Going Too Far? Feds Set The Stage To Ban Nearly All Calls From Behind The Wheel

Might as well ban conversations with passengers and changing the climate-control and stereo settings, too. Drive-through restaurant food should self-destruct and lipstick should automatically retract if they sense themselves being engaged by the driver. A car should not start without the driver proving that he's gotten a good night's sleep. Car windows should automatically pixellate attractive people within the driver's field of view. And so on.

When you get rear ended by a 36 ton cargo truck with a driver who was on the cell phone and your car is totaled, provided you survive as I did, you will reconsider and find this appealing.

And then when a young lady driving down a country lane is murdered by a madman following her because she was unable to phone the police for help WILL YOU reconsider and find this repellent ?

I am sure the “young lady in the country road” would have no problem explaining the cell phone use to any police officer, the truck driver lost his job. Your fairy tale is missing “the Nazi’s” and “what about the children”.

Topneuro, I was hit by an 18-year-old who ran through a red light while talking on her cell phone. She was still on the call when I got out and asked her if she was OK. But it is not necessarily appealing to me.

Unless you can actually prevent people from making calls (signal jammer, phone lock, etc.) at best you'll just be able to catch people after something has already happened. And if you criminalize it, then you'd better be fair and criminalize all the other activities that lead to accidents (sleepiness, eating, etc.) even if they're more difficult to detect.

I think it makes more sense to reduce accidents by making better drivers through more stringent licensing and by making cars sounder through stricter vehicle compliance. With all the people I see here in LA driving without their lights on or on bald tires, for example, I see ample opportunities to enforce laws already in the books and either make drivers more alert or take them off the road.

AlleVier, I had the same experience about 5 years ago. Girl was still on the phone after rear-ending us at 45+ mph--though I guess it was a callback since her airbag deployed. Witness stated her brake lights never even went on.

Actually, it's not the phone use that's the distraction, it's the conversation. In other words, when a car has more than 1 person in it talking, the likelihood of an accident goes up 50%, and continues to double each time you add another person in the car. Check the stats. It's not about the "phone" so much as it is about the "talking".

The true source of accidents comes from the distraction conversation causes because your brain cannot focus on detailed/passionate language skills while also visually remain alert and cognizant of the constantly changing environment. This is an impossibility. That is why teenagers should only be driving two seat pickups or motorcycles so that they are not distracted by the passengers in their car.

OK Lets ban everything that makes you do anything but hang onto the steering wheel (with both hands at the appropriate places). You can only move your head and or eyes to drive safely. But if you move too much you could be ticketed. I guess that will eliminate manual transmissions because they would be distracting. One good thing is that you couldn't smoke while driving anymore. No food like AlleVier said and all radio/stereo/CD's would have to be taken out of vehicles. Also too distracting. It has officially fallen off the face of sane.

I think it is setting the stage for driverless cars. A robot that can only do one thing. Here comes the google car...

THe NTSB has no power to make law- only recommendations. It is up to the NHTSA to do that and at this point it aint going to happen.....

-Bond

I can only speak for myself but I do drive less effectively when talking on a phone (hands-free). I catch myself making more driving adjustments. I would think the regulation being discussed has no problem if driver were to pull over and talk on the phone in which case (?). Personally, I hate recent technologies (over the last 10 years) that seem to invading or taking away my personal time.

Again, it's not the "phone", it's the "talking". Do you find yourself driving less effectively when talking to passengers in the car? It's no different. Ban talking in cars - that's the root cause of distractions.

the issue is if you ban it, people will try to be more sneaky about using cell phones and cause worse accidents. It should just be bluetooth hands free in the car is the only legal way to talk on the phone. not even ear pieces because people drive and fumble for the ear piece to put it in their ear.
I, unfortunately, am on my cell phone all the time in the car. I have bluetooth on my BMW and I have never been in an accident. I use my turn signal every time. I can do 2 things at once, but I understand most people dont.