Shoot - another of our rights being taken away. When will the feds realize that killing people with your car doesn't count. It's just an accident.
Posted: 11-21-2005
Traffic safety experts say cell phones and teens are becoming an increasingly dangerous combination on the highway, and now the National Transportation Safety Board is urging states to ban cell phone use by drivers younger than 18.
"We know that when you're learning a skill, you should not be distracted while you are doing it," said Mark Rosenker, acting chairman of the safety board. "Anything that takes away from the total focus of learning how to drive is a distraction."
Cells phones -- which have been banned in cars in some states because they distract the driver -- are popular with Washoe County teens. A Reno Gazette-Journal survey conducted five months ago found that more than 90 percent of the 400 teen drivers interviewed said they have driven while talking on one. Females do it more frequently than males, the survey found.
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Eleven states and the District of Columbia have put limits on teens using cell phones while they drive. At least 11 other states have considered such laws, including Michigan, which is poised to ban cell-phone use by drivers younger than 18.
And phones are just one of the distractions Washoe teens say they deal with while driving. Many admitted they regularly chat with pbuttengers in the back seat, adjust the car stereo or program their iPod digital music devices while negotiating Northern Nevada roads.
