On Aug 11, 2:16�am, "JB" wrote:
Patty

Holding a cell phone to your ear keeps you
from being able to turn your head
to check your blind spots. �This is
the #1 thing I watch out for when I see
another driver is on the phone and it has
saved me again and again. �A mic,
you can just drop in your lap when you need to.
�Most people I have seen
driving with hands-free systems and
voice recognition dialing on their cell
phones drive no worse than they normally do.

That's part of it all right.

Another factor is that holding a cell phone has the person driving
one-handed all the time.

But the biggest difference is psychological. Telephone conversations
tend to be two-way (duplex), radio is almost always one-way, and the
distraction level is very different.

Aside from that, people who have problems
with keeping their attention span
primarily to the driving, shouldn't drive.

That's true, but who decides such things? Almost all of the bad drivers
I know think they are good drivers!

�You don't have to look at the
mic, so it is actually potentially
safer than having a passenger in the car.

You don't have to look at the passengers while driving, either. I sure
don't.

It is that simple. �Would you outlaw
passengers? �

Some of them! (Actually, if a certain passenger is a distraction, I
pull over).

This always seems to be
goal of any discussions like this.

Some people seem to be intent on
outlawing every thing that somebody else
does because they know they can't do it
right themselves. �The insurance
companies would have nothing to do
if people got their license pulled for
getting in wrecks rather than outlawing everyone else.

I disagree.

The problem is that too many people are poor judges of how well they
can do something. Particularly in real-life situations. After an
accident is too late to do prevention. Pulling the license doesn't
bring back the dead or instantly heal the injured. (And some folks will
simply drive without the license!)

Where I work, we have a saying: "The safety book is written in blood".

I have seen boatloads of data that gets
overturned by boatloads of different
data all the time.

Sure. But we have to go with the data we've got, and that data proves
over and over that cell phone use while driving seriously reduces
driving skills.

If someone did a lot of testing, they could probably find certain
individuals whose driving skills with an illegal blood alcohol level
were better than those of certain other individuals who were stone cold
sober. IOW, exceptions that prove the rule.

But the law has to be written and applied the same for everyone.

�I can tell you that "texting" and typing on a computer
keyboard certainly needs to be the job of the co-pilot.

Of course! And you would think that everyone would have the common
sense to know that. But they don't.

That's the real issue - people's lack of self-awareness, good judgement
and common sense. Maybe we can't legislate those things, but we can try
to prevent some of the obvious bad results.

73 de Jim, N2EY