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Originally Posted by meembo
Cells phones are the most obvious offenders on the list. Until most callers have true hands-free operation of their phones, the argument that phone conversations are as distracting as one with a passenger is obviously untrue. Most people don't have headsets for their phones, and the phones still have to be handled to make or take a call. They remain a distraction for drivers, moreso than other activities in a car (radio, heat, etc.).
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With the exception of the sarcasm bit (I wasn't being sarcastic) you had me up till here.
Why are cell phones the most obvious offenders on teh list? A quarter pounder from mc donalds is dripping with ketchup and mustard, and comes in a cardboard fliptop box. If driving while eating one, you are faced with a choice: Either hold the box in one hand, and the burger in the other, or hold only the burger and get sauce all over your shirt. Not only do we have the initial distraction of eating, we have at least one, and probably two, hands off the wheel until the burger is finished. We've got a guy paying attention to eating, and who's driving with his knees. I call that a lot more obviously unsafe than someone on a headset.
Most people don't have headsets? Most people don't have a lot of things they should have. that doesn't mean we shoudl outlaw the cell phones. Why not pass a handsfree law instead? That way those of us who safely talk on our headsets wtihout taking our eyes off the road or our hands off the wheel can continue to do so unmolested, while the guy who gabs on the cell phone while holding it in his left hand and therefore blocking his view of traffic to the left gets nabbed?
This society is entirely too preoccupied with eliminating risk at the expense of everything else.
Some idiot threw a lawn dart at a kid and killed her? Outlaw lawndarts, even though it would make far more sense to punish the idiot who threw it where it would hit a kid.
Some nitwit rolled his 3-wheeler because he didn't bother learning how to drive? Outlaw those too.
The trouble is that our society IS full of idiots. If you take away their cell phones, they'll just find some other way to kill themselves or others. Instead of the cell phone they'll eat or watch movies on their laptop, or stare at the cool zoom effects on their GPS, or stare at the legs of the girl in the car next to them.
We took away 3 wheelers, and idiots are still dying every year doing stupid shit on snowmobiles and 4 wheelers.
We took away lawn darts and kids are still dying due to the stupidity of adults (should we perhaps ban car door locks since so many kids died after being left in locked cars?)
We take away cell phones, and people will still die.
We need to understand the fundamental reasons behind these "cell phone related" crashes, and we need to understand that those reasons only coincidentally have anything to do with the cell phone itself. We need to understand that the "cell phone distracted" driver was a dumbassed driver to begin with and would probably have found another distraction to cause a wreck with even if he couldn't talk on the phone.
And we need to understand that with people like that running around on our roads, we need a better training and licensing system.
We train them very well.
We test them very hard. And often.
We have much greater penalties for screwing up.
Take those three suggestions, and you'll have a much safer driving public than just by banning cell phones.