wrote in message
oups.com...
I never hit anyone Ed!




Ok so far, but since you've acknowledged that there's a risk involved, the
risk, one presumes, applies to the person or vehicle you might hit if that
risk becomes a reality.

The argument turns out to be a weak one for using cell phones while driving,
and an increasingly strong one against it. I do it (although much less than
I used to, since I've thought about the consequences), and there's no doubt
that it's a great convenience and even a productivity-enhancer for many
people. There's also little doubt that it's a distraction to driving and
that any similar distraction, without a compensating benefit, would not be
tolerated. I watched a guy who was animated in a phone conversation turn
left directly into a stream of oncoming traffic a few months ago. His mind
was elsewhere; on the other end of that phone conversation, no doubt. And I
was driven off the road (the Garden State Parkway) around four years ago by
a woman in an SUV who was talking and waving her elbow up and down while she
swerved into my lane.

No question, cell phones distract attention from the road and from
circumstances. The recent research that shows that young adults drive like
very old adults (ones of declining competence) when they're on a cell phone
is just one example.

It's a dilemma, and focusing only on your *own* risks and rewards misses the
point of the safety issue: that your driving risk, most of the time,
translates into someone else's driving risk. You take the risk, and they
take the consequences.

--
Ed Huntress