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Automotive News & Views Should cell phone drivers be singled out?
3688 messages, Last post on Oct 27, 2009 at 11:39 AM
You are in the Automotive News & Views Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & claires
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Replying to: steve_ (Mar 10, 2009 6:49 pm) Yeah, I think that was me too. I get annoyed when people use the word "accident" as if it happened by chance (yet another way to walk away from personal responsibility). The word is CRASH. I think there are situations where you can lose control of your car through no fault of your own - your car gets struck by lightning or you get a bee sting in your eyelid. I will give "acts of GD" as "accidents," since they are by chance (or not, I suppose...). I am a pretty careful person, and I have a family, I wouldn't be all willy-nilly about something I didn't thing was an acceptable risk. The bad seeds need to get weeded out of the system, but that doesn't mean restrictions on the rest of us are the answer. |
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Replying to: lilengineerboy (Mar 10, 2009 7:01 pm) Problem is I believe more than 85% of all crashes and fatalities not explictly identified as vehicle malfunction or medical emergency can be averted if drivers got off their cell phones. In other words out of the 6 million police reported car crashes most of them can be avoided if people got off their cell phones. That's where the crisis is, the sheer number of car crashes, of which I believe is linked to the 950% increase in cell phone penetration. The country could save billions in property, casualty and medical if people got off their cell phones. People have migrated from eating pizza to eating pizza and talking on the cell phone while driving. They have migrated from putting on makeup to putting on makeup and talking on the cell phone while driving. They have migrated from reading the newspaper to reading the newspaper and talking on the cell phone while driving. They have migrated from driving the car to talking while driving. That's the crisis.
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A number of countries, apparently more enlightened than the US, have banned the use of cell phone by driver. Some of these: France, Finland, Denmark, Russia, Japan. We need a movement by responsible drivers and their US Reps to introduce a national law to ban cell phone use by drivers. Perhaps the IIHS and varous insurance companies can step forward and help in this regard. They could lobby in DC as well as tag messages onto their tv commercials.
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Replying to: kdshapiro (Mar 11, 2009 5:54 am) I fully agree, your undocumented, unsubstantiated beliefs are a big problem! As well, approximately 11% of all distraction-related crashes are attributed to adjusting theradio/cassette/CD (compared to 1.7% for talking/listening/dialling a cell phone). From Chisholm, Caird et. al., and also notice that 1.7 % lumps talking on and dialing (and hanging up and picking up) the phone together so with hands free devices for dialing, its even lower. That's where the crisis is, the sheer number of car crashes, of which I believe is linked to the 950% increase in cell phone penetration. And you can certainly believe anything you would like, but fear as a motivator really only works in mind control in institutionalized religions. People have migrated from eating pizza to eating pizza and talking on the cell phone while driving. They have migrated from putting on makeup to putting on makeup and talking on the cell phone while driving. They have migrated from reading the newspaper to reading the newspaper and talking on the cell phone while driving. Chicken little, you are very funny. So people stopped doing visual/manual intensive tasks like READING(!?) while driving (a task that is argued to be 90% visual, although no one will actually say they said that in the literature, they just all cite eacth other), with a hands free, hands on wheel eyes on road task, and you complain about this?
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Replying to: xrunner2 (Mar 11, 2009 6:29 am) And a number of posters apparently like to mislead the populace and misrepresent the facts, as those countries banned HAND HELD cellular phones, with an open exception to using a hands-free device. National and International Cell Phone Laws We need a movement by responsible drivers and their US Reps to introduce a national law to ban cell phone use by drivers What we need is less fear-mongering and more factual based decision making. So far, cool heads and science have prevailed. Perhaps the IIHS and various insurance companies can step forward and help in this regard. They could lobby in DC as well as tag messages onto their tv commercials Or they could use the time, money and resources for something that is actually in issue right now.
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Replying to: lilengineerboy (Mar 11, 2009 2:29 pm) They are just as unsubstantiated as your 950% increase in phone penetration not causing any issues on the road. Another "factiod". And you can certainly believe anything you would like, but fear as a motivator really only works in mind control in institutionalized religions. Sure and you are certainly free to believe talking on a cell phone and texting are as innocuous as eating a pizza. Chicken little, you are very funny. So people stopped doing visual/manual intensive tasks like READING(!?) while driving (a task that is argued to be 90% visual, although no one will actually say they said that in the literature, they just all cite eacth other), with a hands free, hands on wheel eyes on road task, and you complain about this? I would be laughing if it weren't what people actually do. The worst of the worst steer with the knee, while smoking a cigaretter with their hand hanging out of the window, holding a cell phone to their right ear. But I'm sure you've never seen it, you've been too busy avoiding pizza eating, kid smacking parents to notice the bad cell phone drivers? Right?
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Replying to: lilengineerboy (Mar 11, 2009 2:31 pm) You mean like the 950% increase in cell phone penetration rates. All of this would be moot, if in fact there were any real statistics to the issues cell phone usage causes on the roads. The fact the NTSB has blamed the crash on texting and a number of railroads are banning cell phone usage on the job, is good enough for me that we need to look carefully at acceptable behind the wheel activities that carries an acceptable risk. Finally: One study from the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis estimated that 636,000 traffic accidents each year -- about 6 percent of all accidents -- are caused by drivers using their cell phones, resulting in an estimated 2,600 deaths. I guess as long as one of the 2,600 isn't related to anyone you know, the risk is acceptable. :sick http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/02/16/cellphones.driving.safety/index.html?iref=new- ssearch
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Replying to: kdshapiro (Mar 11, 2009 4:11 pm) So you are mad about people that can't drive and make poor judgment decisions while driving? |
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Replying to: kdshapiro (Mar 11, 2009 4:14 pm) So in lieu of statistics that match your hypothesis, you make them up to scare people? The fact the NTSB has blamed the crash on texting and a number of railroads are banning cell phone usage on the job, is good enough for me that we need to look carefully at acceptable behind the wheel activities that carries an acceptable risk. But not walkie talkie communicators, because those are very different, right? One study from the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis estimated that 636,000 traffic accidents each year -- about 6 percent of all accidents -- are caused by drivers using their cell phones, resulting in an estimated 2,600 deaths. Okay, if you actually read the article and not the CNN media hypeline, it says: Two prominent studies that have investigated cell phone use while driving have concluded that the practice should not be banned. One finds that the benefits of calls made while driving substantially exceed their costs while the other finds that other interventions could reduce motor vehicles injures and fatalities (measured in terms of quality adjusted life a lower cost. -A Revised Economic Analysis of Restrictions on the use of Cell Phones While Driving. Cohen, J and Graham J. Risk Analysis, Vol. 23, No.1, 2003. Know your sources.
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Replying to: lilengineerboy (Mar 11, 2009 6:14 pm) When you made up stuff, I countered with a likely hypothesis. But not walkie talkie communicators, because those are very different, right? Yep. That's like saying pilots can't communicate with the tower. Two prominent studies that have investigated cell phone use while driving have concluded that the practice should not be banned I disagree with that and in a related story they said: It put the estimated annual financial cost of cell-phone-related crashes at $43 billion. So in your mind, the cell phone related fatalities aside, the financial side of the benefits of yakking away has to be much, much more than $43 billion to support the acceptable risk of using the phones.
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