Columnist Susan Snyder: Coming to grips with cell-outs

Friday, Oct. 19, 2001 | 4:20 a.m.

Me too.

Mine included.

And nothing chaps my chops more than someone meandering all over the road while talking on one of the darned things.

Clark County commissioners say it ought to be against the law.

They proposed an ordinance this past week that would prohibit motorists from talking on their cell phones while driving unless they use hands-free devices. A hearing is set for Nov. 6.

The proposal cites research by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that concludes the "inattention and distraction created by use of cellular telephones while driving increases the risk of crashes with concomitant injury, property damage, lost work hours and even death."

(For those not versed in bureaucracyspeak -- i.e., most of us -- "concomitant" injuries are injuries that accompany a crash.)

A study released in May by the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center shows an estimated 284,000 distracted drivers cause serious crashes each year.

Of those, 29.4 percent are distracted by something outside the car. Adjusting the radio or CD player comes next (11.4 percent), and talking to passengers is third at 10.9 percent. Cell phones rank second-to-last, accounting for only 1.5 percent of drivers' distractions, the study says.

These numbers show cell phones aren't the worst distraction. Maybe it's not the phones.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration research has shown that about 1 million -- nearly a third -- of all crashes annually are caused by drivers who were focused on something other than driving.

Requiring that cell phones be hands-free may cut down on in-car calls. Or it may simply leave one hand free to hold a latte while conducting business and navigating a construction zone at 65 mph.

Hands-free devices don't take away the cognitive focus which is, in the opinion of some experts, the true problem.

It's not that we're holding a cell phone. It's that the conversation is holding our attention and taking it away from the road.

Les Bichard, owner of Las Vegas Driving School, was willing to discuss the issue, but not at the time I called him. He was on his cell phone.

"I can't talk because I'm out in traffic right now," he said. "We teach people not to do that."

End of conversation.

How much more is there to say anyway?

The guy who teaches by example, teaches the most.

A distracted driver is a distracted driver, whether it's because of back-seat bickering, spilled coffee, want of a different CD or a cell phone conversation.

People shave, apply makeup and eat. They change video cassettes for kids who simultaneously watch full-length movies and their parents doing 15 other things in the car. We're teaching them by example that a moving car is where you get stuff done.

But drivers who don't pay attention cause crashes. People get hurt. People die.

That won't change, no matter what commissioners decide in November.

Everything else is just politics and packaging.