Issue #238 Hang Up and Drive! | Cell, Phone, Driving, Use, While

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Issue #238 Hang Up and Drive!

Written by Robert Smith

Tuesday, 22 January 2008

Driving a car with an open bottle of alcohol close at hand will net you a stiff penalty in most jurisdictions. So why are you allowed to drive with a working cell phone nearby?
Ridiculous? Not really. Almost every study of cell phone use by drivers (except one or two cherry-picked by the wireless communications industry) comes to the same conclusion: using a cell phone while driving can seriously impair your ability to control the vehicle safely. In particular, a recent study at the University of Utah (and financed by the Federal Aviation Administration, which has no ground-based agenda) concluded that driving while using a cell phone reduced judgement by an amount similar to a blood alcohol level of 80mg/100ml—the legal driving limit in most of North America. And a separate study reported in the New England Journal of Medicine found that drivers using mobile phones were four times more likely to crash, a level associated with a blood alcohol concentration of around 100mg/100ml.
Okay, piloting your F150 with a cell phone in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other might affect your steering precision, but hands-free sets must be fine? After all, it’s perfectly legal to drive with one in many countries, including the UK.
Not so. Ever watched a news channel on TV, one that has headlines or sports scores scrolling across the bottom of the screen? Ever realized after a couple of minutes of reading the ticker that you’ve no idea what’s happening on the rest of the screen? This is called cognitive distraction, and whether or not you’re nursing the remote control makes no difference. Same with a cell phone. If you’re distracted by the conversation you’re having on your Blackberry, it doesn’t matter whether it has a Bluetooth headset or not.
In fact, the Utah researchers say their study reinforced earlier results showing that hands-free mobiles are just as distracting as handheld cell phones.
So why isn’t cell phone use while driving simply banned? Presumably because many voters and/or politicians either don’t believe the research, or choose to ignore it.
I remember listening to a phone-in show on the radio a few years back. Listeners were invited to offer their comments on yet another report recommending the banning of cell phone use while driving. One caller vehemently defended the point of view that he be allowed to dial and dialogue while driving. It was impossible for him to run his business without it, he said. I remember thinking, “Great: so your business is more important than my life!”
And that’s the issue for us as motorcyclists: a car driver’s fender bender is our trip to the ER—or worse. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve watched a cell phone-distracted driver wander across lanes, turn without signaling, dawdle in the left lane, brake erratically, and commit a whole host of other driving errors: their minds are elsewhere.
Predictably, the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association doesn’t subscribe to the need for a ban. On their website, www.ctia.org, they refer to a study carried out for the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration at Virginia Tech, which, says the CTIA, concluded that drivers talking on a cell phone were no more likely to be involved in a crash. However, the NHTSA’s own website lists the distraction from cell phone use while driving as “significant enough to degrade a driver’s performance,” and concludes, “The task of driving requires full attention and focus. Cell phone use can distract drivers from this task, risking harm to themselves and others. Therefore, the safest course of action is to refrain from using a cell phone while driving.” That seems pretty clear cut, and completely at odds with the CTIA’s self-serving interpretation.
What about other distractions while driving? Tuning the radio, for instance, or conversing with a passenger? Again, it seems from the research that talking on the phone is unique in its ability to distract attention away from the task at hand, though exactly why is as yet unclear.
It’s pretty obvious drivers can’t be relied on to refrain from cell phone use on their own; otherwise the problem wouldn’t exist. So banning cellphone use while driving has to be mandated. In Canada, such laws are provincial responsibility.
I’m old enough to remember when seatbelt use was first required by law. In Britain, a huge public information, education and advertising campaign accompanied the new regulations. Now, very few Brits would think about driving without a seatbelt—but the law was introduced 40 years ago. Changes in attitudes to drink-driving took almost as long, and required a similar combination of education backed up by law. Sociologists will tell you that, regardless of legislation, such attitudinal changes take many years, perhaps as much as a generation or more: all the more reason we need a law right now. Let your MLA, MHA, MNA or MPP know how you feel.
It’s illegal to drive drunk. Why should driving distracted be any different?

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Rick said:

Well written Robert, Here in Nova Scotia we will have a new cell phone law tomorrow April 1 2008. Drivers will have to use a hands free device. I think cell use should be banned outright and would like to fwd your article to my MLA with comments. Rick Toupin

March 31, 2008

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