It is illegal to talk on a cell phone while driving but...

[JR6ooo4]

I really don't care about these so-called studies. They don't seem to prove anything.

What I'd like to know is why talking to my best friend on the cell (hands-free) while driving is that different from talking to my best friend in the passenger seat with me??? What is ONE thing that is different in my concentration and ability to drive?

Yes, they've monitored a person talking on their cell and a person driving under the influence and found them to be similar, but they didn't do a similar report on a female talking to the passenger next to her and see how that rates.

I honestly would miss MANY a exit while talking if it weren't for the person sitting next to me shouting "oh no!!! that's your exit!!" AHHHH!

Ooopps. Just answered your own question. the person on the other end of the cell can't help when you, the driver, are only half concentrating.

Mikeeee

 

[teacups]

I really don't care about these so-called studies. They don't seem to prove anything.

What I'd like to know is why talking to my best friend on the cell (hands-free) while driving is that different from talking to my best friend in the passenger seat with me??? What is ONE thing that is different in my concentration and ability to drive?

Yes, they've monitored a person talking on their cell and a person driving under the influence and found them to be similar, but they didn't do a similar report on a female talking to the passenger next to her and see how that rates.

I honestly would miss MANY a exit while talking if it weren't for the person sitting next to me shouting "oh no!!! that's your exit!!" AHHHH!

Oh my goodness, thanks for the laugh! I am reminded of my dear departed grandmother who used to always turn her whole body around to talk to us in the backseat. We'd scream and shout (she was deaf) that she needed to take the off ramp!!!! Or that she was going the wrong way!!!!
She even ran over my now ex husbands foot once LOL! Oh those were the days.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Wow. If she seems "abrasive" to you, it could be due to the condescending and pompous tone of your posts. You may not intend it to be that way but that's how it comes off

WOW!

That is certainly not what I meant.

ETA: I am not a condescending person nor arrogant nor was I trying to be. All I was getting at is that as drivers we are responsible for what goes on in a vehicle and if a passenger was a problem, you simply stop driving and deal with it. People are trying to convey that cell phone usage isn't a big deal and not destracting and several links have been provided to show just that it is. I was just participating in a discussion and not trying to belittle anyone in any way and if it came across that way I do apologize. But I don't know why people feel it is okay to quote people and then use laughing smilies when they disagree with what you say or don't like how you say it. Then get bent out of shape when you question that. To that--I got feisty. I haven't had the best of days, but it isn't really an excuse. But I do try to consider the feelings of others when I post and tend to forget sometimes as we all do on occasion.

 

[C.Ann]

I totally agree with you! It is so ridiculous! I was ticketed a couple of weeks ago and it cost me $135! I really wanted to say to the officer-why don't you give me a ticket for my screaming kids in the car-they are way more distracting than a cell phone. I think that the cell phone laws are just outright absurd. There is no difference between me talking on my cell phone and me talking to other passengers in my car. And I agree with smoking and eating and apply makeup-there's not much difference in the distraction.

You got off cheap.. Be glad you're not facing a multi-million dollar lawsuit for slamming into someone else and altering that persons life forever more - along with the lives of her family - because your phone call was so "important"..

 

[chabs]

You got off cheap.. Be glad you're not facing a multi-million dollar lawsuit for slamming into someone else and altering that persons life forever more - along with the lives of her family - because your phone call was so "important"..

Hey-I'm not whining about the money. I am just stating a fact that there are many more distractions in a car then a cell phone. No need to be so dramatic. I don't know why people are so offended by other people on cell phones in their cars-I wonder if it is a have and have not type of thing. Obviously people are never going to agree one way or the other, but it's pretty funny how the smokers get so offended when people suggest that this is an equal distraction and you didn't seem to have any problems with that. While I agree that cell phone use while driving is a distraction, so are a lot of other things. It's a risk that I'm willing to take. So if you see me coming, get out of the way!

 

[Darsa]

It's a risk that I'm willing to take. So if you see me coming, get out of the way!

Thanks for the warning; usually I have to find out by seeing the swerving, swaying driving; at least now I have ONE warning beforehand!

I wouldn't call what she said dramatic, and neither would you if you got a call that someone you knew was hurt (or, God forbid, killed) because someone's phone call was more important than others' lives.

 

[Chicago526]

I really don't care about these so-called studies. They don't seem to prove anything.

What I'd like to know is why talking to my best friend on the cell (hands-free) while driving is that different from talking to my best friend in the passenger seat with me??? What is ONE thing that is different in my concentration and ability to drive?

Yes, they've monitored a person talking on their cell and a person driving under the influence and found them to be similar, but they didn't do a similar report on a female talking to the passenger next to her and see how that rates.

I honestly would miss MANY a exit while talking if it weren't for the person sitting next to me shouting "oh no!!! that's your exit!!" AHHHH!

You are wrong.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1916291,00.html

Some of Strayer's other findings show that most drivers tend to stare straight ahead while using a cell phone and are less influenced by peripheral vision. In other words, "cell phones," he says, "make you blind to your own bad driving."

And even though the common assumption is that hands-free technology has mitigated the more dangerous side effects of cell-phone use — it's just like talking to someone sitting next to you, isn't it? — a series of 2007 simulator tests conducted by Strayer seems to indicate the opposite. A passenger acted as another set of eyes for the driver in the test and even stopped or started talking depending on the difficulty of conditions outside the car. Meanwhile, half the drivers talking on a hands-free phone failed, bypassing the rest area the test had called for them to stop at.

Part of the problem may be that when people direct their attention to sound, the visual capacity of their brain decreases, says Steven Yantis, a professor of psychological and brain sciences at Johns Hopkins University. It can be as if a driver is seeing the image in her head of the person she is talking to, thereby decreasing her ability to see what's actually in front of her. "When people are listening to a cell-phone conversation, they're slower to respond to things they're looking at," Yantis says. "It requires you to select one thing at the cost of being less able to respond to other things."

This may explain why participants in one of Strayer's simulator studies were faster to brake and caused fewer crashes when they had a .08% blood-alcohol content than while sober and talking on a cell phone.

For the safety of your three sons, I hope you open your mind to the facts that these studies have proven. It's one thing to act in ignorence, if a person truely didn't know that even hands-free cell phone usage is dangerous, it's understandable. But once it is shown in studies that it is a safety hazard as great as driving drunk, the responsibility is ours to change our behavior.

I've had a cell phone since the late 90's. I've never driven while using a cell phone. Ever. I don't make calls unless I am parked (either before I start driving or once I get to my destination) and if I get a call, it goes to voice mail. There is NOTHING so important that can't wait until a person is at their destination. NOTHING.

 

[C.Ann]

Hey-I'm not whining about the money. I am just stating a fact that there are many more distractions in a car then a cell phone. No need to be so dramatic.

Yes - there IS a reason to be "dramatic".. I'm talking about my DD and her family.. Her life will never be the same - she can never get back the time she has lost being able to do things with her DGD and her DH for the past 3 and a half years - she will always be in pain - she will always be under medical care - she is totally disabled and lost her career..

Why? Because some idiot was talking on a cell phone and plowed right into her.. If you can find the "humor" in that, please feel free to point it out..

Think about that the next time you think it's so important to use your cell phone while driving.. If you need to make an "important" call, pull over to the side of the road..

 

[SaraJayne]

I must be in the minority. I have no problems talking on the cell and keeping in my own lane, while obeying all traffic laws. It can be done...and *is* done millions of times a day.

And I'm so glad that talking on the cell phone in this state isn't illegal.

 

[teacups]

Hey-I'm not whining about the money. I am just stating a fact that there are many more distractions in a car then a cell phone. No need to be so dramatic. I don't know why people are so offended by other people on cell phones in their cars-I wonder if it is a have and have not type of thing. Obviously people are never going to agree one way or the other, but it's pretty funny how the smokers get so offended when people suggest that this is an equal distraction and you didn't seem to have any problems with that. While I agree that cell phone use while driving is a distraction, so are a lot of other things. It's a risk that I'm willing to take. So if you see me coming, get out of the way!

What do you mean " have and have not type of thing" ?


I can only speak for myself, but I have SEEN what happens to OTHER PEOPLE when one person decides to be careless. It is not fair to put others at risk becasue you (whoever they are) is self centered.
I am reading some posts here shaking my head. There are people in the world, who unfortunatly will have to hurt someone to wake up.
I call it self centered.

We ALL would like the world to work just for us, but hey newsflash.. IT DOESNT!

If you can not drive safely with your kids... leave them home.
If you can not drive safely while smoking... dont smoke in the car.
If you can not drive safely because you are a crappy driver... take the bus.

It has been proven that you can not drive safely while on the phone.
There are laws.

If you do something that you know you are not good at (driving with kids?) and you hurt someone in the process.... thats a sad waste.
There are plenty of ways to have an accident that you have no control over, why add more?

 

[Free4Life11]

I must be in the minority. I have no problems talking on the cell and keeping in my own lane, while obeying all traffic laws. It can be done...and *is* done millions of times a day.

And I'm so glad that talking on the cell phone in this state isn't illegal.

Same here. And not everyone is having deep conversations that require so much focus while driving....it could be just be a short call to let a friend know you are on your way or will be late, etc. There are so many things that can cause you to be distracted while driving, but cell phones are an easy target because they are more visible. You can't easily ban someone from changing the radio or eating/drinking while driving.

I don't think talking on a cell phone is illegal in Florida, but even if it were most people seem to have tinted windows, so I imagine it would be hard to catch people.

 

[Geoff_M]

You are wrong.

I honestly find this position baffling... as does the whole fixation people have on banning cell phone use while driving. Without a doubt cell phone use can, and does, cause distracted driving accidents. However, so do a number of other "optional" activities: eating, drinking, smoking, changing CDs, hair brushing, entering a via point on a GPS, etc. Interestingly, not many people are all jazzed about any of these accident threats with the same zeal aimed at cell phone conversations.

The logical reason for this disconnect is that the perception has be put forward that the driver distractions from cell phone use somehow stands above the rest. It's said again and again that it's worse than drunk driving. Who can blame people with that being said?

About the biggest "smoking gun" for all of this was referenced in the Time article you posted. It was the "suppressed" 2003 study report from The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that concluded that cell phones were a dangerous menace to our society when in the hands of drivers.

But the more I read about all of this, one problem keeps cropping up again and again: researchers continue to have problems translating this terrible problem from driving simulators, labs, and spreadsheets into the real world. For example:
1) The NHTSA notes, that as in-car use of cell phones has flown off the charts in the US, traffic deaths have remained stable... however, they dismiss this as being due to safety improvements (such as air bags becoming standard in cars) over the same period. Fair enough. But where is the increase in overall accidents caused by the 30% of drivers that have started driving around like they've downed 4 shots of Jack Daniels?
2) They note that studies of police reports in Japan in the 6 month preceding, and after, a cell phone ban went into effect there showed a remarkable 80% drop in accidents post-ban. Pretty damning, huh? However, the NHTSA is honest enough to put a big asterisk by the number because the figures are based on driver self-reporting and not a lot of people are going to self-report themselves into an expensive traffic ticket.
3) Other researchers that have tried to measure the actual impact of cell phone bans (both those that allow hands-free and outright bans). Here's part of one study conclusion from 2006:

Our new approach for estimating the relationship between cell phone use while driving and accidents is the first to test for driver heterogeneity and selection effects and the first that allows direct estimation of the impact of a cell phone ban while driving. We have two key findings. First, we find evidence that the impact of cell phone use on accidents varies across the population. In particular, even after controlling for observed driver characteristics, our random coefficient models show there is additional variation in the cell phone impacts on accidents, particularly for female drivers. This result implies that previous estimates of the impact of cell phone use on risk for the population, based on accident-only samples, may therefore be overstated by 36%. Second, there is evidence of selection effects. Our models predict no statistically significant reduction in accidents from bans on usage of cell phones while driving. Our estimates of the reduction in accidents from a ban on cell phone use while driving are both lower and less certain than some previous studies indicate.

4) This CBC story on the NHTSA "smoking gun" study purported that the governmental body "found" that cell phones caused 240,000 accidents and 955 fatalities in 2002. However, again, these are theoretical accidents based on things like taking lab experiments about increases in reaction times, cell phone usage patterns, and extrapolating the number of accidents that would result. The same study concluded that at any give time there are more than a million cell phone using drivers on our roads. If the comparison to "drunk driving" is correct, why can't a historical correlation between our cell phone subscriber base and changes in the rates of all traffic accidents (that don't rely on self-reporting) be found?

Again, can cell phones cause distractions? Yes. Should a driver be possibly held libel if they cause an accident due to cell phone distraction? Yes. Has there been real life evidence found that cell phones represent a uniquely dangerous cause of voluntary driver distraction? No.

 

[zachnsamsmommy]

Have you ever ridden with kids fighting in the backseat? Or a toddler throwing toys? What about just having a conversation with your kids while driving? To me it's the same thing.

I think this is far more distracting than about anything! (sometimes, phone included). I have a 2 yr old and 8 yr old, and when they are fighting (or sometimes even playing) loudly, it is hard for me to concentrate.

But I agree with all the PPs about putting on makeup, eating (especially something messy...having to put ketchup or sauce on it), and my dad shaves (electric shaver) while driving .

I think cigarettes are such basic nature to smokers (I am not a smoker), that it really isn't on the same level as all the above.

 

[FireDancer]

I just don't understand the concept that cell phone talking shouldn't be banned because other things are just as distracting. Even if we assume that talking on a cellphone is no more distracting than talking to the person next to you or dealing with a toddler or 8 other things they should still be banned.

If 10 things are equally distracting but only 1 can logically be outlawed I still say out law it. It makes no sense to say well, if all 10 aren't illegal none should be. Just outlawing that 1 in 10 will reduce the distractions while driving 10% and when you look at all the accidents caused but distracted driving I will take that reduction.

There is no need to speak on the phone while driving so it wouldn't hurt to outlaw it in the interest of safety.

 

[Carly_Roach]

Ooopps. Just answered your own question. the person on the other end of the cell can't help when you, the driver, are only half concentrating.

Absolutely. When you're driving and talking to a passenger, both of you are likely to stop talking if a car pulls out in front of you or if another vehicle blows a tire nearby on the highway. Even if traffic suddenly slows from 70 to 35, both of you are likely to stop talking and pay attention to the road.

The person on the other end of the cell phone doesn't stop talking when any of those things happen because they're not there, so you continue your conversation when you should be paying attention to the environment around you.

We didn't have cell phones in our vehicles for decades and we got along fine without them. Suddenly they're considered a device that no one can live without and must be using at all times? No. Don't buy it.

I'll agree with another poster here: self-centeredness. I'm 100% behind outlawing the operation of any kind of wireless device in a moving vehicle. I'd even support a "dampening" field that made cell phones inoperable in any moving vehicle.

 

[kaytieeldr]

It would be interesting to see updated data, but this study published in 2001 by AAA examined actual police crash reports and found that rate of cell phone distractions as a factor in accidents was way down the list compared to distractions from other sources (eating/drinking, CD player, something rolling around on the floor, adjusting climate controls, other occupants, etc.).

Nope. Not buying it. In the more than eight years since this study was compiled, cellphone usage has become much more widespread while common sense apparently has not increased at a similar rate. Those 'other sources' were MUCH more likely to occur a decade ago than was anything cellphone-related.

I totally agree with you! It is so ridiculous! I was ticketed a couple of weeks ago and it cost me $135! I really wanted to say to the officer-why don't you give me a ticket for my screaming kids in the car-they are way more distracting than a cell phone. I think that the cell phone laws are just outright absurd. There is no difference between me talking on my cell phone and me talking to other passengers in my car.

Uh, so, you were (apparently) violating some law by using the phone while driving, yet ignoring/not in the least distracted by the screaming kids in your back seat? Wow.

What I'd like to know is why talking to my best friend on the cell (hands-free) while driving is that different from talking to my best friend in the passenger seat with me??? What is ONE thing that is different in my concentration and ability to drive?

Well, ONE thing is that conversations with passengers/occupants actually in one's vehicle can be terminated instantly when conditions or situations indicate. You can't just suddenly stop talking with someone who can't see you or what the driving conditions may be.

Hey-I'm not whining about the money. I am just stating a fact that there are many more distractions in a car then a cell phone.

Then work with your local or state officials to make driving with screaming kids in the back seat a ticketable/fine-inducing offense.

 

[kaytieeldr]

I must be in the minority. I have no problems talking on the cell and keeping in my own lane, while obeying all traffic laws. It can be done...and *is* done millions of times a day.

And I'm so glad that talking on the cell phone in this state isn't illegal.

Mind telling us what state, so we'll know to stay out of it? Thanks!

 

[kaytieeldr]

I think this is far more distracting than about anything! (sometimes, phone included). I have a 2 yr old and 8 yr old, and when they are fighting (or sometimes even playing) loudly, it is hard for me to concentrate.

But I agree with all the PPs about putting on makeup, eating (especially something messy...having to put ketchup or sauce on it), and my dad shaves (electric shaver) while driving .

I think cigarettes are such basic nature to smokers (I am not a smoker), that it really isn't on the same level as all the above.

Without a doubt cell phone use can, and does, cause distracted driving accidents. However, so do a number of other "optional" activities: eating, drinking, smoking, changing CDs, hair brushing,

All to far lesser degrees than the distraction caused by concentration on cell phone usage.

entering a via point on a GPS,

This, on the other hand, could well be as distracting as cellphone conversations. My guess would be (a) not enough studies have been done or (b) the bulk of GPS users program the unit while parked.

 

[JR6ooo4]

and what about all those that drive with dogs on their laps!!

talk about a poorly trained dog and driver...

MIkeeee

 

[Youarehere]

We must all remember this:
1. Anecdotal evidence is the best evidence of all. If a friend of a niece’s roommate once had a motor vehicle accident because she was distracted for a moment by a friend’s baby in the back seat, that is real and substantial evidence that driving with a baby in the back seat is much more dangerous than talking on a cell phone while driving.
2. Studies and statistics that YOU find on the Internet are worthless, because everyone knows you can’t trust Internet sources.
3. Studies and statistics that I find on the Internet are trustworthy and believable because I found said study and/or statistic and it backs up my own point of view.
4. Finally, I am a superior driver and it is literally impossible for me to be distracted while driving. I can talk on a cell phone, text message, eat, smoke, drink, you name it, due to my superior ability to concentrate on multiple tasks at once. Even if the backseat of my car is literally in flames just like that scene in the John Candy movie “Planes, Trains and Automobiles”, you may rest assure that I will remain calm and collected and that I will concentrate on driving, even while I am calling 911 to report the fire as well as texting my friends about this strange yet strangely hilarious episode in my interesting life.
5. You, however, are a risk to all simply because you are not me. Laws are made due to people like you, not due to people like me. If you were like me we would not need these laws.

That pretty much sums it up.

I think there are lots of things to distract a driver. I find a cigarette just as distracting as my phone. I was almost hit by a lady reaching across her car for her cigarettes or a lighter the other day- not sure, but when her head popped back up from the passenger seat, she was smoking a fresh cigarette.

To legislate what people can and can't do while driving is silly. Where do you draw the line? I have seen horrendous drivers who are doing nothing but driving. I think the law should be simply "driving while distracted" and if the PD catch you focusing on ANYTHING else and the result is that you are driving dangerously, then it is a crime. If you are chatting on your cell phone while driving nicely, who cares, no crime for you. If yopu are yelling at your kids in your back seat while swerving into the other lane- crime! I hate the legislation of common sense.