NTSB Urges Ban of Cell Phone Use While Driving

...and the first time that illegal jammer blocks a 911 call from a nearby vehicle, resulting in someone dying, the person operating the jammer will be hauled into court and charged with manslaughter. I think that's why no states are banning cell calls from vehicles outright. In Massachusetts, the State Police even came out against a total ban, saying that the number of calls they get from motorists reporting traffic tieups and accidents helps them do their jobs better, although I'm sure they've seen their share of distracted-driving accidents caused by cell phone use. Clearly the lawmakers are trying to strike a balance.

 

Everyone agrees that hands free is better than normal use of a cell phone while driving... what about Apple's new "Eyes Free", just announced today? Yes, it suffers from some of the same issues (the other side of the call isn't aware of road conditions, talking to someone else is distracting by itself, regardless of how you dial, etc). But it gets away from taking your eyes off the road to dial the phone (and I presume it'll work for playing music from your iPhone as well) which you have to do with current hands free systems, even if you're just hitting a speed dial number on the MFD.

 

That's not quite true. Many studies have shown hands-free to be no better in terms of driver distraction. The actual conversation is far more important than the act of holding the phone, although I can't see where driving one-handed can be a great idea.

Tom

 

I don't agree, because even the very first well publicized driving-while-phoning studies found no difference between hands-on and hands-free. But at that time, only the sample size of the hands-on users was large enough to produce the statistical confidence to convince legislatures to do anything about it.

As more studies have come in, the results have not been good for handsfree. The bottleneck is in the brain, not the hands.

 

Almost got run over yesterday in the Supermarket parking lot. When I jumped out of the way I noticed a woman on her cell phone. I don't think she even noticed the near miss.

 

It is a start, however a ramping up of fines / penalities need to be setup.

1st offense: $250 fine.

2nd offense: $500 fine and loss of license for a month.

3rd offense: $1000 fine and loss of licence for a year.

Beyond 3rd offense: $2000 fine, 1 year imprisonment, and loss of license for life.

DBCassidy