Cell Phone Laws

Now we have a debate over new legislation regarding cell phones and other electronic devices being used by drivers. The National Transportation Safety Board is recommending states to ban drivers from using not just cell phones but also any hands-free devices such as Bluetooth, citing statistics that show driver distraction is just as great with hands-free devices as with hand-held cell phones. Lots of people disagree. The whole idea of driver distraction as dangerous brings up other kinds of distractions: smoking, eating and drinking coffee or soda, applying makeup, steering with knee or thigh (and what, you ask, would be the reason for such an action?), listening to the radio, conversing with another passenger, looking at a GPS map on the console, fighting with backseat children, opening or closing a window. You name it, they’re all distractions. But how in the world would one enforce a law that disallowed such distractions. They would all be unenforceable laws like the seatbelt law or the motorcycle helmet law or the now defunct law (now that Alabama has finally done away with it) banning miscegenation or that old unenforceable law prohibiting the sale or consumption of alcohol or the laws prohibiting sodomy. I’m not suggesting that I’m in favor of using cell phones while driving. I’d still like to smash into cars in which I see the driver with a cell phone glued to the ear. But to write laws to prevent driver distraction is senseless . . . and such laws would be unenforceable. Why not just have a national campaign urging drivers to keep both hands on the wheel, both eyes on the road, mind focused on the driving instead of that silly text message saying, “Oh, hi, whatcha doin’? Just saw a guy go right through a red light and almost hit a pedestrian. LOL!”