Safety Board Recommends Total Cell Phone Ban for Drivers

[dgingeri]

[citation][nom]bin1127[/nom]3000 deaths per year? We need to ban cell phone use while driving and then remove all the airport security.[/citation]

in 2010, there were 32,885 deaths on US roads, according to the NHTSA's FARS report. Of those, 10,228 were involving alcohol. 3092 were from "distracted driving" of some sort. Over half of people killed in accidents were not wearing a seatbelt.

Considering these numbers are down almost 50% from 2006, I'd say we're doing very well overall.

 

[warmon6]

instead of the gov trying to tell people what to do, why not make the cell phones and/or cell towers more intelligent to deactivate communication when on the move at high speed? I mean, between most cell phones having gps to track location and if they dont have cell phones, most areas have multiple cell phone towers that are able to triangulate your location

Actually, I think there was an article here on tom's a few months ago of something in that nature.

Either way, i'll be happy. I been in too many close calls where some idiot driver almost hit me because their paying attention to there conversation instead of the dang road.

 

[RabidFace]

[citation][nom]jellico[/nom]I'm sorry, but I hate blanket recommendations like this. There are people out there that can navigate using their cell phone while eating a cheeseburger and carrying on a conversation with other people in the car. And, there are people who can barely drive when the conditions are ideal and they have their hands glued to 10 and 2. Cops can already pull people over for driving erratically, so why do we need this?[/citation]
Your statement is exactly like saying:

Some people can drive perfectly fine after they have had 10 shots. Some people are all over the road after 1 beer. Why do we need a DUI law? Either way, neither person should have been on the road and both people could have killed someone. And boy do I know, I am working through a DUI myself.

The person that is doing all those things at once, must not care about driving and the people on the road. I have personally always hated texting while driving and can honestly say that there have been numerous times that I have pulled over to text because I knew it was going to be a conversation. Yes, I have also done it while driving, but has only been a quick reply, but I still feel uneasy about it because my eyes are not on the road, I take driving very seriously.

In today's society, a lot of people have their phone attached to their head and it doesn't matter whether there is a law or not, they are going to do it anyway, just like anything else. I personally know someone that is always on their phone, but it is work related most of the time. She has a headset AND a hands free device on her visor, but uses neither.

I for one would love to see this blanket law go in effect in the United States. Just like some countries have a ZERO tolerance law on drinking and driving. The US is very lenient with a 0.08 level. Guess only time will tell what happens to people with their phone attached to them.

 

[Guest]

Every car is a lethal weapon! It is up to the driver to ensure they stay in full control of the vehicle at all times! Simply put, its not a joke, or a right, it is simply one of the most serious things you do every time you turn the ignition key. Each time you drive, you can KILL someone, a child, a parent, a grandparent, someones loved ones.

DONT come her with blah blah my rights nanny state and all that, its peoples lives here at risk!

Ban Cell phones from being used whilst driving POINT, in every which way, no bluetooth, no hands free, no calls unless stationary off the road, NO phone call is worth someones life, if its urgent, get off the road and take the call!

 

[RabidFace]

[citation][nom]dgingeri[/nom]in 2010, there were 32,885 deaths on US roads, according to the NHTSA's FARS report. Of those, 10,228 were involving alcohol. 3092 were from "distracted driving" of some sort. Over half of people killed in accidents were not wearing a seatbelt.Considering these numbers are down almost 50% from 2006, I'd say we're doing very well overall.[/citation]
That number might be down, but that fact of the matter is, that number should be 0. And just think how many of those 3000 people died because someone just couldn't wait to tell someone something that had no relevance in either peoples life......

 

[mrmike_49]

[citation][nom]zzz_b[/nom]What next?!?They should ban GPS', radios and all other electronics. You get distracted from those devices too. You should not talk either, that is a distraction too.I use my phone in the stereo of the car, completely hands free, no texting or anything else.Give heavier fines for texting while driving.[/citation]

BIG FINE for 1st texting ticket
WITH a jail sentence for a 2nd offense!!!!!

and have the cops ENFORCE the &*(#*)&law - I live in California and I can not count the number of times I have seen a cop driving right next to someone with their cell phone held up to their ear (which IS illegal in Calif)

 

[mrmike_49]

[citation][nom]rabidface[/nom]That number might be down, but that fact of the matter is, that number should be 0. And just think how many of those 3000 people died because someone just couldn't wait to tell someone something that had no relevance in either peoples life......[/citation]

It will NEVER be zero, or even close to it, and of 3,000 "distracted" drivers - how much of that is hands free cell phone use? 1% ?? 2%

 

[extremepcs]

I would love to deploy a cell jammer that would cut off all cell traffic within at least 100 yards of my car.

 

[Guest]

This is just one of the thousand tiny cuts that will kill our freedom. Never waste a catastrophe....
Before we know it, they'll be in Uranus! And I'm not talking about NASA!

 

[fyasko]

[citation][nom]extremepcs[/nom]I would love to deploy a cell jammer that would cut off all cell traffic within at least 100 yards of my car.[/citation]


the FCC would have a field day with you... but i 100% agree. pull over if you want to text or call.

 

[gallidorn]

Oh please... 3,000.00 that admitted to being on their phone or texting. How many people do you think would actually admit that they got in an accident and killed someone, because they were distracted! The answer... around 3,000.00 honest people in the entire United States.

I'd be willing to say the actual number is considerably higher than alcohol related deaths. I see a few people talking and texting behind the wheel every time I get on the road, but I can't say the same about seeing drunk drivers.

Maybe I just have a biased opinion, because I've been the victim of an accident where I was rear ended by a woman that thought the light was green, but couldn't bother to look up from her phone to be certain! And to make things worse, she denied texting, even though I saw her doing it for nearly 3 miles as she drove behind me!

They should have made it illegal in the first place, and I'm sure the families of the innocent victims would agree! What did people do before cell phones? They drove their cars, and that is the only thing people should be doing when behind the wheel!

 

[wildkitten]

[citation][nom]rabidface[/nom]Your statement is exactly like saying:Some people can drive perfectly fine after they have had 10 shots. Some people are all over the road after 1 beer. Why do we need a DUI law? Either way, neither person should have been on the road and both people could have killed someone. And boy do I know, I am working through a DUI myself. The person that is doing all those things at once, must not care about driving and the people on the road. I have personally always hated texting while driving and can honestly say that there have been numerous times that I have pulled over to text because I knew it was going to be a conversation. Yes, I have also done it while driving, but has only been a quick reply, but I still feel uneasy about it because my eyes are not on the road, I take driving very seriously.In today's society, a lot of people have their phone attached to their head and it doesn't matter whether there is a law or not, they are going to do it anyway, just like anything else. I personally know someone that is always on their phone, but it is work related most of the time. She has a headset AND a hands free device on her visor, but uses neither.I for one would love to see this blanket law go in effect in the United States. Just like some countries have a ZERO tolerance law on drinking and driving. The US is very lenient with a 0.08 level. Guess only time will tell what happens to people with their phone attached to them.[/citation]
Then let's be consistent and outlaw passenger's in vehicles. I mean if you want a blanket law like what is being proposed which will ban even hands free talking, having a passenger in the car is at least as distracting. Let's look at it critically.

You talk on the phone hands free. Both hands are free to be on the wheel. The only distraction is the actual conversing. Now, if you have a passenger in the car, your hands are still free to be on the wheel and your eyes on the road. You are still conversing. However, having someone in the car means the occasional momentary eye contact which means your eyes are not constantly on the road, hence, it is actually more distracting.

So if you wish not to be hypocritical, you must support making having passengers in the vehicle illegal.

 

[wildkitten]

[citation][nom]wildkitten[/nom]"If the states heed this advice, the ban would apply to everything except for emergency calls, and would apply equally to hands-free phone accessories as well as to standard phone-in-hand use."Sorry, but you need to read that sentence very carefully. It clearly DOES say even hands free talking would be banned.[/citation]
I get downranked although the only thing this post did was quote the article to the person I quoted showing he was wrong, that it is indeed calling for a ban even for hands free talking.

Would the person who chooses to downrank a post for merely pointing out what the article says have the courage to explain the downrank? It is getting past ridiculous for posts that don't even give an opinion and just state facts to get downranked.

 

[wildkitten]

[citation][nom]dgingeri[/nom]Well, the shuffling papers was obviously part of his phone call, which was idiotic. He shouldn't have even been having the conversation, let alone having that person urge him to look through papers while driving and talking. (I've seen my dad do the same thing, and I got after him for it. He's the same way: should never be allowed to drive and talk on the phone at the same time, regardless of paper shuffling.)[/citation]
Then be consistent call for a ban for passengers in vehicles. A passenger in the vehicle will cause the driver to have just as much of a conversation as does a hands free phone call, so if you do not believe passengers should be made illegal than your position is hypocritical.

 

[danimal_the_animal]

Robert Sumwalt

SUCK MY DICK BITCH!

 

[joe nate]

Built-in cell phone systems like a bluetooth car stereo installation would not be affected

Good. I find when using this in my car it's the same equivalent as talking to someone in the passenger seat in terms of total amount of distraction. Usually talking to the person in the passenger seat is extremely easy to do while driving.

When I used bluetooth headsets in the past, or even when it was legal to use cell phones without hands free devices while driving I found myself much more distracted than I would like to be when driving - hence when I bought a new car having the bluetooth built in. Just because I never had issues in the past, doesn't mean it couldn't have been an issue in the future. Even if my ego would like to say I'm a better driver than others and could do it, I'd rather err on the side of safety and go with what's truly less distracting and not have it be an issue.

 

[itchyisvegeta]

[citation][nom]lamorpa[/nom]Ban the cars themselves. They're the things that do the real damage![/citation]

That is pretty much the way it is heading.

 

[razor512]

For the unconscious part of the brain, it can multitask highly effectively. For the conscious part of the brain, your ability to multitask is similar to that of a single core CPU, just not nearly as efficient. You rapidly switch between devoting your attention to multiple things.

Depending on how engaged you are, you can effectively do it by devoting more resources to more important tasks.

Eg how do people play very complex games while at the same time in a voice chat planning things with the team.

Based on the hands free ban, you would think that voice chat will make you less effective as a gamer.

Also how is hands free different from the driver talking to the passenger in the car? are they going to ban that also?

just about all of the clear cut crashes involving anything relating to a communication device is based on people texting while driving or hoolding the phone up to their ear while driving.

The motor function in the brain is not a very effective multitasker. To test this, try this, with your left leg, make counterclockwise circles and with your left arm, make clockwise circles. (I bet you cant)

when you are preoccupying your motor functions, you are reducing your physical ability to quickly interact with the car.

With hands free calling, you are for the most part using 2 different parts of the brain with only a small amount of overlap in the prefrontal cortex (which is designed to provide some multitasking abilities)

Multitasking breaks down when you try to make certain parts of the brain multitask, eg listen to speeches at the same time and write a summary of both speeches,
you wont be able to effectively do that, but at the same time, you can listen to someone say something to you and clearly understand it in a room with 100 people talking at the same time.

Now lets test the visual part of your brain. take 2 computers, use the mouse from computer 2 and the keyboard from computer 1.

Put up a simple racing game designed to work with the WASD keys, and on the second PC, launch audio surf. (you will do poorly in both games)

The visual part of the brain can only focus on a small area of any scene. so attempting to multitask will require you to rapidly change focus. If you cant do that test, try this. look at the first word in a sentence and try to read the rest with out moving the center focus of your eye from the first work, (you may make it to 4 words before you cant read further without moving your eyes no matter how close or far you are from the text).

With the significant limitations on the visual functions of the brain, you can easily see why texting and driving is dangerous.

talking while driving is no more dangerous than listening to the radio while driving as for the most part with both task, you are adding a processing load to different parts of the brain (provided you use hands free so you are not adding additional load to the motor functions of the brain)

 

[jojesa]

We have to be realistic, an all-out-ban on cell phones it’s not going to work. It has not work with drugs and alcohol. Hands-free should be allow or it just going to get a lot worse. Do theUsers are just going to find ways around to hide cells by either placing a cell between their legs while on speakerphone, put them in a cup or cup holder, etc.
Where is the common sense on member of the NTSB? Are they all morons?
Are they going to ban tuning the radio, a navigation system, having kids on the back seat or talking to a passenger? Those things could be very distracting? Even more than a bluetooth earpieces or in-dash hands-free devices.

 

[cpatel1987]

[citation][nom]otacon72[/nom]Under 21 any cell phone use should be banned. Over 21 hands free use only. If you just have to text someone pull the f*ck over![/citation]

If only I truly believed that people act their age. The law should not target any age group, it should target everyone! Ban cell phone use while driving on everyone.