Should Hand Held Cell Phones be Outlawed While Driving??

by minimus 140 Replies latest jw friends

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  minimus

  Couldn't see your comment/point.
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  DanTheMan

  I think they call that being deliberately obtuse.
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  Markfromcali

  Sometimes people ask if you are on the road so you don't necessarily have to get all absorbed in the conversation. Some people assume you can't talk at all on the phone, which is perhaps 'for the best', but when you're not talking about some deeply emotional issue or something very complicated, its not like they automatically would be able to draw that much attention. Of course it points to how a lot of this is unconscious to people like driving itself can be, its just talking to someone - yet there can be this tendancy to listen to this little box with someones voice coming out of it like its so magical and mesmerizing.. But hey, it could be American Idol calling.
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  Markfromcali

  Now see, if you got a cell call like that out of the blue it could potentially be distracting.. But hey, you never know anyways so..

  "My momma always said, a cell phone is like a box of chocolates.."
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  Max Divergent

  I thought using cell phones was already banned on baord passenger aircraft? How about I try and make a call on take off from 37B next time I fly?
  
  
  I can't put my hand on the report, but there was a crash not long ago where the pilot was happily leaving a message on his wifes answering machine while in flight from his cell phone, then there's a funny noise and that was the end of the plane, pilot and 6 passgengers - they crashed for reasons unknown.
  
  
  Mmm... Max - of the 'I prefer to fly Qantas' class
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  minimus

  Cellphones and other electronic equipment is banned before the flight takes off because of interference. Once up in altitude, you can put your electronic equipment back on.....As I recall, a number of victims of 9-11 were able to say goodbye on their phones before the terrible crashes into the Towers and field.
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  AlanF

  Minimus, as DanTheMan indicated, you're being deliberately obtuse. You're not arguing logically, but based on your emotional desire to freely continue to talk on your cell phone while driving. I don't think you care much about others. Do you still drive drunk? Do you realize that your "arguments" are equally applicable to a discussion about the necessity of prohibiting drunk driving? Probably not. How sad.

  As for DanTheMan's post that you supposedly couldn't find, it's on page one of this thread. Here it is again, for the browserly-challenged:

  I've noticed that talking on a cell phone while driving, for me, is a huge distraction, and I think it is different from having a conversation with somebody who is in the car with you. The reason why is because when you're driving you have stretches where very little effort or concentration is involved, and this is when the conversation with you and your passenger usually is taking place, and when you approach an intersection or other other situations that demand more concentration and decision making, the passenger is of course aware of this and the conversation naturally lulls until you're back to a less demanding situation, where the conversation resumes.

  But when you're on a cell phone, the person at the other end doesn't know when you're in a situation that demands extra attention and concentration, and if they're talking away about something or another, you the driver can't help but feel somewhat compelled to pay attention to them, and it is distracting.

  And the radio isn't a distraction because you don't feel compelled to give it your undivided attention or any attention at all for that matter, the way you do a phone conversation, so I don't think that comparison is apt.

  Now I'll just sit back and watch while you ignore his points.

  AlanF
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  Fleur

  this will be my last post on this thread since people seem bent on beating their rights into the the rest of us along with their cars while driving and cell-phoning...

  "I think you're missing a basic point, boa: Your freedom to swing your arm ends where my nose begins."

  alan, i think that is the best thing i've heard anyone say in a long time lol. seriously. exactly the point. no one's right, not mine, or yours, or john q public's to use a phone while driving is as important as the right of people to get to their destinations safely. yes, banning cell phone use wouldn't stop the drunk drivers and the reckless idiots. but my question is, if it saves the life of one child in your state per year to ban the use of them while driving, isn't that worth it?

  now, think about this. what if that one life was your child?

  i don't remember seeing anyone in this thread defending the use of them replying to my curiosity as to whether they'd ever lost anyone they loved in a car accident. i'm taking that to mean not.

  have fun with this thread ya'll, i'm out.

  fleur
• 

  Country_Woman

  I hate all the rules that are given by our government - and the penalties they force on us when WE are doing something that is'nt allowed by them.

  that said, offcourse there has to be rules, but... it seems to me that a lot is used to gettin money out of us cardrivers. For exemple: a lot of roads designed for a speed of at least 80 km an hour are restricted to 60 km an hour. On a lot of those roads they (our enlighted government) installed flash camera's ....As I see it with the sole purpose to get money....

  I noticed that I am driving slowlier when I am talking (to somebody in the seat next to me) - not because I want it, I just do. (most of the time 80 when 100 is allowed) When I answer the cell phone when driving,. I think I do the same. I don't use a handset (don't have it) but when it is a talk that needs to be done, I will park the car for a moment and call back. I only TALK when I am alone on the road and this road is straight on and other traffic - coming to this road is viewed from a distance. (on the same kind of roads, one of my dogs is allowed to walk free, running around-behind-in front or a side the car).

  Point is: I am aware of the dangers. I find it extremely distracting hearing a telephone call when I am unable to answer it - so normally I pick up the phone, tell them that I am in the car and that I will be calling back when I am at home. Less expensive too.It won't be the first time that I just dropped the cell phone cos something unexpected (and hoped it was'nt damaged)

  I agree with everybody that one should hold his hands (most of the time) on the wheel when driving. I guess that in my opinion everything is over-ruled. Just, when driving a car, you have to be carefully.
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  Cassiline

  Driving Under Influence of a Phone By Tom Incantalupo
  Staff Writer

  Copyright © 2003, Newsday, Inc.
  
  July 23, 2003
  
  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.

  Copyright © 2003, Newsday, Inc.

  http://www.healingsearch.com/Health%20News/Cell%20Phone%20Driving%20Like%20Being%20Drunk.htm

  There are many distractions available while driving, some far greater than talking. Putting on makeup and reading are high on that list.

  Talking on a cell phone, whether hands-free or not, provides a different kind of distraction from the others Chen cited and from talking with a passenger in one's car.

  When eating or smoking, we are performing a basic mechanical function that we have been doing since before we were born: getting our hands to our mouths. When listening to the radio, changing a radio station or CD or even talking to a passenger in the car, we can disengage from those behaviors if the demands of driving require it.

  But talking to someone who is not in the car is different. The person on the other end of the cell phone doesn't see what the driver sees and therefore can't know when it is important to stop talking to let the driver concentrate on driving. Also, the degree of distraction almost certainly varies with the importance or intensity of the conversation.

  One study several years ago of driver attentiveness while talking on a cell phone used hood-mounted cameras to record driver behavior. It showed that the greatest problem was that drivers dropped their eyes from the road while they concentrated on their conversations!

  The more engaging the conversation, the more the listener has to concentrate to try to pick up on the choice of words, phrasing and tone of voice -- all cues that are missing that would otherwise be provided by facial expression, body language and the like.

  The more important the conversation -- an emotional one, an important business call, etc. -- the greater the concentration on the call and distraction from driving.

  The Utah scientists conducted their study by having 64 people respond to simulated traffic signals while either talking on a cell phone, listening to the radio or listening to an audio book. The cell phone users missed twice as many signals as the people listening to the radio or audio books, regardless of whether they were using a hand-held phone or a hands-free unit.

  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3072629/