Yet another DUH! 4686

No, I think we only really have numbers on the cell phone being 300% more risky - and not that changing CD's or talking to pbuttengers or turning around to swat the kid in the back seat or a dozen other distractions aren't also 300% more risky than doing none of those. I just don't think anyone has those numbers...

Not in my experience.

As I've said one before in this thread, if something out the window needs attention, its going to get it, and I'll just miss some conversation.

Its obvious. The only thing such knowledge is really good for is for use in such a quest. If you don't want to ban cell phones, why go to the trouble and expense of finding this information?

Why not? If something is equally or more distracting, and you're going to ban one thing, why leave the other thing alone?

But other people do. And... you still have to turn around every so often to make sure that the kind is OK - not choking on vomit, or something like that.

You still have to turn around to see what, if anything, is wrong.

Yet kids keep baking after having been abandoned in cars every year. Didn't happen so much when the kids were in the front seat, before air bags.

Its in the papers every now and then.

Well, that does sound like a good point. The duration could and probably should have a lot to do with it.

And by that time, they're in the car and moving, so you still can't talk to them...

Not if you're the one that's bleeding to rest at 2 in the morning on a lonely road that is only going to have 1 other person come by at that hour, and that person has ceased carrying a cell because it is now mostly useless to him. I was in that approximate situation in 1978, only I was the one that came up on a guy in the ditch, bleeding like hell. No cell, no 2-way radio either, the guy died. If I'd have had a cell phone at that time, I'm sure he'd have been OK because he ultimately died from loss of blood. There was a bout a 45 minute delay before help could be notified due to lack of communications. With a cell phone ban while driving, some parts of the country at some unfortunate times would be knocked back to 1978, communications-wise. Unintended consequences of banning cell phones in cars could be an increase in rests due to the decreased communications capability.

I would cancel-nonrenew the contract in a heartbeat if I couldn't make or receive calls while driving. Here's the usual calls I make or get:

1) Call buddy in California or another in New Mexico while on way back from health club at night, after getting out of the health club at 10:00 PM, since it's only 7 PM or 8 PM there. Gives me something to do during the 20 mile drive home (on a really lightly traveled 4 lane road).

2) Call the movie theater's info line to find movie times when I'm coming back to the area from some trip, with nothing to do that evening.

3) Receive calls from others. I get a few calls when I'm at work, but my friends know my work number anyway, so would not have missed the calls without a cell phone. Otherwise, I'm in my car, where I couldn't use the phone, or at home, where I'm sitting beside my landline phone anyway.

4) Driving long distances to meet other people - I call ahead and announce my estimated time of arrival.

5) Driving long distances, and calling others I know are also driving to the same destination, to ask them how their schedule is progressing.

About the only time I use it when neither I nor the called party is in a car is when I'm meeting someone else in the same airport. Then, finding each other is a bit easier, but still doesn't require a cell phone. Maybe I'll call them and tell them I found the Cinnabon, too. But really - $50 a month for this? I think not.

Another time is when I get to a place where I don't have a motel reservation - I get out the electronic phone book and call motels for prices and vacancy status, and can do that while stopped. But these kind of calls are really rare.

The fact is, I don't use the cell phone all that much - haven't used it today, yesterday, day before... I just checked it, and the last call I made was 4 days ago, to voicemail. Last one I received was July 4 - I was driving over to my friend's place where we were meeting up to go watch fireworks.

Ooohhhh yes they are - at least any reasonable usability of it.

Sure you are - if they shoot at you first... which is the reason for carrying one in the 1st place.

Then I, and I suspect a whale of a lot of other people, are going to lose interest in cell phone ownership. Its damned expensive to leave off in your glove box for the rare occasion you're going to be out and about, and could reasonably make or receive a call. Hell, the usual places I go, the movies and the health club, the movie is pretty limited as I don't like to receive calls there and miss some of the movie when I step out into the lobby. The health club I only use during the 1 hr aerobics session on the elliptical - the other 1 1-2 hrs lifting, I don't bring it out 'cuz I don't have a way to wear it, and am afraid I'll either leave it somewhere or it'll get stepped on or someone will drop a barbell or dumbell on it or something.

Around here, its miles and miles between any two places. I will have driven 1 hr and 50 minutes by the time this day is over, and this is a usual day. Other days, I may drive more.

OK. I don't think I've made a call from a store this year, myself.

I have a phone on my desk - don't need a cell.

If I'm on a street, I'm probably in my car...

Could use the pay phone if its really, really that important. It isn't - not for me - to pay the monthly charge for a cell.

Not true. Mine would be removed from the mix, guaranteed. I doubt I'm unique in the regard.

You don't know that. Harken back to unintended consequences. There would be fewer cell phones in society, and the lack of communications would cost some lives in some dire sitautions.

Anyway, I gotta get outa hear right now, 'cuz the health club closes at 10, its 7:13, and the place is 20 miles 1-2 hr away.

Dave Head