Wednesday, September 22, 2004

Cell phones and cars

I think the ban on cell phones is dumb. A cell phone is potentially no more distracting than singing along with the radio...or letting one of those talk-jocks raise your blood pressure, or even carrying on a conversation with a passenger. Of course, the key word is "potentially". There are too many drivers out there who can't be trusted to chew gum and tie their shoe laces at the same time much less do anything other than pay strict attention to the road when driving. For these people, giving them a cell phone while in a car is like handing a loaded gun to a toddler: the ultimate result is sure to be a bad one. So, until we figure out how to weed out the people who should not be entrusted with a couple tons of metal travelling at 51 feet per second (that's 35mph,) the rest of us will have to suck it up and live with the ban on cell phones.

OK, so I am being a law abiding citizen in this respect and am not driving around with one hand on the wheel while the other holds a cell phone plastered to my head. If I do have to talk to somebody not in the car at the time, I use a hands free headset, like the law requires. And I get really pissed when I see some other jerk still driving around with a phone plastered to his/(or more often than not) her ear. I'm going to start carrying my digital camera around so I can take pictures...and post them here. I realize that taking pictures while driving is probably more distracting than chatting on the phone, but 1)it isn't illegal, yet and 2)I am capable of doing at least two things at the same time.

So, if you drive around with a cell phone growing out of your head, look for your picture here in the near future.

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