US safety group: ban cellphones in cars
The National Safety Council, which campaigned to get U.S. states to enforce seatbelt laws, is taking on cellphones, saying on Sunday it was starting a campaign to ban all use of mobile phones while driving. Even so-called hands-free devices should be banned, because studies show they do not make it any safer to talk on the telephone while driving, the group said. “It’s time to take the cellphone away,” said Janet Froetscher, president and chief executive officer of the non-profit group. “Studies show that driving while talking on a cellphone is extremely dangerous and puts drivers at a four times greater risk of a crash,” Froetscher said in a telephone interview.
Many states and Washington, D.C. have laws requiring the use of a hands-free device while driving and using a cellphone. But several recent studies have shown drivers are far more distracted when speaking on a mobile phone, even with a speaker or headset, than talking to a live passenger. Last month Dave Strayer of the University of Utah and colleagues demonstrated that drivers using a hands-free device drifted out of their lanes and missed exits more frequently than drivers talking to a passenger. Strayer’s team has also shown that drivers using mobile telephones are as impaired as drivers who are legally drunk. A study from the Harvard Center of Risk Analysis estimates that cellphone use while driving contributes to 6 percent of crashes. Froetscher’s group says that translates to 636,000 crashes, 330,000 injuries and 2,600 deaths in the United States each year.
Source: Reuters
We already have this law in are police state formally known as England.
Ahhh whats next…they'll ban texting while driving
@2 using cellphones during driving (i.e. calling or texting) is banned in my country as well
well i think its a good idea, im in the uk and we have this law and i agree with it especially for texting because your not even looking at the road if your texting so theres guna be deaths if your guna text while driving and handsfree kits and bluetooth headsets are cheap enough these days so i dont see a problem
Yes, ban cellphones, eating, changing the radio dial, ipods, talking to passengers, rubber necking and anything else that may take your mind off the task at hand. Not much talk of high powered vehicles and bikes though.
@4 red
learn to read they are even gooing to ban handsfree kits;
Come on people, if the phone call or text message is really that important(not some gossip crap) ,then, pull the f*ck over. Get off the road! It's bad enough that the people here in Boston have a f*cking car to begin with never mind letting these idiots multitask while they drive. I also think they should pull the licenses from these old people behind the wheel…Holy Sh!t, I don't think these Q-Tips can see past the steering wheel.
6% of crashes is only 636,000 so that means…
636,000/6*100=10,600,000
330,000/6*100=5,500,000
2,600/6*100=43,333
ten million crashes, five and a half million injuries and fortythree thousand deaths, never mind cellphones ban the d*mn car
Try this test:
http://www.dft.gov.uk/drivingchallenge/
banned is Australia for a while now.
same here in Saudi Arabia! i got a ticket last week , its 've been like 2 months since the new law .. its safe but it also suxxxx :s
This is already banned here for many years now!
Banned in India for some years now.
I remember a car smashed up a decade or two ago. The lady driver was feeding hand her kids in the back seat!
Banned in the Netherlands for 4 years already…
Fuc|( this government protection bullsh!t.
@14
It's not banned to use a handsfree kit in the NL, it should be though.
This is a spectacular idea and should have been enforced a long time ago. I would rather live in a "police" state like the UK as opposed to the US where the large corporations dictate most moves the government makes. If we weren't such a consumer-oriented nation, this would have been passed a long time ago, but as long as telecom companies are allowed free reign, nothing will come of this.
When you're driving, your full attention should be given to the road, and that requires both hands. I agree that cell phone use while driving is equatable with drunk driving.
Funny, we had a test in here with various subjects with and without cellular and the results were quite surprising as the people talking to a phone were much more cautionous and reacted faster on near-accident scenarios than drivers with both hands and ears "free"… go figure
Yet we've had this law for couple of years now, but you can see like 5/10 drivers talking to their cellphones anyway.
@ 18 Bananaphone
Instead of 5/10 why not just say a half ( 1/2 ) of drivers!!
what next…smoking ?? i would not put is past Brown the fat scottish twat
Guverment can screw off.
Banning cell-phone use while driving is a great idea, but here's the dilemna: Handheld use has been banned in my state for a couple of years now, but it's hardly ever enforced. Even if someone were to be pulled over and ticketed, it's a relatively small fine. If they can't or won't enforce the handheld rule, how would they enforce a hands-free law? They need to begin by toughening and enforcing the law already on the books.
Its not because you don't have both hands on the wheel its because your brain doesn't recognize things you normally would even if your looking at them.
I have an idea. Why don't we ban all these groups that think they have a right to take away OUR rights. Where will all this crap end. Why not just cut to the chase and ban us all from dying.
Surley banning hands free from being used while driving is crossing a line to a certain extent! That's the equivalent of like saying "We'll ban people from singing to music on their Car Radio's" next as it's basically no differant.
@20 - Don't panic matey it's talking about the US not UK (Though, yes if that Fat Twat get's his way, we'll probably follow suit if it get's passed in the US).
My problem with hands-free is, I can never tell if the person is talking to somebody or is some nut talking to themselves! How would the police know any different? It's really similar to the laws against suicide, really, really similar.
not banned in Greece i work for a Courier and we use it daily
here the law says handsfree!!!
i with Yui
Government can screw off.
next there going to ban car radio
ben car tvs
ban car pcs
ban car internet
legalize handsfree!!!
not
changing the radio dial, ipods, talking to passengers,mp3s
@11
what a hell are you talking about ..
I live in Saudi Arabia for a 15 years now and never heard such law ,
The government don't even enforce basic law such as speeding
every body driving like crazy here ,
street her more like a drag race …
Epic releases Gears of war 3
Cliffy B gets a call while driving
Person on phone tells Cliffy B 10 million copies of gears 3 have been pirated.
Cliffy freaks out, crashes car and dies.
Yes ban the cell phone
How are they going to prove that you are talking on your bluetooth anyway. Unless they make it illegal to have it in your ear as well. You can always make an excuse to why its in your ear. Oh, i forgot, sorry.
Wow this is what happens when liberals get power cells phones dont cause crashes whats next we ban people that wear glasses because there sight is less then normal its proven FACt you can never make a liberals happy 1 drunk driver kills someone and you got a army of them trying to ban something
I think the big problem in the US is the pathetically easy driving test, which allows any moron to get behind a wheel, maybe they should get bad drivers off the road. Introducing a stricter test like they have in European countries would make a big difference, as F…tards would have to take the bus instead.
cell phones should be banned completely……20 years ago we didn't have cell phones and i got by just fine with out them….what can be so important other then someone being injured or dead to be talking on a cell phone out in public anyway,,,,,that was why there was pay phones… other wise you til you got home to make that all important phonecall to your girl friend,boy friend,husband ,wife,mates,bff's…….ban all cell phones period!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
lol…
I live in the UK and chat on my fone all the time when i drive and nobody can do anything about it, really stupid law we have over here and now it looks like you guys in the US are going to suffer to but don't worry because if your cops are anything like ours i.e slow, incompetent, overworked and underfunded they will never catch you.
Ehhm…. maybe about 6% of the drivers are actually calling when driving, so 6% of the accidents caused by calling when driving is een representable number. In other words: calling when driving has no sufficient influence on the number of accidents. Think about that!
i live in california and it is illegal in my state to have a mobile device in you hand at any time while the vehicle is in motion
Then they should ban radio and cd-players. I agree that without handsfree its more dangerous but with handsfree !!! that is plain stupid.
What's the difference between using a handsfree mobile phone and talking to someone who's sitting in the passenger seat?
@33 You are absolutely right!
@#9; blahdeblah
I'm sorry, but that entire simulation was proven inaccurate due to the lack of the furry being ran down with the vehicle, something any decent individual would have done for not only the good of their country, but the longevity of the entire human race.
Also with #33 with standard license examinations being too simplistic in the US. The entire scheme is multiple-choice and based around each question having two obviously wrong answers, one that is badly worded, and common sense answer. It's frightening that they let people loose with such limited knowledge. The only thing that might top it is our GED. Has anyone else seen one of them? The material involved is entirely composed of that which can be learned before graduating from the fifth grade of a public elementary school. Sad knowing that is the case when the collective knowledge of society could have only gone up over the last century.
I'm in the U.S. and I'd like police officers to put down their damn cellphones. I was nearly hit by a squad car twice last month while crossing the street. The 1st officer didn't notice he almost hit 3 people. The second officer at least stopped to apologize but he still had the phone to his ear while he was saying sorry.
“It’s time to take the cellphone away,” said Janet Froetscher
This kind of thing makes me sick to my stomach. Take them away?! If that is the case, maybe they should take away my right to drive too. Yeah, make everyone take buses and trains and such. I know, they could just choose which job we'll all go to right out of school and "they" can make sure it will be close so I can cause as little harm to others as possible while I'm living my "life". Sure.
I am sick of people always thinking there needs to be a law to govern idiocy. I say let the idiots eliminate themselves. They might take some innocent people with them, but sh@t happens, we all have die sometime, and personally, I would rather some guy take me out of this world doing 90 drunk, high on cocaine, and talking on his cellphone (without a handsfree kit no less) then to live the rest of my life knowing that my rights will be slowly stripped from me and cops will be able to always choose from a whole list of reasons to harass me on my way home from work.
Well, I for one clean my weapons at night and I stare out my window and I daydream a little about the day someone shows up on my lawn with some badge (or whatever) trying to tell me how "society" has some idea about protecting me by taking something from me. It seems to me that most of the angry people in this world are usually angry because someone else is always trying to tell them how to live. Wars are fought over lines in the sand and where you're gonna go when you die.
Has the whole god damn world forgot how to mind it's own damn business?!
"Mind it's own business." That's cute, he actually thinks it's his sovereign right to drive intoxicated in one way or another and endanger the lives of others. Let's face it bub, if you were just going to remove yourself from the gene pool with your f***ups, the movement to get your s*** banned would be weak. But the thing is, you're killing someone else when you f*** up and that is unacceptable. F*** you and your "right" to risk the lives of other people for a minor convenience
I say ban em. for one thing most of these idiots that are on phones can barely drive as it is. when they are talking they are usually driving at least 10 mph slower than other traffic, or at least the a h0les that I get stuck behind are anyways. I can always tell when the idiot in front of me is on the phone by the way they are driving.
@45, "dogymmot"
When you enter the public road that other people use, too… it's not "your own damn business" anymore!
I can see both sides of this argument. As a motorbike rider the number of near misses and accidents I've had because people have been too busy yammering away on the phone or reading the newspaper at the wheel and so on really gets my blood going. I've thought many a time about having a broadspectrum jammer mounted to the bike for when I ride to jam peoples phones, but at the end of the day, that would create the possibility of more issues than it solves.
As a car driver, I've got a full wired and bluetooth handsfree kit mounted in the car as well as my personal bluetooth handsfree kit which get one hell of a workout thanks to the job I'm in. I never use the phone in my hand while I drive, but I spend a lot of time on the handsfree, I couldn't work without it to be totally honest. That said, I never ever text while driving either, as I believe that that is taking too much attention from the job at hand, ie driving.
Whilst I can understand the need and desire of groups to protect the populace at large, here in australia I am led to understand that most states and territories now have penalties in place for use of a phone whilst driving, with a fairly hefty fine and loss of demerit points. We don't need further regulation in this country, we need the existing regulation to actually be enforced!!
End of my rant
People have no need to talk on the phone wile your driving, handsfree is fine like in the UK. You can't concentrate properly while your on the phone, its a fact that has been tested and proven.
Screw ALL you "ban em'" morons! I have a cell phone hooked to the dash of my car with a blue tooth earphone and the cell phone is voice activated meaning it makes a call when I tell it to. This allows me to have BOTH hands on the wheel and my attention on the road. The reason I have this set up like this is because of nerve damage in my lower spine and legs. When I have an attack I need to be able to get help ASAP. I have already restricted myself to no more then 75 miles away from home and will soon be cutting back even more because of the instability of my legs. But get it straight…I will be D%&NED if I am going to let some silly t@#t who does not know my reasons for having this or you "ban em'" morons take something away from me that according to my doctors is medically required for me to have just because YOU don't think I need it. You can take your "ban em'" mentality and go screw yourselves as you will be the very first morons in line whining about how bad the Gub'ment is for taking something that you think you need or your doctors tell you you need. The same twits screaming for a ban are the EXACT same twits that were whining here about 30 or more posts ago because some government was censoring the web. You cant have it both ways.
As previous said, "Banned in Australia", but a fat lot of good it does. You see dozens of people every hour driving with a hand-held on their ear, let alone the hands-frees (which are said to only be better because you can hold the wheel and talk - your head is somewhere else).
I want to know how a truckie can corner an 18-wheeler with a phone in one hand and a pie in the other - what was he steering with? (Amazing what Viagra will do!)
Good idea but only useful if it is enforced.
"common sense" is pretty much on track. There are people who have special needs and should be considered in all this "for your own good" law passing business. I think Blue Tooth is the answer. It is a compromise in the regard that it seems the tests still say it contributs to accidents, but it is the only anhwer I can see that includes the special needs peopal like C S and like my Dad. My father is on oxygen. If his portable unite cuts out while he's on the road, he may need that cell phone to get some quick help. For myself, a non-handicapped driver, I have already had to call for road service twice when my car conked out. Without the cell phone, I would still be sitting there. Last thoughts: my wifes route to work takes her through some of the most crime ridden parts of the city. No way do I want her out there without a cell phone. We've had lots of research on how many lives cell phones take; how about some figures on how many lives they save? Just sharing some thoughts.
If you are a person with special needs and need to call someone for help, PULL OVER AND MAKE A CALL. They are talking about banning phone USE while DRIVING not carrying it with you.