Greetings and Salutations...

On 12 Jan 2005 09:26:51 -0800, jim rozen
wrote:

In article .com,
Too_Many_Tools says...

Whether or not a cell phone driver wants to admit it, driving while
using a cell phone is an accident waiting to happen.

It's funny but nobody ever comes down on the *other* side
of this issue. Nobody ever posts, "yeah, I talk on the
phone all the time and it never causes a problem, you guys
are just nuts."

*snip of amusing story*

I am annoyed by folks that clasp the cell phone to their
ear while driving, and, are not paying attention to the road...as
a matter of fact, the majority of the close calls I have had in
the past few years have COME from exactly that sort of stupid
behavior.
now...last year, due to circumstances beyond my control,
I was forced to get a cell phone. While it does not happen often,
I do end up talking while on the road at times. I have found,
though, that with a headset, it is no more distracting for me
to talk on it, then, it is to talk with a passenger in the
car. Of course, I also make bloody sure to pay more attention
to the driving than the conversation.
I suspect that the big problem with cell phones and
driving IS the fact that we are trained from birth to pay
100 % of our attention to the phone conversation. Between
that training and the fact that a phone conversation is more
"in our heads" than coming from someone outside, it DOES
tend to attract more of our attention than it should.
While I waver back and forth on the issue, I generally
feel that we should not ban cell phone use in the vehicle,
just because it is a waste of time, and, we already have too
many laws in America that bring the fences in too close
to us citizens. It is a law that would be almost universally
ignored, and so would act to erode what little respect the
public still has for the structure of laws in this country.
It is also a law that could ONLY be enforced in a selective
fashion, which *would* mean that it would be abused by
the authorities. After all, if the cops ticketed EVERYONE
they caught using a cell phone while driving, not only would
they have a huge public outcry, but, doughnut sales would
drop terribly, and, (if this area is any example) about
half the tickets would go to cops themselves.
Regards
Dave Mundt