‘Hey, I’m not the problem’
Published 4:12 pm Thursday, December 15, 2011
How distracted are Americans? We’re so distracted that every time a federal agency says driving under the influence of a cellphone is dangerous, we act as if that’s a new observation. And then we promptly dismiss it as nonsense and an imposition on our right to communicate electronically at all times.
Distracted citizens, did you know that we have at least two federal agencies devoted to our road safety? We have the National Transportation Safety Board and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. On Tuesday it was the National Transportation Safety Board that recommended banning the use of cellphones in any form while driving. Way back in 2002, and years subsequent, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recommended the same thing.
The agencies can make as many recommendations as they like, but cannot make law. States taking up the issue have created a mish-mash of laws, none of which has banned all use outright. In Washington, for example, it’s legal to use a hands-free device, even though research has shown the hands-free devices are not safer, and may in fact lend a false sense of safety. It’s the mind that’s distracted, regardless of where your hands are.
These days, more and more vehicles come equipped with Bluetooth technology, allowing the hands-free chatting. That’s unfortunate, because the science tells us that’s pretty darn close to equipping a car with a mini bar, in terms of distraction and danger potential.
But it doesn’t matter how many studies or how many researchers or how many government agencies say phoning while driving is dangerous, because the majority of Americans have decided that it is not so. Or rather, more studies show, they believe they themselves do not pose a danger, but that other people do.
Whenever the idea of such a ban is raised, people rage against intrusive government. And anyone quoted in a news story of course, absolutely, only uses their phone for work purposes, and if they couldn’t use their phone for work purposes in their car, they would lose business. And nothing is more anti-American than the threat that someone might lose business. (Apparently no one loses business because the customer on the phone gets tired of talking to someone who is always driving, and is a bit distracted.)
Everyone agrees teens shouldn’t text or talk on the phone while driving. But if adults can somehow make their phoning and driving sound essential to keeping the economy from collapsing, well then by golly, and logically, phoning and driving is actually patriotic. You’d think those federal safety agencies would know that by now.
