National Safety Council seeks total* cell-phone driving ban
* - Hands-free included
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A powerful US lobbying group wants to ban the use of cell phones while driving - all cell phone use, including hands-free operation.
The National Safety Council (NSC) - a 94-year-old, congressionally chartered non-profit organization with 55,000 member companies - released a statement today that calls upon private citizens to shut up and drive, businesses to ban cell-phone use by their mobile employees, and state lawmakers to enact legislation to criminalize in-car phone calls.
When automotive cell-phone calls are outlawed, only outlaws will make automotive cell-phone calls.
According to the NSC's president and CEO, Janet Froetscher, “Studies show that driving while talking on a cell phone is extremely dangerous and puts drivers at a four times greater risk of a crash.”
Interestingly, the study most prominently cited by the NSC was performed in 2002 by the Harvard Center of Risk Analysis, the same organization hat had conducted a similar study two years earlier that had concluded that "The risks [of using a cell phone while driving] appear to be small compared to other daily risks but are uncertain."
The NSC also cited a 2006 University of Utah study concluding that "people are as impaired when they drive and talk on a cell phone as they are when they drive intoxicated."
Also cited are studies showing that no safety improvements are gained by the use of hands-free devices and that talking with a passenger is "significantly safer" than holding a cell-phone conversation.
According to the NSC, making hand-held cell phone calls is currently illegal in California, Washington, Utah, New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey. Froetscher wants to expand no-use laws to blanket the nation. "It’s time to take the cell phone away," she said.
Although we have no desire to refute these and many other studies that have inspired the NSC to lead this crusade, we can't help lament the ongoing and seemingly incessant efforts by the nanny state to legislate common sense.
Maybe Froetscher is right when she says that "There will be a day...when we look back and wonder how we could have been so reckless with our cell phones and texting devices."
But if the NSC and their legislative allies have their way, that day may come when we are all securely encased in bubble wrap and duct-taped to a comfy couch. ®
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COMMENTS
Bah
they dont need to ban phones they need to ban morons, I was riding home a few months back and the car infront of me swerved two or three times, came so close to the safety barrier at one point I hit the anchors cause I thought they were crashing,...
After seeing this i backed off, thinking it was a drunk driver on there way home from the city, this driver got off the motorway at the same exit as me and as i slide up the middle of the lanes waiting at the first stop light I looked accross at the driver...
It was a 20 something chick and she was doing her makeup.
This waste of oxygen put everyone including herself at risk so she could look pretty for her accident.
@AC - driving age
"The high number of road accidents involving young people isn't down to them being young but rather the lack of experience younger drivers have (in general)"
My first first few years of driving were full of stupid, reckless showing-off (typical of a young male), resulting in several RTA's which could've caused serious injury. This wasn't unusual in my peer group, but those of us who survived became markedly more careful & skillful by 25yrs old.
If we're serious about reducing accidents, either raise the driving age to 25 or limit younger drivers to 50bhp (with a power-to-weight ratio clause to stop rich kids buying kevlar rocketships).
@AC - driving age
"The high number of road accidents involving young people isn't down to them being young but rather the lack of experience younger drivers have (in general)"
Actually, no. Young people have accidents for two reasons. The first is the lack of experience. The second is because they're young. And the second is at least as important as the first. When you're nineteen, you get in the car with your mates or your girlfriend, and you want to show off. When you're thirty, you tend to have grown our of that.
I'm not saying I agree that raising the driving age is a good idea, mind - but I do think it would indeed reduce accidents.
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