On Sunday, August 16, 2015 at 2:10:27 AM UTC-4, ceg wrote:
The cellphone paradox - where are all the accidents?

The Fermi Paradox is essentially a situation where we "assume" something
that "seems obvious"; but, if that assumption is true, then something else
"should" be happening. But it's not.

Hence, the paradox.

Same thing with the cellphone (distracted-driving) paradox.

Where are all the accidents?

They don't seem to exist.
At least not in the United States.
Not by the federal government's own accident figures.

Good grief, you make a claim, then disprove it yourself.
This is from the first link you provided. Click on your link
and there is a listing for "distracted driving":

http://www.census.gov/compendia/stat...es/12s1109.pdf

It shows that in 2009, there were 4900 fatal accidents involving
distracted driving, 450,000 accidents involving injury, etc.
So, obviously distracted driving is causing accidents and cell
phones are included as part of that category.

If your point is that then numbers don't add up, don't make sense,
then show us the conflicting data. And I'm sure it wouldn't take
much googling to find studies and a lot of evidence that cell phone
usage is a major source of distracted driving and accidents.



1. Current Census, Transportation: Motor Vehicle Accidents and Fatalities
http://www.census.gov/compendia/stat...atalities.html

2. Motor Vehicle Accidents--Number and Deaths: 1990 to 2009
http://www.census.gov/compendia/stat...es/12s1103.pdf

3. Motor Vehicle Crash Deaths in Metropolitan Areas -- United States, 2009
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6128a2.htm

If you have more complete government tables for "accidents" (not deaths,
but "ACCIDENTS"), please post them since the accidents don't seem to exist
but, if cellphone distracted driving is hazardous (which I would think it
is), then they must be there, somewhere, hidden in the data.

Such is the cellphone paradox.