Massachusetts driving while using cell phone ban debated

Smallpotatoes · Jan 20, 2008

http://www.gloucestertimes.com/punews/local_story_017095436?page=0

One one hand, I don't think it's too much to ask drivers to be able to pay attention to what's going on around them.
One the other hand, I suppose there are some people who really need to be able to use cell phones while driving and perhaps there is some responsibility on the part of people who aren't using cell phones while driving to do what they can to avoid collisions with people who are using them.
I'd just like to see a law that would allow drivers to run over any pedestrain who crosses against the light while talking on a cell phone.
If you're not paying attention, fuck you.
OK, I'm kidding about that, but if you're crossing the street, pay attention and don't just assume people will stop for you.

TheSportsPredictor · Jan 20, 2008

Smallpotatoes said:

One the other hand, I suppose there are some people who really need to be able to use cell phones while driving and perhaps there is some responsibility on the part of people who aren't using cell phones while driving to do what they can to avoid collisions with people who are using them.
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Yes. And those who aren't driving drunk should get out of the way of the drunks.

RedSmithClone · Jan 20, 2008

I am normally on the side of keeping government out of my car or house.

I think the seatbelt law is a joke, I think helmet laws for motorcyclists is a joke.

But when it comes to texting, or talking on a cell phone while driving I agree it should be banned. The first two issues could cause serious harm to oneself. The latter could cause harm to others. I've actually had this talk with my cousin who feels there is nothing wrong with driving and texting at the same time. She's never had an accident, but she has come close plenty of times while I'm with her, and she isn't texting. I can only imagine how much closer it gets when she's being stupid.

Simon_Cowbell · Jan 20, 2008

It's little different than driving drunk.

RedSmithClone · Jan 20, 2008

Definitely is different than driving drunk.

All I can think of is the drunk drivers texting as they go side to side on the road.
How friggin stupid can people really be?

Chi City 81 · Jan 20, 2008

RedSmithClone said:

I think the seatbelt law is a joke, I think helmet laws for motorcyclists is a joke.
Click to expand...

Are you in favor of seatbelt laws for children?

Simon_Cowbell · Jan 20, 2008

RedSmithClone said:

Definitely is different than driving drunk.

All I can think of is the drunk drivers texting as they go side to side on the road.
How friggin stupid can people really be?
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Definitely is different than drunk driving.

Just not by much.

Herbert Anchovy · Jan 20, 2008

Driving Under Influence of a Phone
By Tom Incantalupo
Staff Writer
Copyright © 2003, Newsday, Inc.

Talking on a cell phone behind the wheel is more dangerous than driving drunk, researchers from the University of Utah conclude in a new study.

And it makes no difference whether the telephone is hand-held or, as permitted by New York State law, used hands-free, researchers say in a paper presented yesterday by academics at an auto safety conference in Park City, Utah.

The conclusions are based on the performance of 41 test subjects on a driving simulator at the university. Each subject "drove" on a multilane highway, with and without each type of cell phone and with and without a .08 percent alcohol level - at which a driver is legally intoxicated in most states, including New York as of July 1.

"Cell phone conversation draws attention away from the processing of the visual environment," said David Strayer of the university's psychology department, one of the study's three authors. "We found a 50 percent reduction in the processing of visual information when you're driving and talking on a cell phone."

Test subjects were observed as they braked for a slowing car in front of them, then resumed speed. "When drivers were conversing on a cell phone, they were involved in more rear-end collisions ... and took 18 percent longer to return to their initial driving speed than when they were legally drunk," the paper says, adding that there was "equal impairment" with hand-held and hands-free phones.

A study published in 1997 in the New England Journal of Medicine, based on accident data in Toronto, found that the risk of driving and using a cell phone was similar to that when driving drunk and that, in both cases, the risk of a collision was three to six times higher than when a driver was sober and not using a cell phone.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that driver distraction is a factor in between 20 and 30 percent of the 6 million car crashes each year. It has no estimate for the number involving cell phones but a study by Harvard University, based on mathematical models, estimated 2,600 auto crash deaths a year attributable to them. The safety agency says 17,419 people died last year in alcohol-related crashes.

Spokeswoman Kimberly Kuo of the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association, a trade group based in Washington, D.C., cites such numbers in disputing the Utah study's conclusion that cell phones are as dangerous as drunk driving. "If you look at the facts and not a simulator, you would not come to that conclusion," she said.

New York is the only state to restrict cell phone use, enacting the hands-free requirement effective Dec. 1, 2001. New York's ban followed earlier laws in Suffolk and Nassau counties.

Suffolk Legis. Jon Cooper (D-Lloyd Harbor), sponsor of the county's law, maintains that, although hands- free use is permitted, the county and state bans have reduced all cell phone use by drivers. "I was convinced and I remain convinced that a ban on hand- held phones is a step in the right direction," he said.
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jgmacg · Jan 20, 2008

Shhhhhh.

Don't tell the libertarians.

All things at all times for everybody!

imjustagirl2 · Jan 20, 2008

*IJAG crosses Massachusetts off her list of places to someday live if this law passes*

mike311gd · Jan 20, 2008

I don't have a problem with talking or texting while driving, so long as the driver is capable of controlling the vehicle and doing either of those two actions.

mike311gd · Jan 20, 2008

The Good Doctor said:

RedSmithClone said:

I think the seatbelt law is a joke, I think helmet laws for motorcyclists is a joke.
Click to expand...

Are you in favor of seatbelt laws for children?
Click to expand...

Fuck 'em. I say let the children roll around in the back of the car. Serves them right.

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Massachusetts driving while using cell phone ban debated

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Massachusetts driving while using cell phone ban debated

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