It’s one of those things that drives some people crazy.
You’re driving down the highway, obeying the speed limit, paying attention and being careful, when suddenly, a late-model SUV flashes by, its driver, cigarette dangling from his lips, tuning the radio with one hand, dialing a cellular phone with the other and evidently steering with his knees.
And there’s not a police cruiser in sight.
The SUV you can deal with. It isn’t preventing you from puttering along safely in your own lane. The dangling cigarette you can live with; it’s the other driver who probably won’t. And drivers have been tuning the radios in their cars for generations, without anyone complaining about how dangerous they are.
It’s the cellphone that sends you over the edge.
Hence, the growing movement to ban or limit the use of cellphones in automobiles. Legislators in a growing number of states have introduced laws limiting cellphone use while driving.
Proponents of these laws contend that driving and talking on the phone, like driving and drinking, don’t mix. Using a cellphone in any manner, they say, is a distraction to a driver, whose sole focus should be on the road. They point to a 1997 study in the New England Journal of Medicine that found drivers using cellphones were four times as likely as non-cellphone users to be involved in a traffic accident.
They also point to growing body of anecdotal evidence linking serious motor-vehicle accidents to cellphones. In one highly publicized case in Florida, a high school student who was skating on a bicycle path was struck and killed by a car that veered off the road because the driver had dropped her cellphone and was leaning over to pick it up when she lost control of the car.
Some bills are starting to kick around in the New Jersey Legislature that would compel drivers to pull over to the side of the road and come to a complete stop if they want to use a cellphone. And at least one town, Marlboro, has gone ahead and adopted a municipal ordinance (which is almost certain to be overturned on appeal) that would ban cellphone phones while driving.
These measures may have a certain surface appeal. However, we are not sure they’re necessary.
Don’t get us wrong. We’re all for highway safety. But there already are laws that allow police to stop drivers who are driving carelessly or recklessly. Those drivers not paying attention to the road, drivers who may drift out of their lane, who slow down suddenly, etc., for whatever reason, should be issued tickets.
The problem with the current mania to ban cellphones in cars is that it adds another set of regulations to the mix, regulations that even if effective would only address a small part of the problem.
Putting on make-up, changing the compact disc or cassette, lighting a cigarette, holding a conversation with a passenger or yelling at your kids all take attention from the road, make us more vulnerable to committing an accident.
But only cellphone use would be targeted, primarily because accidents related to cellphone use are in the news.
If we’re truly interested in highway safety, we would push the police – who already do a good job – to more actively prosecute careless and reckless driving and to boost penalties for the same.
