Ban cell phone usage while driving

Friday, December 30, 2011

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has suggested a nationwide ban on all cell phone use by people driving.

Some people think this is a terrible idea. They are, of course, wrong.

Last year, more than 3,000 people died as a result of using cell phones in vehicles and there were more than 400,000 accidents caused by drivers distracted by their phones, either talking or texting.

The argument that other distractions – listening to the radio, eating a burger – are just as bad is specious if for no other reason than there is no evidence to support it. There is, however, clear evidence that use of phones gets people killed or, if they’re lucky, just injured.

Ron Paul, who wants to be our president, has said he opposes this measure because there is nothing in the Constitution about phones. But there was, for many years, nothing in the Constitution giving women the right to vote, either, yet common sense prevailed.

It should prevail again.

This is not an issue of personal freedom. If it were an absolute given that people talking on cell phones in cars would only kill themselves, perhaps there would be a reason to shy away from the NTSB point of view. But when a distracted driver goes across the dividing line and smacks into another car head-on, there’s a good chance someone not talking on a cell phone, or texting, will die, too.

Plus, to be absolutely mercenary about it, there is the cost of insurance. The more accidents there are, the more costs insurance companies pass on to the rest of us. Sure, it might only amount of pennies, but why waste pennies if we can save them by keeping people off the phone?

And what is the big rush? You can’t wait until you can stop for a few minutes to call? Or are you just lonely? Or afraid you’ve been forgotten?

Sometimes we really have to save people from themselves, but in this case, we are also saving us from them. You really don’t want to be on Route 101 after dark with some noodnik coming at you texting his girlfriend. Really. You don’t.

But if people like Ron Paul have their way, you will be. Just be thankful he wasn’t around when sufferage was an issue.