NTSB recommends full ban on use of cell phones while driving ‎

[wsansewjs]

I dare...

I freakin' STEPHEN-DARE one of you...

to admit that you have talked on the cell phone and drive at the SAME speed as your conversation.

-Josh

[Ajax]

I'm glad these busybodies weren't around when manufacturers started putting radios in cars.  We don't need a ban on cell phones.  There are already reckless/distracted driving laws - why do we need more laws?  Where do you draw the line?  I can't use my navigation system, so I guess I'll unfold my paper map - that should be safe.  Should we outlaw driving with babies in the car?  They can be quite the distraction. 

[danem]

This is one of those things that people say "there outta be a law", and a law would make a lot of people feel good, but the enforcement of such a law would be sketchy at the least. How are cops going to SEE any of this texting going on? How is this going to help when the offenders try to hide it?

How will enforcement this effect people using hands free or using GPS on their car?

No I don't think anyone should be texting while driving...but the implications of making a LAW about it does not seem like it will help save anyone. Maybe we just should mandate head and hand harnesses that keep drivers hands on the wheel and heads looking up. Oh dear, I'd better not give anyone any ideas!

[peestandingup]

This is one of those things that people say "there outta be a law", and a law would make a lot of people feel good, but the enforcement of such a law would be sketchy at the least. How are cops going to SEE any of this texting going on? How is this going to help when the offenders try to hide it?

How will enforcement this effect people using hands free or using GPS on their car?

No I don't think anyone should be texting while driving...but the implications of making a LAW about it does not seem like it will help save anyone. Maybe we just should mandate head and hand harnesses that keep drivers hands on the wheel and heads looking up. Oh dear, I'd better not give anyone any ideas!

But but, its a LAW. Its on the books, so people will always follow it, right??

Yeah, this is the retarded stuff lawmakers like to busy themselves with instead of tackling the real issues. Like, maybe we should be lessoning our dependency to drive in the first place to cut down on accidents? Or how bout this. Since we live in the 21st century, how about requiring all cars to come equipped with hands-free & voice technology that's connected to your phone that you can just talk to?

Anyways, how could they even tell someone was looking down at their phone, and not say, the radio? What about looking down at a McDonalds cheeseburger you just got through the drive thru that you're scarfing down while driving? And lets not forget our lovely ladies, god bless em, that's putting on their makeup at a stoplight sos to look good for us men folk.

But seriously, lawmakers. Just lemme know where we're drawing the line here, k??

[Timkin]

Well... No argument here .. Text or talking on the phone while driving is a distraction.   So could be having a hot cup of coffee spill on you while driving.

I am totally okay with not texting and driving and I have definitely done it before.   after seeing the video BT posted..  I have to say I wouldn't want to have been anyone involved in that.

[Brian Siebenschuh]

If we were really serious about reducing automobile accidents in the US, we wouldn't be putzing around with laws like this, we'd be making it more difficult to get a driver's license...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driving_licence_in_Finland

[Timkin]

The worst...

http://www.youtube.com/v/BvDMzbgBqB0

This one is just God-awful.   IF texting was the culprit ,  I see the need to this as a message.  According to the comments that followed it on you tube , the Driver was under the influence of meth (?)   

That said, I have no problem with shutting my cell phone off while driving.

[Dog Walker]

 It is always frightening to stand on the corner of Park and Post, waiting for the light to change, to see just how many drivers have cell phones clamped to their ears while they drive with one hand.  At least one out of every three or four drivers is talking away; make that one out of every two women.

Sometimes the drivers are holding the cell phone with one hand and gesturing away with the other all while negotiating and intersection!  Guess they are driving with their knees.

[BridgeTroll]

It is always frightening to stand on the corner of Park and Post, waiting for the light to change, to see just how many drivers have cell phones clamped to their ears while they drive with one hand.  At least one out of every three or four drivers is talking away; make that one out of every two women.

Sometimes the drivers are holding the cell phone with one hand and gesturing away with the other all while negotiating and intersection!  Guess they are driving with their knees.

Exactly... Stand on the corner of Adams and Ocean at 5:00 pm and count distracted drivers for just 30 minutes.  50% at the low end.  I do not support a federal law regarding this but state and local governments should take this recommendation seriously.  3000+ dead per year and rising is reason enough.  They are running down pedestrians, bicyclists with their carelessness.  Texting while driving is a careless, defiant, selfish, reckless act.

[BridgeTroll]

I urge you to watch this... It is called "The Last Text."   

http://www.youtube.com/v/DebhWD6ljZs

[Dog Walker]

If we were really serious about reducing automobile accidents in the US, we wouldn't be putzing around with laws like this, we'd be making it more difficult to get a driver's license...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driving_licence_in_Finland

We should have done this a long time ago.  If you can fog a mirror you can get a license in this country.  It is much more difficult in European countries and the skill levels of the drivers shows it.

My dear departed father-in-law was in his late eighties when his license was due for renewal.  We were all breathing a sigh of relief knowing that he would never pass the vision or comprehension tests.  We wouldn't have to be the bad guys and take his keys away from him.  He was a real menace on the roads and occasionally got lost on his way back from the store.

Unfortunately, he had not had a ticket or an accident  (pure luck!) so the State of Florida automatically sent him a new license without any test at all!  We had to take action after all and for years he would pull out his perfectly valid license and point to the label where it said, "Safe Driver".

Getting impaired, unskilled, or just stupid drivers off the roads would make us all safer and increase the demand for public transportation.

[BridgeTroll]

This kid killed a cyclist...

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/11/22/earlyshow/main2205559.shtml

On the day before Thanksgiving last year, high school senior Patrick Sims was driving less than a mile from his Denver home and texting a friend, when his girlfriend suddenly screamed.

When Sims looked up, he was just inches from a cyclist in the bike lane.

"I couldn't swerve my car, I couldn't move it, because he was just too close," Sims recalls. "There was nothing I could do to possibly stop the car accident from happening."

The resulting collision killed a 63-year-old grandfather, and changed the teen's life forever.

[Ajax]

Food for thought:

http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/feds-want-to-ban-phone-use-even-hands-free-while-driving/#utm_source=Cato+Institute+Emails&utm_campaign=9276e4fbca-Cato_Today&utm_medium=email&mc_cid=9276e4fbca&mc_eid=094e06e7c6

Feds Want To Ban Phone Use â€" Even Hands-Free â€" While Driving
Posted by Walter Olson

For quite a while Obama transportation officials have been campaigning against the safety hazard of “distracted driving,” but they must regard the American public as slow learners, because now the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is proposing something truly radical: a ban on drivers’ use of cellphones and other personal electronic devices even when they’re hands-free and thus don’t require taking anyone’s eyes or hands off the road or steering wheel. The only exceptions the agency would permit would be “emergency” phone use and “devices designed to assist the driving task,” such as GPS devices. NTSB chairman Deborah Hersman said the problem is “cognitive” distractions as well as the “visual” and “manual” kind. The agency cannot adopt such a ban directly, but it’s calling on the states to fall into line and to enlist in a campaign of “high-visibility enforcement.”

And there’s more. NTSB is also, to quote PC World, “encouraging electronics manufacturers â€" via recommendations to the CTIA-The Wireless Association and the Consumer Electronics Association â€" to develop features that ‘disable the functions of portable electronic devices within reach of the driver when a vehicle is in motion.’” In the perfect Nannyland of the future, your phone will turn itself off when the government wants it to â€" even if you were in the middle of placing one of those emergency calls (“Honey, get out of the house, the flood waters are rising”) that will supposedly still be permitted.

Tech commentators are blasting the agency for jumping the gun on the evidence, to say nothing of ignoring values of personal liberty. A PC Magazine writer points out that while there is a safety case to be made against texting behind the wheel â€" a practice that encourages the driver to look away from the road for extended periods â€" the NTSB is short of statistics (as opposed to scary anecdotes) to show that phone conversation itself is a dire problem. Ars Technica notes that even the board’s own (disputable) statistics link the hazards of “conversation with passengers” to more than twice as many fatal accidents as the hazards of device use â€" and no one has yet proposed banning passenger conversations with the driver. (Don’t give Washington ideas, though.) Among devices, the sort of touch-screen car entertainment systems that you can fiddle with for ten seconds at a stretch â€" which are apparently okay with NTSB â€" would seem to pose considerably more distraction than one-button phone-answering. And speaking of statistics, the Federal Highway Administration website reports the lowest per-mile auto fatality rate ever, and the lowest in absolute numbers since the year 1950 â€" even though, to quote the NTSB itself, device use has seen “exponential growth” in the past few years.
Something doesn’t add up here. Commercial drivers, since the early-1980s CB radio craze and long before, have been using mobile communications for purposes other than emergencies and driving assistance, and their safety record is not notably atrocious. Hang up on this bad idea now, please.

[ProjectMaximus]

I urge you to watch this... It is called "The Last Text."   

http://www.youtube.com/v/DebhWD6ljZs

Thanks, BT!

[danem]

Unfortunately, he had not had a ticket or an accident  (pure luck!) so the State of Florida automatically sent him a new license without any test at all!  We had to take action after all and for years he would pull out his perfectly valid license and point to the label where it said, "Safe Driver".

Getting impaired, unskilled, or just stupid drivers off the roads would make us all safer and increase the demand for public transportation.

I would make the argument for the reverse, get better public transportation in place, and people who are uncomfortable or incapable of driving would be less likely to try to drive.