Unformatted text preview:

Ban cell phone use by driversCONTROVERSY Should America ban cell phones for drivers? 1 An influential national advisory board wants all 50 states to prohibit cell phone use by drivers — even with hands-free headsets Keep your eyes on the road and your phone in your pocket. That's the gist of the new guidelines proposed Tuesday by the federal National Transportation Safety Board. The NTSB wants states to ban drivers from any non-emergency use of cell phones and other electronic devices that aren't built into their automobile. "We're not here to win a popularity contest," said NTSB chairwoman Deborah Hersman. "No email, no text, no update, no call is worth a human life." Here's what you should know: How dangerous is "distracted driving"? Very. Commercial drivers are 163 times more likely to have a serious crash if they are texting, emailing, or accessing the web, according to a Virginia Tech study. Last year, 1 in 100 U.S. drivers was texting, emailing, surfing the web, or otherwise handling a portable device at any given moment. That's a 50 percent jump from 2009. And it's deadly? Yes. Distracted-driving fatalities rose 28 percent between 2005 and 2008, according to a University of North Texas study. At least 3,092 people died in wrecks involving distracted drivers in 2010, according to the NHTSA. Of course, distracted driving has been a problem "since the Model T," admits Hersman, but the rise of smartphones and other portable gadgets has led to much more frequent, engaging, and deadly distractions. "This is becoming the new DUI," says fellow NTSB member Robert Sumwalt. "It's becoming epidemic." Can the NTSB enforce this ban? No. It isn't even recommending any new federal action on distracted driving. Instead, the NTSB wants all 50 states and Washington, D.C., to individually ban all use of cell phones and other portable electronic devices, even with hands-free earpieces. The NTSB's recommendations do carry weight with federal regulators and state and federal lawmakers. Don't some states already ban distracted driving? Yes, in some form. Texting while driving is banned in 35 states, and 30 states ban all cell phone use for beginning drivers. Nine states ban all hand-held cell phone use while driving. But no states currently ban the use of hands-free phones while driving. Should states follow the NTSB's advice? The NTSB may be slightly overstating the problem, says Marguerite Reardon at CNET. Besides, will we also ban "those ladies putting on makeup, people reading, or eating messy foods while trying to navigate our roadways?" asks Stacey Higginbotham at GigaOm. I'm in favor of some "reasonable rules" that let us use some gadgets and hands-free devices, but what the NTSB proposes is unworkable. Hardly, law professor Carl Tobias tells The Christian Science Monitor. It's workable if states do the right thing: "It's amazing to me that despite the growing evidence to the contrary, people continue to think this is not dangerous." Check out the article from The Week including readers’ comments at: http://theweek.com/article/index/222449/should-america-ban-cell-phones-for-driversCONTROVERSY Should America ban cell phones for drivers? 2 There's No Reason To Ban Cellphone Use While Driving (from Investor’s Business Daily) Prohibition: A federal agency is calling for a nationwide ban on all cellphone use while driving. Once again, Washington busybodies are exaggerating a problem because it happens to be a behavior they don't approve of. Last Tuesday, the National Transportation Safety Board recommended that all cellphone use by drivers, including texting, be outlawed. The ban would include hands-free calls. The NTSB's campaign comes a little more than a year after Obama administration Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said he didn't "want people talking on phones" while driving. LaHood even admitted that he was ready to back such a ban with federal legislation. There are a few problems here. First, regulating cellphone use is not a federal responsibility, even on federal roads. This is not an issue that Washington has the authority to address. Second, there's no compelling reason for it. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says that 3,092 traffic deaths last year involved distracted drivers. But using a cell phone is only one of many driver distractions. Eating and drinking while behind the wheel are two others, and they are far more dangerous than yapping on a phone. In fact, a 2009 NHTSA study found that 80% of all car wrecks are caused by drivers eating or drinking — not cellphone use — with coffee-guzzling the top offender. Then there's this. According to federal data, traffic deaths have fallen from 2.1 per 100 million vehicle miles in 1990, when virtually no one had a cellphone, to 1.1 in 2009, when almost everyone does. We have no problem with bans on texting while in the driver's seat. Texting forces a driver's eyes off the road and is clearly risky. But it must be done at the state level. That's how federalism works. States that don't see texting as a threat on their roads are free to keep it legal. But banning cellphone use? Why aren't the Potomac nannies going after Starbucks sippers and Big Mac munchers instead? Why not prosecute women who put on their makeup while on the road and men who shave? Shouldn't combing while driving be outlawed as well? This is all coming, of course, from the same Washington that's commanding automakers to build more fuel-efficient cars, which is likely to result, as it has in the past, in more carnage as the cars have to be smaller and lighter to meet the standards. If federal meddlers really wanted to keep traffic fatalities down, they'd reverse their fuel-efficiency demands. Ban cell phone use by drivers From The Lexington Herald-Leader, Kentucky The ability to rationalize is one thing that distinguishes humans from other beings. This allows us to do any number of things that seem mutually exclusive, such as eating an extra dessert while ostensibly dieting, watching trash TV while pledging to read more books, splurging on luxury items while wanting to save money, etc., etc. ad nauseum. We rationalize that it's just this once, everyone does it and it's different when we do it. We'll start that idealized behavior tomorrow. In these examples most of the harm falls on the rationalizer. Our behavior makes us fatter, dumber, poorer. Not so for texting, talking or surfing the Internet on a cell phone while


View Full Document

YCP PHL 222 - Cell Phone Ban

Download Cell Phone Ban
Our administrator received your request to download this document. We will send you the file to your email shortly.
Loading Unlocking...
Login

Join to view Cell Phone Ban and access 3M+ class-specific study document.

or
We will never post anything without your permission.
Don't have an account?
Sign Up

Join to view Cell Phone Ban 2 2 and access 3M+ class-specific study document.

or

By creating an account you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms Of Use

Already a member?