On Sun, 16 Aug 2015 01:10:23 -0500, 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.

Some snipped.

So how is cell phone ownership determined? How many are laying in
drawers or
in landfills? Heck, I have three working models. I've probably thrown
away three
or four. No one can rightfully accuse me of being tech savvy. I buy
used ones and use
them until they quit working.
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On Sun, 16 Aug 2015 07:50:56 -0500, Dean Hoffman wrote:

So how is cell phone ownership determined? How many are laying in
drawers or in landfills? Heck, I have three working models. I've
probably thrown away three or four. No one can rightfully accuse me of
being tech savvy. I buy used ones and use them until they quit working.

That's a different question, but it's quite apropos.
It's actually not "ownership" that matters so much as "use" while driving.
But, we all know that it's terribly difficult to get *reliable*
statistics of cellphone use while driving.

a. How do we know the cellphone found in an accident was used while the
accident occurred?
b. How do we know it was the driver using it?

That's why the statistics on distracted-driving-caused accidents are
useless (or almost useless) to help us resolve the paradox.

We all feel that cellphone use while driving *should* be a contributor to
the accidents, but the accidents aren't there. That's the paradox.

We can only assume one of two things, neither of which are we willing to
assume:
1. Nobody is using their cellphones while driving, or,
2. Cellphone use while driving isn't causing accidents at any appreciable
level.

No other options are available to us, given the reliable data on total
accidents, year over year over year.

Hence the paradox.