Yet another DUH! 4685On Wed, 13 Jul 2005 01:21:13 +0000, Dave Head Unfortunately it is far more distracting than most other activities, resulting in an extreme increase (300%) in risk. Less. The main...
Yet another DUH! 4687On Wed, 13 Jul 2005 23:14:18 +0000, Dave Head No driver, who is even halfway sane, turns around to swat the kid in the back seat. If you really...
Yeah, OK... its an activity that's traceable thru cell phone records. Its just one type of distracting activity.
What about talking to someone in the car? Is that more or less distracting than talking on a cell phone? Since this "study" has the aim of getting cell phone use in cars banned altoghether, and if its as distracting, or more distracting, to talk to someone in the car, should we ban talking to other people in the car?
What about turning around to smack the kids in the back seat? Should that be banned?
Should simply placing the small kids babies in the back seat, where you have to turn around to look and see if they've found yet another way to get themselves into some kind of trouble that needs looking after, be banned and kids, at least the really small ones, be forced, by law, to ride in the front seat where you can see what they're up to and whether they've vomited and are now choking... etc. This back-seat-riding nonsense, brought on by the air bag nonsense and not being able to turn it off nonsense, gets a lot of kids end every year 'cuz they're in the back seat and they get forgotten when the parent gets out of the car and leaves the kid in a closed locked car with 90 degree heat outside. But that's another subject...
Lots of people run their cars into things while looking at the dish-hunk on the sidewalk. Are we going to make that illegal too?
How many people run their cars up a phone pole while trying to change the CD? Should we ban CD players in the car? Cbuttettes? What about just the radio?
And if cell phones are banned in cars, how many people will simply give up cell phones? A lot, probably. And when those people who no longer possess cell phones see an accident, and can't phone it in, and somebody dies because of that, then what? Are the unintended consequences acceptable?
I can get on a good rant about this, 'cuz it seems that for every new thing that comes along, there's someone trying to ban it. The cell phone has a huge positive impact on the state of things in general, and removing cell phones from society, which would be true for a lot of people who would not pay to have one just for the rare time they are away from a landline phone and not in the car, may ultimately do more harm than good. I think that outcome is actually likely.
Dave Head
