May 22nd, 2007
Anti-’Cell Phone While Driving Lawmaker’ Crashes … While Reaching for Phone
By Michael Santo
Executive Editor, RealTechNews
I’ve written previously about cities or states proposing headset laws, or even complete bans of cell phones while driving. This is a case of “do as I say, not as I do” as a California State Senator who had previously voted on SB1613, which requires headsets in California starting in 2008, crashed while reaching for her phone while driving.
State Sen. Carole Migden rear-ended a car on Highway 12 near Fairfield Friday that left one person with minor injuries, the California Highway Patrol said.
Migden was apparently reaching for her ringing cell phone just before she hit the sedan, the senator’s office said in a statement. Source: CBS5
We Say: Humorous as it is, it’s an important lesson, and does show just why she voted for the law (and why I agree with it). We simply have too many distractions, and people need to be driving more, and answering phones, text messaging, emailing less.
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May 22nd, 2007 at 11:08 am
Charles says:
Michael,
Sure, let’s all get on the band wagon and push a law through based on everyone’s gut instinct. The reason I say that is because there is no conclusive research on any of this.
Cell phones are not the issue. Bad drivers are. When was the last time you saw a Police officer driving while NOT talking on a cell phone? How about a cab driver? Or a driver of a multi-axle truck making deliveries?
Given the wide acceptance of cell phones in the last 5 to 10 years, shouldn’t traffic collisions and fatalities have sky-rocketed? Nope.
According to the NHTSA, from 1995 to 2005 traffic fatalaties have decreased 16% and traffic collisions 37%.
They’re just now figuring out that it makes no difference if a driver has a headset on or not. So all those laws are a waste of time.
The reason it’s easy to blame the cell phone is because you can see it in someone’s hand. If a driver cut you off while talking into a bluetooth headset, you would just refer to him as an idiot. But if you see someone talking on a cell phone while cutting you off, you somehow believe that they would be a much better driver if they weren’t talking on “that damn cell phone”.
May 22nd, 2007 at 7:17 pm
me-six says:
There is a lot more to the story, cell phone use was not the only problem, read up on it at the web address below.
http://cbs13.com/topstories/local_story_142231628.html
May 22nd, 2007 at 8:52 pm
Charles says:
Sounds like Carole Migden is just a bad driver.
Her comment about her being a Senator makes her a miserable person on top of it.
And it happened enroute to a State business meeting, so the State’s auto insurance will pick up the tab. That’s just great.
May 23rd, 2007 at 2:42 am
Mike says:
Cell phones are a distraction, but so are other accidents, construction, bumper stickers, etc
I think they should be banned from any driver under 21 while driving, and banned at all high schools.
Would be nice to see more items get banned from using while driving - what moron thought it would be neat to put a dvd player in the dash of a car in the FRONT? Here’s your sign.
Mike
If you ever get in an accident while using a cellphone, or because of a cell phone, you should be banned from ever ownign one again. If they dont cause accidents, nobody would have to worry
May 23rd, 2007 at 3:24 am
J. Corliss says:
As a motorcyclist for the last 35 years, I couldn’t agree more that cell phone use while driving needs to be outlawed in its entirety. It continues to amaze me that the same logic used in outlawing drinking while driving isn’t used to justify outlawing cell phone use while driving.
DRIVE NOW! YACK LATER!
May 23rd, 2007 at 5:07 am
John says:
Although lousy drivers using a cell phone is an annoyance it should never be out-lawed. If we keep this kind of mindset up on out-lawing everything that bugs us we will soon live in a total police state. It is better to just be responsible citizens rather than turn our great nation into something that is not truly free.
May 23rd, 2007 at 5:49 am
MissingFrame says:
Why not outlaw all the distractions?
Parents managing their children in the back seat should be made illegal.
Eating a bowl of cereal should be made illegal.
Browsing through songs on your iPod should be made illegal.
Reading a map while driving should be made illegal.
Shaving while driving should be made illegal.
Putting on makeup driving should be made illegal.
Driving while not having at least 8 hours of sleep in the past 48 hours should be made illegal.
Driving after having an emotional fight with your ex-wife should be made illegal.
Did I miss any?
May 23rd, 2007 at 7:27 am
ed3 says:
Yeah… Driving should be made illegal since it is the #1 cause of auto accidents…
May 23rd, 2007 at 8:55 am
Charles says:
Bravo! I like that one.
That is exactly my point. Everyone jumps on a bandwagon and wants to address the issue THEY CAN SEE, but never the issue that is the biggest threat.
This is how politicians are able to take action without ever fixing the problem. Just keep reaching for those low hanging fruit because that’s what makes it into the news and what the voters like to see.
May 23rd, 2007 at 1:44 pm
上海数据恢复 says:
-_-
May 23rd, 2007 at 11:09 pm
MC says:
That’s quite a list of things you think shouldn’t be outlawed - and you have a point, as they shouldn’t be outlawed … individually. Have you ever actually driven by someone putting makeup on? Or shaving? I have, and when I see people like that I try to get some distance.
When you’re driving around in a vehicle weighing thousands of pounds at high speeds, not paying enough attention to the road endangers the lives of other people.
Cell phones are very visible, are in widespread use (in cars), and provide convenient evidence of their use (logs kept by the phone company). Banning them is going to stop a lot of people from using cell phones, and that doesn’t mean that they’ll distract themselves more with talking to other passengers or changing the radio station. It will simply remove one more distraction.
I don’t think this law will prevent a huge number of accidents, but you losing the inconvenience of talking on the phone in the car, instead of dedicating all of your attention to not putting the people around you at any unecessary, is a very, very small price to pay, in my mind, for even a small decrease in the number of road accidents in this country. In fact, if I were to suggest an alternative to a law banning driving and talking on the cell phone, I would suggest that officers can ticket you for doing anything that would unreasonably distract you while you are driving. For instance, if a mother is turning around to scold her children while driving, she should be ticketed. Unless the road is empty and she’s only risking herself, she doesn’t have a right to not watch where she’s going at 70mph in a 2 ton suv.
September 14th, 2007 at 11:28 pm
Alfie Rose says:
School Assignment
Given what you have learned, and may have experienced, about the distraction caused by using a cell phone while driving, what policy would you recommend regarding the use of a cell phone in a moving vehicle. Is this a safety issue that should be left to individual discretion, or can and should it be enforced legally? Defend your response.
Discussion Board, Q1 pretty much summed it all up in the question itself: “…about the distraction caused…” That sentence alone informed us that there is in fact a problem (distraction) with yapping on cell phones while driving (in a moving vehicle).
Yes, this is definitely an ongoing safety issue, not only to the person talking, dialing, and/or texting on the cell phone, but also to the many drivers, pedestrians, and bikers on the road.
The cell phone talking while driving is and was already left to the discretion of the individual; this is obviously not working. Laws should be passed in every state, not just a few to cease the actual dialing, and texting of a cell phone while driving. Hands-Free, voice-activated cell phones ear buds can dial the number you want. There is no need to look at those tiny little numbers on the phone and be distracted while driving 65 MPH on the freeway.
“Talking on a cell phone is one of many possible distractions and by narrowly focusing on just this one could create a false sense of security with drivers,” said John Walls, spokesman for CTIA — The Wireless Association.
Talking and/or texting on your cell phone without the hands-free thingy should be enforced legally. Here are a few statistics from The University of Utah & CNN about driving while celling (DWC):
About 10 percent of the people on the road during the day are using cell phones, up from 8 percent in 2004, the government reported Thursday.
Six percent of drivers were holding the phones to their ears, up from 5 percent last year.
Motorists who talked on either handheld or hands-free cell phones drove slightly slower, were 9 percent slower to hit the brakes, displayed 24 percent more variation in following distance as their attention switched between driving and conversing, were 19 percent slower to resume normal speed after braking and were more likely to crash. Three study participants rear-ended the pace car. All were talking on cell phones. None were drunk.
Drivers drunk at the 0.08 percent blood-alcohol level drove a bit more slowly than both undistracted drivers and drivers using cell phones, yet more aggressively. They followed the pace car more closely, were twice as likely to brake only four seconds before a collision would have occurred, and hit their brakes with 23 percent more force. “Neither accident rates, nor reaction times to vehicles braking in front of the participant, nor recovery of lost speed following braking differed significantly” from undistracted drivers, the researchers write.
–Al Rose
The Associated Press, (Copyright 2005). Friday, December 16, 2005. Report: Cell phone talking while driving on the rise. Retrieved on September 30, 2007 from web site http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/ptech/12/16/cell.phone.drivers.ap/
Student Government Association, (2006). What’s New at the U? [June 29, 2006 Issue]. Drivers on Cell Phones Are as Bad as Drunks: Utah Psychologists Warn Against Cell Phone Use While Driving. Retrieved on September 29, 2007 from web site http://unews.utah.edu/p/?r=062206-1
October 3rd, 2007 at 2:38 pm
Michele says:
Cell phones were created for emergency usage not to chit chat with your girlfriend while driving. 2 days ago my 20 year old daughter was walking to the transit center to get on a bus to go to work and a woman talking on her cell phone hit her and ran over her. She is lucky to be alive. I dare anyone to tell me that the conversation that she was having on that phone that day was more important than my daughter’s life. If you want to talk on the phone, pull over. People need to care about more than just themselves. How would you think you would feel if it was you that hit my precious baby.
November 3rd, 2007 at 8:17 pm
上海数据恢复 says:
Motorists who talked on either handheld or hands-free cell phones drove slightly slower, were 9 percent slower to hit the brakes, displayed 24 percent more variation in following distance as their attention switched between driving and conversing, were 19 percent slower to resume normal speed after braking and were more likely to crash. Three study participants rear-ended the pace car. All were talking on cell phones. None were drunk.
December 2nd, 2007 at 7:12 pm
ZCZC says:
窃听器
August 8th, 2008 at 12:48 am