Hot Topic (7/22): Should use of cell phones while driving be banned?

[Cafe GroupAdmin]

 From MSNBC: 

By Suzanne Choney

As long as seven years ago, the federal National Highway Transportation and Safety Administration recommended that drivers not use cell phones, even with hands-free equipment, while on the road except in emergencies. But that recommendation was never made public until today.

The proposals from the agency in 2002 and 2003 were only made public Tuesday by The Center for Auto Safety and Public Citizen, two public interest groups that filed a lawsuit to obtain the documents under the Freedom of Information Act.

"We recommend that drivers not use these devices when driving, except in an emergency," the NHTSA said in a draft cell phone policy. "Moreover, we are convinced that legislation forbidding the use of handheld cell phones while driving may not be effective in improving highway safety since it will not address the problem. In fact, such legislation may erroneously imply that hands-free phones are safe to use while driving."

The recommendation was never made public, in part because of concern by administrators that public officials, including members of Congress, would be angry, thinking that the agency had "crossed the line into lobbying," The New York Times reported Tuesday.

At the time the reports were done, there were more than 170 million cell phone subscribers in the United States, "more than half of the U.S. population," the agency said. There now are more than 270 million subscribers, and wireless penetration totaling 87 percent of the population, according to CTIA-The Wireless Association, the cell phone industry trade group.

Below are excerpts from the findings of the NHTSA in its cell phone-and-driving-related reports, all of which were labeled as "draft" and never moved forward:

• From the agency's proposed cell phone policy: "Driver distraction contributes to about 25 percent of all police-reported traffic crashes. Though all distractions are a concern, we have seen the growth of a particular distraction, namely cell phone use while driving. While the precise impact cannot be quantified, we nevertheless have concluded that the use of cell phones while driving has contributed to an increasing number of crashes, injuries and fatalities."
• Research has shown there is "little, if any, difference between the use of hand-held and hands-free phones in contributing to the risk of a crash while driving distracted. Hands-free or hand-held, we have found that the cognitive distraction is significant enough to degrade a driver's performance."
• "We recommend that drivers not uses these devices when driving, except in an emergency. Moreover, we are convinced that legislation forbidding the use of handheld cell phones while driving may not be effective in improving highway safety since it will not address the problem. In fact, such legislation may erroneously imply that hands-free phones are safe to use while driving."
  
  

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Do you think the use of cell phones while driving should be banned?

(What about other distractions, like children in the car?  Should they also be banned?  Okay, fine, just kidding about the children.)

[Suzys_monkees]

YES, YES, and YES! They're almost worse than drunk drivers!

[denmar29]

 Not only should using phones be banned, but eating, drinking, putting on makeup, reading etc. When a person gets behind the wheel, they are not only responsible for themselves, but everyone else on the road and streets. If they really have to use the phone or anything else, it wouldn't hurt them to pull over.

[DixieHeart]

Yes I think it should be banned and seeing people texting while driving really makes me cringe!

[PestPatti]

 

 I live in NY.  Cell phone use is banned while driving.  Unless you have a hands free device.

 Personally I think there are some people who should just PARK  their cars.  They suck at driving whether they have a cell phone or not. 

[booklover1977]

 I live on an Army post, and cell phone use without a hands free device like blue tooth while driving is banned and strictly enforced. When driving down the street here, you may see one or two cars just pulled over  on the shoulder talking on their phones.

I like the ban.

 

[EmmasMom0305]

Quoting denmar29:

 Not only should using phones be banned, but eating, drinking, putting on makeup, reading etc. When a person gets behind the wheel, they are not only responsible for themselves, but everyone else on the road and streets. If they really have to use the phone or anything else, it wouldn't hurt them to pull over.

People actually read while driving? I don't know why that surprises me, dh supposedly saw someone talking on a phone and eating a bowl of cereal while driving one day. I never did figure out if he was joking about the cereal though.

Yes I think it should be banned, I think it already is in Ohio. But I don't know for sure, I don't own a cell phone so I don't know the laws of it very well.

[MrsRStewart]

I agree with the ban as long as Congress would not go any farther with it.  They usually come up with crazy ideas when they start with one good one.

I really hate seeing people texting while driving.  The problem with this law, though, is how is the cop suppose to know if you are really calling b/c of an emergency?  Think, too, of all of those people who have been calling 911 for weird reasons lately, like McDonald's won't give them the right meal.  They will be on the phone a lot with "real" emergencies.

[booklover1977]

Quoting MrsRStewart:

I agree with the ban as long as Congress would not go any farther with it.  They usually come up with crazy ideas when they start with one good one.

I really hate seeing people texting while driving.  The problem with this law, though, is how is the cop suppose to know if you are really calling b/c of an emergency?  Think, too, of all of those people who have been calling 911 for weird reasons lately, like McDonald's won't give them the right meal.  They will be on the phone a lot with "real" emergencies.

About a month ago, a woman almost ran smack into the side of the van where my 3 yr old rides, I mean she was probably inches away from our door- she was TEXTING. Yep- a grown woman in a minvan herself with her own kids about killed us all to send a text.

[miss146mn]

I think it should be limited to hands-free and no texting, but that this must be impossible to enforce.  I also think these are common sense things that shouldn't need laws to tell people what is common sense.

~Melissa

[Mommy_of_Riley]

My van comes with the Blue Tooth so I don't even touch my phone while driving... the van does everything for me.  I like that!  I think most cars are coming like that now too...

Anyways... completely banning the use of a cell phone is dumb.  Sometimes you need to call because you are lost on a  freeway and there is nowhere to pull over... or there is an emergency or you see a wreck in front of you... etc.

As for all the other things you do while driving... I eat while I drive (especially when we are driving from California to the midwest to visit family).  Eating snacks keeps me awake while driving as does listening to the radio.  I'm not giving those up.  Sorry!