Kostamojen

Thats not entirely true. Speech comes from a different part of the brain than driving, its quite possible to talk and drive at the same time.

Most of the problems arrive when passengers distract drivers (teenagers have this problem big time, which is why there are laws limiting how many people are in car with a teenager driving) or when you remove a hand from the steering wheel taking up part of your hand-eye part of the brain to operate. This dramatically reduces your response time no matter how skilled of a driver you are.

The arguments here against this saying it costs too much to implement are invalid too. The cost of writing a bill is almost zero, as is "putting it in the books". Enforcing it costs nothing because police are already out on the streets, all they have to do is write tickets for it which creates revenue.

The question of whether a law can be implemented like this on the federal level is another question all together, and will have to go to the courts to figure out how constitutionally valid this would be. I do think this should be up to the states, but it would be nice to have some consistency state to state.

RXGS

iTrader: (2)

This sucks because my phone is my ipod, and not only that, but the phone never leaves my hand, i am always holding it, idk why but i dont like putting things in my pocket, so instead the phone is always in my hand, along with my wallet, and keys...people say its cause i watch to much entourage and see ari doing it all the time haha

mmarshall

I agree that yakking-while-driving can be foolish (I've seen some idiot-driving, too), but how are you going to enforce this law? You've got (probably) a thousand yakkers for every traffic-cop out on the road....even more than that in some areas. It's like the old 55-MPH speed-limit......if the cops doubled their force, and worked around the clock, 24 hours a day, they couldn't even make a dent in it.

4TehNguyen

iTrader: (1)

how is this even remotely comparable? You cant "install" this type of behavior changes like you can a traction control system. This whole thing can be easily improved through driver education, not unenforceable laws. Most of the "safety" laws on the books have nothing to do with safety but more to do with raising revenue.

Cell phones dont cause crashes, distracted drivers do. There are limitless ways one can get distracted. Cell phones is just one thing in the entire driving equation. The answer isnt as simple and clean cut as removing cell phones from it and awesome we are safe. Guess what you still have changing the radio station, your gossipy passenger, blonde in a red convertible, hot babe out jogging, etc.

This Rep McCarthy person is also the same person that wants to ban guns. Blaming inanimate objects on society's problems, how typical.

mmarshall

That's one area where the automakers themselve are at least partly to blame. I test-drive and review too many vehicles where the dash-control set-up/layout itself is simply too distracting and difficult to use. The worst two examples are (arguably) BMW's I-Drive and Audi's MMI, but there are a number of similiar syatems in upmarket/premium cars. If you expect drivers to keep their eyes on the road, you have to make the controls as simple as possible.

I don't buy the hot-chick argument. I see a lot of women on the side of the road, both good-looking and otherwise, but I don't let them distract me from the primary function of driving safely.

mmarshall

I disagree here on two counts. First, if revenue were the primary issue, they could just raise the local taxes on cell-phone-bills instead of trying to ban the use of hand-phones while driving. Second, revenue is not going to be an issue for another reason.......this is, practically speaking, an unenforceable law. Too many people yak on phones and drive...far too many for the cops to to even begin to cope with. You obviously don't (or can't) collect fines from laws you can't enforce.

Education is not going to stop that, either. The risks of cell-phone use while driving are already well-known. Many people simply don't care....they are so used to instant-gratification that they simply don't have the paitence to wait for anything, including a potentially safer time and place to make that call.

And, in some cases, there may even be legitimate reasons for cell-phone use while driving. While I myself frown on the practice, I've had some people tell me that they have to sometimes talk on the phone while driving to get their jobs done. One of my friends, for example, is a Federal DEA Agent, and she tells me that she couldn't function on the job otherwise. Given the pressures that jobs like that involve, I tend to believe her.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

again, if we ban holding cell phones, which won't stop the conversation, we should get rid of stick shift cars too because that's another 'distraction'. and of course ban passengers. of course i'm kidding, but what's the difference?

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

most people i see with cell phones are just driving too slow, which while annoying, is usually not a problem at all!

rominl

iTrader: (4)

you want to talk to the oversized girl in the ford suv with the cell phone next to her ear driving slow and turned into my lane right beside me?

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

here people on phones generally just stay in their lanes and don't move, at all, oblivious of what's going on around them.

Jewcano

iTrader: (4)

And then progress to merge without looking and cutting people off and getting mad at them when they are honked at. If they want to reduce the amount of folks using cell phones, subsidize some device (similar to how they subsidized the digital cable box), that makes any phone work through the cars audio system. That way anyone can hook up their phone to it and talk to someone after pressing a button. Those who choose not to get it and still press their phones to their ears and chatter away, fine em. And throw HEAVY penalties at folks who text and drive.

feetsies

I hope this gets passed. There's nothing that infuriates me more than some ******* doing 50mph in the left lane on the interstate talking on their damn phone.

mmarshall

You're missing one of the main points that we were making............simply passing a law won't (and can't) stop the millions of people yakking-while-driving every day. It's a law that cannot be significantly enforced. There are simply too many yakkers and not enough cops.

And, of course, some people HAVE to use a phone or two-way radio while driving, simply by the nature of their jobs.

KillaIS250

iTrader: (1)

No CL discount?

E6BAV8R

How is this going to address anything? A person holding a cell phone isn't the danger here, it is that the driver is immersed in a conversation whilst also having to pay attention to driving. How is a hands-free conversation going to fix anything?

I haven't heard of any accidents where people got injured because the drivers didn't have both hands on the wheel...