Safety Council: National ban on phone calls while driving
By Chris Gaylord | 01.12.09
The National Safety Council has called for a national ban on making phone calls while driving. Even “hands free” sets pose too much of a risk for drivers, it says, since calling while driving increases the chance of crashes fourfold.
“When our friends have been drinking, we take the car keys away,” says Janet Froetscher, head of the NSC. “It’s time to take the cell phone away.”
Six states already have outlawed the use of handheld phones behind the wheel, and 17 banned cell phone use by new drivers. None have gone so far as to ban hands-free calls, but the NSC argues that such calls are just as distracting. Reuters reports that:
Last month Dave Strayer of the University of Utah and colleagues demonstrated that drivers using a hands-free device drifted out of their lanes and missed exits more frequently than drivers talking to a passenger.
Strayer’s team has also shown that drivers using mobile telephones are as impaired as drivers who are legally drunk.
A study from the Harvard Center of Risk Analysis estimates that cellphone use while driving contributes to 6 percent of crashes. Froetscher’s group says that translates to 636,000 crashes, 330,000 injuries and 2,600 deaths in the United States each year.
Such reports have done little to curb cell phone use in cars: 80 percent of drivers admit to chatting while driving, according to a May survey from National Insurance. And a Consumer Reports poll found that 13 percent text while driving.
“Public awareness and the laws haven’t caught up with what the scientists are telling us,” Froetscher says. “There is no dispute that driving while talking on your cellphone, or texting while driving, is dangerous…. It’s not just what you’re doing with your hands — it’s that your head is in the conversation and so your eyes are not on the road.”
A complete ban seems like overkill to John Walls, vice president of CTIA, the main cell-phone trade group. He told the Associated Press that states should trust drivers to make quick and careful calls.
<< Palm Pre breaks the rules, but can it break into the market? | MainComments
3. Steve Ball | 01.12.09
I don’t know if there are others that feel as I do, but I am sick an tired of being told what I can and can not do in my own car. For those incapable of multi-tasking hang up the phone, don’t chew gum or drive with children in the car, and keep the radio switched off.
For the rest of us that know how to drive, please stop this nonsense before we are all required to wear foam hats in our cars due to some fool hitting their head while getting in.
I have never heard a better argument for tinted windows!
4. Joe | 01.12.09
If we ban cell phones, we might just as well include IPods, GPS devices, car stereo radio, CB radios, OnStar, and the like.
5. RavenEye | 01.12.09
If we ban hands-free cell phones calls while driving we should also ban singing along to the radio while driving, daydreaming while driving, eating while driving, nose-picking while driving, or anything else that could potentially distract the driver and not keep the driver’s head in the game.
6. Andy Leggett | 01.12.09
It seems the NSC is over-stating the case if the National Insurance survey is accurate: If 80% of drivers use their phones whilst driving, yet only account for an *estimated* 6% of crashes, then it cannot be the case that drivers using phones are as dangerous as drunk drivers. If they were, they would account for far more than 6% of crashes.
It is also unfortunate that the Harvard Center would be so eager to extrapolate the 6% figure into unverfiable ‘headline’ claims that cell phone users are responsible for “2,600 deaths in the US each year”. The statisitics are more likely to show that cell phone users are responsible for a higher percentage of low-speed incidents (fender-benders rather than freeway pile-ups) and thus a far smaller percentage of fatalities. Of course, this is just speculation on my part, but my claim is no less ’scientific’ than their simple extrapolation.
7. Isaac | 01.12.09
Yeah I understand the handheld device ban in some states. But also banning hands-free use makes this seem like it is getting a little out of hand. They might as well ban talking with other passengers in the car and throw away car audio systems too. I also like the states who have banned non-hands-free use, yet still have not banned text messaging. Maybe because all the lawmakers aren’t the demographic that should be making these laws. I don’t think it would be hard to argue that the laws will never be able to keep up with technology anyhow. People should just learn how to take driving a car a little more seriously or take the bus 
8. John kara | 01.12.09
Why not ban driving? 100% of accidents are caused by driving. Better yey, why not cnofine everybody to their residences. You can’t get in trouble by staying at home
9. Tom Mariner | 01.12.09
Of course rational and needed to diminish auto accidents. My objection is with the “National Ban”.
Wait — In addition to usurping the state’s rights to govern automobile use by telling drivers what equipment the federal authorities will permit for use in a vehicle, why don’t we limit speed to 55 mph? That would make absolute sense in Manhattan and who cares what the turkeys in Nevada or Montana think? We can probably get Joan Claybrook back with more ideas like prohibiting numbers on a speedometer above 85 MPH and indicate the divisions in 5’s. And due to the fact that she has no knowledge of product design or manufacturing, let’s make her “auto czar”.
But you guys have the right government for it — If you thought that bright light, car-hater Jimmy Carter was obtrusive, wait until a monolithic President / Congress gets through trampling on your rights. Frankly it won’t make any difference what the states want anyway, because the feds just have to dictate that their employees abide by the rules du jour — and in a little while most everyone is going to be employed by Washington. Wonder where the heck they are going to get the bucks to make payroll?
10. some guy | 01.12.09
I fully support the idea of a ban (on talking as well as texting) but the problem we have seen here in California is that it is an enforcement nightmare. People willfully and blatantly flout the law because they know the chances of actually getting caught is very low. Similar to speeding, driving in the carpool lane, etc….there simply aren’t enough cops around and the punishment is not enough of a deterrent.
11. paul s. smith | 01.12.09
100% wrong to “trust driver to make quick and careful calls.” we ruin a persons life over one or two beers even when an accident is the “other person” who is at fault. anyone would know and understand that a person who can afford to purchase a cell phone does become classified as a “careful caller” it should be handled the same as a drinker, not a drunk, but a drinker. “No phones while driving” is far from being an overkill.
12. William Bekiesz | 01.13.09
I agree and I have had so many close calls and now hate driving. The other is text messaging. I see it all the time and I believe more accidents occur than what actually is listed.
13. DJH | 01.13.09
I’ve seen this story reported many places, but nowhere have I heard either of the following mentioned:
1. Who is the “National Safety Council”? They aren’t a government agency, but that doesn’t tell me anything about them. Who are they? Where do they get their funding from? To whom are they beholden? What other kinds of legislation have they agitated for? Before I take their word for anything I want to know whether they’re ideologically-driven (and therefore cannot be trusted).
2. If merely conversing with someone is a dangerous distraction for drivers, why stop at cell phones? You’d almost have to ban passengers, too … yet this group isn’t doing that. Why is it somehow NOT dangerous — say — to be arguing with a passenger in the car, while it IS dangerous to call your spouse to say you’ll be home a little later than usual?
Neither of these things is explained … anywhere … by anyone. Yet they are GAPING holes in this story that beg to be reported. Why is no one doing so? Why is it up to me to ask these questions? Aren’t reporters supposed to investigate them already?
14. Joe III | 01.13.09
How about Common Sense! When driving and proposing public policy.
If you realy need to ban something how about stupid, busy body do-gooders.
15. MARGARETTE BULL | 01.13.09
The ban doesn’t seem to be the best answer. It won’t change most peoples behaviour. Cell phone use is so pervasive in our society that we need to look at the total picture.
I don’t have a cell phone because I believe that ‘be in the moment’ and ‘love the one you’re with’ are mottos for what life is all about. Whenever I’m driving, at the grocery store, in a restaurant, at the Olympic games, walking through the park, crossing a busy street or anywhere away from home I want to be aware of my environment and anyone that is with me at that present moment.
I hate being around people wearing a blue tooth device in their ear. “Hello, Are you talking to me?” Hands-free doesn’t mean a person is any more attentive to his surroundings.
16. bobblehead | 01.14.09
Everyone who drives while using any type of hand-held device drives poorly. They slow down and speed up based on what they are doing with their device, not based on the conditions of the road/traffic. It is the same if they are using the radio or talking with someone in the car, except with a hand-held device the distraction seems much greater and the crappy driving lasts longer.
Don’t fool yourself, if your holding a phone up to your ear you are driving poorly and your response time is diminished. Even if no-one gets into an accident, your phone call while driving led to a slower flow of traffic and the increased frustration of drivers around you.
When will the cars drive themselves?!?
17. Verna Shaheen | 01.16.09
It is all too obvious to anyone who is truly aware while driving or as a pedestrian that driving while talking on a cell phone, esp. with a hand-held device or even text messaging while driving is a distraction that affects the safety of many innocent people who are concentrating on the serious job of driving and obeying the laws; not to mention being considerate of others. If people were honest with themselves (and it seems that fewer are), they would admit how frustrating it is to drive behind someone who is talking on a cell phone; it costs not only others wasted time but the stronger chance of witnessing an accident. Case in point, a young woman was talking on her cell phone while exiting a garage. Yep, she hit my car, and yep, her father paid for the damage to my vehicle. Need I say more?
18. Natural | 01.19.09
I think you are thinking like sukrat, but I think you should cover the other side of the topic in the post too…
19. FridayFRANK D. UZEH | 01.22.09
Statistics has shown that making/answering phone calls while driving has led to the unwanted destructions of lives and properties. While not every Tom, Dick and Harry play his or her own part in reducing this urgly trend that is claiming the lives of some innocent persons. You and I have our rolls to play in curbing this live claming seige and not to be left only to the Governmet.
20. ana | 01.27.09
hahahahhaha i think diz iz realy dumb i think we kan use our phones nd drive at tha same tym….hahahahahahaha
21. K | 01.29.09
To quote Joe III
“If you realy need to ban something how about stupid, busy body do-gooders.”
When someone cuts me off, veers into my lane or is going 30 miles an hour on the highway with a 55 MPH speed limit almost causing an accident because they’re on THE PHONE and not paying attention, then yes, it becomes *my* business. It’s dangerous, plain and simple.
Trackbacks/Pingbacks
Leave a Comment
We do not publish all comments, and we do not publish comments immediately. The comments feature is a forum to discuss the ideas in our stories. Constructive debate - even pointed disagreement - is welcome, but personal attacks on other commenters are not, and will not be published.
Tip: Do not write a novel. Keep it short. We will not publish lengthy comments. Come up with your own statements. This is not a place to cut and paste an email you received. If we recognize it as such, we won't post it.
Please do not post any comments that are commercial in nature or that violate copyrights.
Finally, we will not publish any comments that we regard as obscene, defamatory, or intended to incite violence.
1. DJ | 01.12.09
A similar law is enforced India for atleast the past 4 years, according to which no driver can even use a hands free set when the vehicle is in motion. Even though it is not mandated, the law also suggests to turn off the mobile phone (may be that is too extreme)!