Posted on 01/12/2009 8:23:13 AM PST by Red Badger
A national safety group is advocating a total ban on cell phone use while driving, saying the practice is clearly dangerous and leads to fatalities.
States should ban drivers from using hand-held and hands-free cell phones, and businesses should prohibit employees from using cell phones while driving on the job, the congressionally chartered National Safety Council says, taking those positions for the first time.
The group's president and chief executive, Janet Froetscher, likened talking on cell phones to drunken driving, saying cell phone use increases the risk of a crash fourfold.
``When our friends have been drinking, we take the car keys away. It's time to take the cell phone away,'' Froetscher said in interview.
No state currently bans all cell phone use while driving. Six states - California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Utah and Washington - and the District of Columbia ban the use of hand-held cell phones behind the wheel, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Also, 17 states and the district restrict or ban cell phone use by novice drivers.
Council officials acknowledged a total ban could take years.
``Public awareness and the laws haven't caught up with what the scientists are telling us,'' Froetscher said. ``There is no dispute that driving while talking on your cell phone, or texting while driving, is dangerous.''
Froetscher said the council examined more than 50 scientific studies before reaching its decision. One was a study by the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis that estimates 6 percent of vehicle crashes, causing about 2,600 deaths and 12,000 serious injuries a year, are attributable to cell phone use. Hands-free cell phones are just as risky as hand held phones, she added.
``It's not just what you're doing with your hands - it's that your head is in the conversation and so your eyes are not on the road,'' Froetscher said.
John Walls, vice president of CTIA-The Wireless Association, a cell phone trade group, objected to a complete ban. He said there are many instances where the ability to make a phone call while driving helps protect safety.
``We think that you can sensibly and safely use a cell phone to make a brief call,'' Walls said.
What makes cell phone use distinct from other risky driving behaviors, Froetscher said, is the magnitude - there are 270 million cell phone users in the U.S. and 80 percent of them talk on the phone while driving.
Froetscher said the council is the first major national safety group to call for a total cell phone ban for drivers. The National Transportation Safety Board has been urging states since 2003 to ban the use of cell phones or any wireless device by inexperienced drivers who have learner's permits or intermediate licenses. Last year, at least 23 states considered some form of legislation to restrict the use of cell phones or wireless devices, according to the board.
Council officials said they will press Congress to address the issue when it takes up a highway construction bill this year, possibly by offering incentives to states that enact cell phone laws.
The Governors Highway Safety Association agreed that cell phone use while driving is dangerous, but said it would be difficult to enforce a ban. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, which is funded by auto insurers, said banning all cell phone use ``makes sense based on the research,'' but agreed that enforcement will be difficult.
I don’t think that endangering the health and safety of others is “nanny state” meddling. Driving is a privilege, not a right. Driving while under the influence of drugs, alcohol or cell phones is dangerous to everybody........
Please provide a link to the study/studies/investigation(s) which have proven this.
Thank you.
On the loud music note, I drive long trips a great deal and must listen to music on the road...I am ticket and accident free in over 30 years of driving, but I remember someone told me once "If you can pay full attention while driving and listening to your music, why is it you must turn the radio down when you are looking for an address?"
The moment I heard that, I knew it to be true...I always turned down the music in the car when I was on a street looking for an address...may not be everyone, but it was true of me.
Yes. Thanks. There are exceptions to every rule!
Well......now that mine are grown..........
We can’t legislate common sense..
Driving in cars results in far more deaths than just sitting in stationary cars; so they ought to ban driving if they really want to reduce car-related deaths.
Also carbon emmisions would cease... completely.
The bad thing is that gas tax/ road use tax revenues, for rebuilding roads, would cease. Then where would the money come from to rebuild roads and bridges?
True, but we can punish stupidity...........
Children should be eaten. At least the poor ones.
If I’m able to easily pull over, I do so. Pulling over on a freeway is not too good an idea. And the calls are always very short in duration, “Loss of pressure, can you get there and take care of it?” We’re not talkin’ a long time, but they must be answered immediately.
A couple of months ago, I saw a woman driving along waving her left arm around out the window. When I went to pass her, she was holding up her cell phone with her right hand. No hands on the wheel!
My answering a quick emergency call is no more dangerous than my answering my daughter’s question about, “How much further Daddy?”
And I'm always amazed at the number of folks who don't/won't understand the difference between a right and a privilege :)
Bring back horses and their droppings.
OOPS, another bio-hazard.
A lot of people have bought into that garbage. Makes it easy to throw the Constitution out the window when you can just classify everything as a "priviledge"
You might want to do some research on the common law right to travel.
You might also take a look at the 9th and 10th amendments to the Constitution.
The question of whether driving while talking on a cell phone makes you a more dangerous driver isn’t even up for debate. It does. The question is what to do?
My take has always been that a person’s right to do something ends when that act endangers my life.
In this instance, I don’t buy the “make them personally responsible for any damage they cause” argument, when that damage is the loss of say, my daughter’s or wife’s life.
How many people actually NEED to talk on a cell phone while driving? I’d say less than 1% of car cell phone usage is for emergency purposes (my wife calling me to pick up milk on the way home is not an emergency.)
I’ll admit that 99% of people talking on the cell phone while driving don’t cause any problems. But the fact is 99% of the people that drive after drinking don’t cause any problems either. But when there is a problem, it is huge. That is why we outlaw drunken driving, and why we should outlaw cell talking &* driving.
If the cell phone driver was the only one that bore the consequences of their actions, I’d say let them have at it. But when I’m the one (or my family) that is hurt because of their actions, that is a different story. I’m not content to wait to do something after the fact (and forcing them to accept responsiblity for the damages they cause), I want to do something to PREVENT their actions from damaging me.
Sigh. Yes, you do indeed have a right to travel. But you don’t have a right to use public roadways to do it while behind the wheel of a car. Travel is a right. Driving is privilege. Get it?.
No matter how laws we passed there are always going to be stupid people...
A privilege is just a right which the government can infringe upon.
Name that Logical Fallacy.
So you’re saying that even though I am BLIND, that because driving an automobile on the public roads is a RIGHT I should be able to drive while blind without any interference from the government?
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