while you're driving. Fashionable toys and senseless yakking that can certainly wait are not excuses for endangering your fellow road users.
Getaroom 5 years, 8 months ago
The mathematical consequences of having an accident while calculating the odds of having a potential accident are simply a matter of substituting the covalence of the square root of the hypothetical angle of the trimetered intersection, divided by the variance of principles of potential error. Margin of error = + or- 2 tents of 1%. Roughly equivalent to all the wealth of the 46 % of the world, if you figure in 1.4444444444444444 nano meters for the dog leg of an equilateral triangle.
Thusly class, having arrived at the final calculations of Accidental Economics:
Keep your mind on your drivin' and your hands on the wheel. Keep your filthy eyes on the road ahead, were havin' fun, sittin' in the back seat, huggin and a kissin' with Fred -- dudumdum....
Warning!!! Falling Text ahead!!
parrothead8 5 years, 8 months ago
I hope you didn't do that math while you were driving: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3C9Av1...
Richard Heckler 5 years, 8 months ago
Countries that ban cell phones while driving/ States also
http://www.cellular-news.com/car_bans/
Richard Heckler 5 years, 8 months ago
Esso/Exxon ban the use of mobile phones by their drivers world- wide
http://www.driveandstayalive.com/articles%20and%20topics/crash%20causation/cell-phone-dangers.htm
I believe the City of Lawrence also prohibits cell phone use on the job....
Abdu Omar 5 years, 8 months ago
So what? Just because others do it doesn't mean it is good for me.
Flap Doodle 5 years, 8 months ago
I'm astounded how many people are offering their necks for the iron collar of tyranny. (may contain hyperbole) {from a source}
Cai 5 years, 8 months ago
the laws against reckless driving would be fine - if they were enforced.
Creating a specific law does two things, socially. First, it encourages police to look for behaviors that have been shown, in various research labs across the country, to be more distracting, more impairing, and more pervasive than any other form of distraction.
Second, it encourages drivers to understand that this behavior is, in fact, more distracting and more impairing than many other kinds of distractions.
... These are the same reasons we have a specific law against drunk driving.
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