Ken Sterling wrote:

You may find this interesting.

In my opinion, a federal ban could not come too soon.

TMT

Cell Phones Are Found to Pose Riskiest Distractions for Drivers
The Wall Street Journal Online
By Karen Lundegaard and Jesse Drucker

Among the many distractions faced by car drivers, cellphones and other
wireless devices contributed to far and away the most crashes,
near-crashes and other incidents, according to a new government study
expected to be released next week.

The yearlong study, which tracked 100 cars and their drivers by the
Virginia Tech Transportation Institute and the National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration, or NHTSA, highlights the danger of talking on
cellphones. The results come as Connecticut last week passed a law
banning the use of hand-held phones while driving. Several other states
are considering similar legislation.

But even as safety concerns have led several states and local
jurisdictions to ban drivers from using hand-held phones, some 40% of
cellphone use still takes place while driving.

The Virginia Tech study contains some findings first reported in a
page-one article in The Wall Street Journal last July. At the time,
NHTSA and Transportation Department officials said they were holding
off on making recommendations to state officials until they had further
research on the issue, including this long-awaited study, which looks
at all crash causes, not just cellphones.

Rae Tyson, a spokesman for NHTSA, said the new research further
reinforces the dangers of cellphones, but the agency is limited as to
what it can do on regulations. And while it makes policy
recommendations on traffic-safety issues such as drunken driving and
seat belts, "it's an entirely different issue when you're talking about
electronic devices that we have no regulatory authority over at all."
While it can't lobby state governments, NHTSA is free to make
recommendations when asked.

The latest study could be bad news for the cellular industry, as it may
undermine two of the main arguments carriers have used against
restrictions on cellphone use for drivers. Many carriers have contended
that cellphone-centered restrictions are unfair and ineffective since
drivers are distracted by numerous things. Plus, the industry has
criticized previous research based on surveys or sophisticated driving
simulators.

But the Virginia Tech study videotaped 100 cars and their drivers for a
year for two million miles and 43,000 hours, and found that drivers
involved in crashes, near crashes and incidents -- defined as an
evasive maneuver, though not as urgent as a near-crash -- were far more
likely to be using their wireless device as any other single
distracting activity.

Wireless devices contributed to 644 events, including six crashes. The
majority of those occurrences, including all the crashes, happened
while drivers were on the phone talking and listening, rather than
dialing a phone number. The next-biggest distraction, with 411 crashes,
near-misses and other incidents, came from "passenger-related" issues,
including talking to a fellow passenger and placating children in rear
seats.

"Acknowledging that cellphone use in a car can be a potential
distraction ... we've been very clear on that," said a spokesman for
the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association, the
industry's main trade group. "At the same time, cellphone use is one of
what appears to be a number of behaviors in there." He added: "It's
certainly not in line with what a number of other studies have found.
The fact it is so way out of line would give me some pause."

Another NHTSA study that looked at driving and phone usage, presented
at a traffic-safety conference last week, raises further questions
about the added safety benefits of using headsets and other "hands
free" devices. Researchers had 10 participants drive vehicles for six
weeks with three different types of phones: hand-held, hands-free
headsets and hands-free phones with voice dialing. The voice dialing
was so unpopular that drivers ignored instructions to always use it and
dialed manually half the time. Hand-held dialing took less time.

NHTSA researchers noted that the promise that hands-free phones let
drivers keep both hands on the wheel may not be true: Drivers steered
with both hands on the wheel only 13% of the time when not on the phone
and between 13% and 16% with a hands-free device. With hand-held phones
both hands were on the wheel less than 1% of time.

The researchers also found drivers looked at the road ahead less while
dialing manually (40% of time) than hands-free dialing (50%). That
compares with 70% of time looking ahead in driving without talking on a
cellphone. While talking, drivers became less aware of their
surrounding situation -- instead looking straight ahead most of the
time (90% of time for hand-held phones and 77% for hands-free phones,
compared with 70% in normal driving).

Despite a growing body of research questioning the added safety of
hands-free devices, many states continue to ban hand-held phones for
drivers, including New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, as well as
Washington, D.C.


I think the autos should be wired so that a jamming signal is
generated the entire time it's running, so to use the cell phone, you
would *have* to pull over, shut off the engine, *then* the cell phone
would work. I would hazard a guess that 90% of the active cell phone
conversations are bull$hit discussions anyway.
Ken.

And you get the first lawsuit when a life can't be saved because
to many anti-cell signals are close to a person calling for help
or their loved one for the last time -

NO not in my book ever. I want the last chance and so does my wife.
I want to be able to call the highway patrol when a drunk goes
screaming down the rainy road. I have in the past.

Martin

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