Cell Phone Use While Driving on the Rise

[RedEarth]

WASHINGTON -- More people than ever are driving under the influence of their cell phones, according to a survey released Tuesday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The survey showed 8 percent of drivers, or 1.2 million people, were using hand-held or handsfree cell phones during daylight hours last year, a 50 percent increase since 2002 and a 100 percent rise in four years.

All that talking is a potential safety issue, said NHTSA spokesman Rae Tyson. "While we don't have hard evidence that there's been an increase in the number of crashes, we know that talking on the phone can degrade driver performance," Tyson said.

The District of Columbia and New Hampshire no longer allow talking on hand-held cell phones while driving, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association.

Some communities, such as Brookline, Mass., Santa Fe, N.M., and Lebanon, Pa., require handsfree cell phones, but about a half-dozen states prohibit local governments from restricting cell phone use in motor vehicles

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-cell-phones,0,1970124,print.story?coll=sns-ap-nation-headlines

[RedCloud]

1. people blabbing about nothing...

they go in stores and blab about the label on a product...
in cars blabbing about nothing...
in lines blabbing about nothing...

The drivers need to be arrested for careless and imprudent driving.

the others need a living partner to be with them...

[Zerex71]

27. It's the great enabler for people with nothing to say.

And I don't even care how many people this offends, but when I'm in earshot of these people -- and how can you not be these days? -- all I hear is insipid and inane conversations about things like product labels and Oprah's diet and oh, what shall I get Little Jimmy for his birthday?

Meanwhile, 1,500+ dead, 13,000 wounded on our side alone...but we want our "Survivor" and "American Idolatry".

Mike

[Chimpeach]

2. no kidding

this is news?

[McKenzie]

3. "Hello darling, it's me.

I'm in heavy traffic and I'm about to scratch my butt. And I'll....aaaarghhhhh...BANG! fizz crackle pop...buzzzzz"

[anitar1]

14. Thank You ,McKenzie

After working in retail for a few years, I came to the conclusion that most prople with cell phones have a screw loose. I have yet to over hear a conversation of any importance. It is all BS, nothing conversations while they hold up a line of people and the clerk finally has to become rude.No accounting for the sheer ignorance of so may human beings.I still do not have a cell phone as I came to loathe the sight of them. These are very sick people.

[bleedingheart]

4. I hate when people use them while driving

I yell at my husband about this all the time.

I have one and most of the time it is buried in my purse.

I use it rarely and only when I need to use it...like when I need my husband to pick up the kids at daycare because I am late at work..

[callous taoboy]

5. Just yesterday

I was almost creamed at an intersection by a big, white SUV with a lady gabbing on a cell phone. It would've been a BAAAAAD wreck.

[durablend]

6. Would've been a BAD wreck

Before or AFTER you shoved the phone down her throat?

[callous taoboy]

18. I know...She was completely clueless

until after I had screeched to a halt.

[FuzzyDicePHL]

7. Selfish

Driving while on a cellfone, or even conducting a personal convo on one while in a public area within earshot of others, is just selfish.

What is so important that chatting -- even for business -- on a fone while driving trumps alertness and basic safety? If they don't care about their own lives, then can't they at least consider the feelings of those who would be devastated if the chatty driver were killed in an accident? Imagine hearing someone get smashed by an 18-wheeler while you were on the phone with them! And what about other people in cars, on bikes, and on foot around them?

Those who conduct themselves according to basic manners are conditioned to give others privacy when they are on the telephone, and this can create a good deal of discomfort for the well-mannered (besides just being dead annoying).

When I used to commute to work 1hr each way on a train, I used to put down my book/magazine, take off my headphones, and turn in my seat to face rude sphincters who blabbed on their fones. Usually, they'd eventually say something to me, and I'd reply, "Well it just sounded so interesting, and you didn't seem to mind that everybody else could hear you..."

My other favorite thing was to use my PDA to record them talking, and then play it back to them.

[Danmel]

8. NY bans cell phone use too

Unless it's hand free which I would expect Newsday to know, since it is a NY paper.

I see dozens of people talking on the phone with their hand held set every day even here in NY where it is illegal. THey swerve and drive slowly........

[tjdee]

9. How is this different than talking to passengers in the car?

If the cell phone user has an earpiece, how is that different than if that person was talking to a passenger? Or listening to the radio?

on edit: I do understand the irritation though--seems people can't bear to be alone anymore, they have to be talking to someone all the time... I just don't know if it's a more dangerous safety issue.

[Logansquare]

13. A very good question, and one that has been researched.

The fact is that conversations with passengers *do* distract drivers to some extent. However, passengers provide another set of eyes and ears watching out for other vehicles and pedestrians. Everyone, to some extent, is a "backseat driver." In addition, cell phones have been proven to increase driver distraction--they're not sure why, but it's definitely been proven that it seems to split attention much more than a one-on-one conversation. It could be because the person on the phone line doesn't shut up when a semi cuts in front of the driver, or a cyclist swerves to avoid a pothole; they continue to blah blah blah, and make it difficult for the driver to concentrate.

[Igel]

15. It might also be because there's less "signal", your

brain has to work harder to reconstruct the signal (which is usually not very loud), and then understand it. (Plus what poster says in post #13)

[Solon]

17. Well, since most Cellphone users I see...

are too cheap to get headsets, I can only conclude that its because they don't have to hold their friend up to their ear by their rectum to talk to them.

[FuzzyDicePHL]

19. I recall

a study released in the last 6mo, I believe, that said hands-free devices don't make any difference. If I can find it I'll post the link.

EDIT: Found a recent mention from NYT (registration and blood sample required):

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/18/national/18cell.html

"We've evaluated and come to the conclusion that hands-free use is just as risky or perhaps riskier than hand-held phones because it's the cognitive distraction that can compromise driving," said Rae Tyson, a spokesman for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

[HeeBGBz]

10. I was watching out the window of my job the other day

Damn near every car that went by, the driver had a phone to ear. It's getting rediculous.

I particularly hate to go wait on a table in the restaurant and someone is talking on the phone. If I have to wait to take an order because of a phone, I will be sure and give them PLENTY of time before I go back. Like forever.

[sweetheart]

11. Drivers do lotsa things that are dangerously distracting

I was recently discussing a comedy-spoof driving school class for real
life things i've done whilst driving a car (and performing complex
traffic situations):

1. How to get/give a blowjob & to masturbate
2. How to eat a fast food meal with a giant messy burger
3. How to put on makeup in the drivers mirror
4. How to read a map
5. How to put on a coat/take off a coat
6. How to administrated child punishment in the back seat with 1 hand
whilst turning left.
7. How to find something in the back seat whilst changing lanes on
the freeway.
8. How to brew a cup of coffee in the in-cab brewer
9. How to change drivers without stopping

Mobile phones are only the beginning, and the question is more so,
whether the law should require drivers to be undistracted, and whether
driving with the steering wheel controlled by one's knees is enough?

[Robb]

12. We use them driving all the time

...of course "we" are in an ambulance running code to the hospital, usually talking to the patient's doc. :)

[0007]

16. At baseball games the elite cell phone users like to sit behind home plate

when the game in on national TV and call their idiot friends, and jump up and down when told they've been seen on TV.

What a needless pastime.

[FlaGranny]

20. Last week at the grocery store,

which was very crowded, every other person seemed to have a cellphone. They don't have any sense that there is anyone else around them. They stand and gab in front of the item you want, they go around corners and run into you. They were even bumping into each other. It was the most frustrating grocery store experience I've ever had. Somehow I find the heatsets worse because whenever someone is using one near you it takes a minute to figure out they're talking on a cellphone and not to someone imaginary.

[AlabamaYankee]

22. My ultimate cell phone abuse story

I was shopping in the local Kroger and kept passing this big guy who had a cell phone tucked in his neck. From the fragments of conversation, i determined that he was a lawyer, and was gossiping about a client in not very complimentary terms. There were no names, but this is a small town and a local could probably have made the identification. He kept this up for at least fifteen minutes, from looking over the steaks at the meat counter to going through the checkout.

On the other hand, the other day I think a woman avoided being in an accident because she was on the phone. A car ran a red light right in front of her. Since she was talking and not paying attention to the light she hadn't started into the intersection. If she had, she would have been t-boned. I don't think she even noticed.

[theHandpuppet]

24. Grocery store gabbers

What gets me are those who enter the store with the phone glued to their ear and continue to gab --loudly -- throughout their entire shopping trip. Inevitably those folks chatter at a volume which leads me to think they are unaware that they are having what should be PRIVATE conversations amongst crowds of total strangers. Nothing like waiting in a busy checkout line only to be assaulted by the kind of chatter which can only be politely described as intimate in nature. Perhaps if such chatter were to be recorded and played back to them they would be mightily embarrassed.

Cellphones ARE a danger to driving; I can recount too many personal experiences to share here in a short post, but the most recent was just a week ago when a chattering woman in a huge SUV nearly creamed our car when she sped through a stop sign, while the most horrific was a case where another cellphone gabber slammed a deer whilst speeding and gabbing on her cellphone. She was so busy gabbing she didn't even notice that the rest of traffic had stopped to let the deer (which was visible from a quarter mile away) pass, she simply sped around us. I still have nightmares recalling the screams of that poor deer, who was unmercifully not killed outright, but writhed and screamed in the middle of the road, its legs shattered right in front of the rest if us. This thoughtless b**** then got out of the car, still clinging her cellphone, and said, "Oh, what do I do?" It was one of the very few times I've ever seen my partner get so angry and she told her exctly what she could do with herself AND her damned cellphone!

Cellphone use should be restricted to emergency personnel only. Anyone else who feels they simply HAVE to make a calls that can't wait should at least have the decency to pull over.

[KansDem]

26. My two stories...

1) Once I saw a customer in a store go through the complete check-out procedure while gabbing on a cell phone. I felt sorry for the checker who had to go through the motions of assisting this rube while being completely ignored. The man did not make any attempt whatsoever to delay or end his call so he could complete his transaction in a respectful manner.

2) I was at a bank. There were only two of us being helped by the tellers at this particular time of day; I and a man on a cell phone. He too didn't make any attempt to delay or end his call while the teller waited on him. Instead, he let his call dominate and at one point, he became angry with the person he was talking to on his cellphone and, oblivious to where he was, started shouting "F*ck'em...f*ck'em!" Now, this kind of speech is not particularly polite in public, but to have him yelling this in a bank? His words reverberated off the silent, conservative, marble-like surroundings and everyone working in that bank heard him.

[Stuckinthebush]

21. I'm guilty

I have noticed that when using the phone, it does take your focus off of the road. I was rudely shaken back into reality when, on the phone, I almost plowed into a car in front of me that had slammed on the brakes. Normally, I would have seen the lights a split second faster, and would not have come within inches of the bumper.

Another time I was almost involved in a wreck was when I was changing the radio station. Same scenario as above.

We all forget how dangerous driving is, and we all have naturally become too comfortable behind the wheel of a moving weapon. As we get older, it is even more important to ignore external distractions and concentrate on driving because of our age related decreased reaction time.

An interesting aside that is somewhat related: There is a four-way stop down the hill from my house. While my road is a lightly traveled residential road, the crossroad at this sign is a collector street that is traveled a bit more. Twice in the past year, I have been the first at this very well marked four-way, when to my left a large Cadillac came barreling down the collector street. The first time I saw it, I assumed that it was stopping...bad assumption. The Cadillac came within inches of hitting me as I turned left. The driver slammed on her brakes at the stop sign, and started screaming at me. Since we were the only ones around I stayed half-way in the intersection and just looked at her and pointed to the stop sign. She never acknowledged the sign and continued to berate me. It just so happens that this woman looked to be in her 70s or 80s, and I can imagine that if she had been using a cell phone, I would have been toast.

A few months later, I was stopped at the same place, and I saw this same Cadillac roaring to the intersection. I stayed put this time while watching the same woman blow through the intersection. She was sitting with her hands at 10 and 3, staring intently at the road. While it is a single case, I began to wonder how truly unfocused we become as we get older. I have noticed a little change over the years, and by 80, I'm sure I'll be very unfocused at this rate! Any added distraction in the car such as a cell phone just will exacerbate the problem.

[DARE to HOPE]

23. Did you know that the microwave radiation is WORSE in cars?

http://www.rense.com/general63/FACTS.HTM

I just read this on Rense.com yesterday. The cell phone manufacturers have been lying as much as the makers of Vioxx and Prozac about the safety of their product.

Read the article--the link to brain cancer is becoming obvious as famous people drop all around us. Lee Atwater and Gene Siskel were two early deaths--they supposedly lowered the level of radiation in the newer phones, but as I understand it, how powerful and far apart the towers are has more to do with it. And they are putting these towers in church steeples!

The radiation in the car increases due to the extra work the cell has to do to get beyond the metal walls.

Though I can see how useful a cell would be in an emergency, I have steadfastly refused to buy into it. My family has worked on ESP instead. :-) (still some glitches there)

[KansDem]

25. Having had my car totaled last month, this is very important to me...

On February 1st, a driver ran a red light and smacked me but good. I lost my 1996 Taurus. The police gave her a ticket, and when I received a copy of the report, I discovered she had confessed to being distracted by a cup of coffee at the time of the accident. If she had stated she was on the phone at the time, I would have gone nuclear!

There is NO F*CKING REASON on Earth to be using a phone while driving, unless you're a police officer, firefighter, paramedic, etc. Since my accident, I've paid particularly close attention to how people drive, opting on occasion to count the number of drivers passing through an intersection and using the phone while I'm stopped at a traffic light. I've counted as much as every other driver gabbing while driving. This is INSANE!!!

If cell phones weren't a tool for business or a toy for the affluent, they're use while driving would have been prohibited by law a long ago.