SUN EDITORIAL:

Drivers, phones don’t mix

Research shows cell phone use while driving poses higher risk of accidents

Saturday, Jan. 24, 2009 | 2:06 a.m.

New research shows that a person who is using either a hand-held or a hands-free cell phone while driving is no less of a risk on the road than a driver who is legally drunk.

That might sound absurd, but it is the conclusion reached by researchers who studied accident statistics and tested people at the controls of driving simulators as well as people at the controls of real cars on real roads.

Researchers also attached electrodes to the scalps of participants to gauge how they process information while using cell phones, according to a recent story in The New York Times.

The Times interviewed David Strayer, director of the Applied Cognition Laboratory at the University of Utah, which is among the places where studies of drivers and cell phones have been completed.

Speaking of hands-free cell phones, which many people perceive to be completely safe, Strayer told the Times, “It’s not that your hands aren’t on the wheel. It’s that your mind is not on the road.”

The nonprofit National Safety Council is calling on motorists to stop using cell phones, including hands-free models, and messaging devices while driving. It is also calling on states to pass laws banning the behavior.

We are not necessarily opposed to laws banning cell phone use by drivers. Who among us has not had occasion to cringe at a cell phone-using driver’s inattentiveness?

Such laws are hard to enforce, however, because hands-free cell phone use is hard to detect, and police officers themselves shouldn’t be distracted by trying to peer into every car to see whether the driver is using a hand-held phone.

If an accident investigation reveals cell phone use was a factor, though, the erring driver could be ticketed — and perhaps for that one driver the message would have been brought home.

We believe an education campaign should be tried before any new laws are passed. Most people simply do not realize the danger they present to themselves and others when they choose to use a cell phone while driving.

Discussion: 1 comment so far…

By vegasdoc

1/27/09 at 11:22 p.m.

Suggest removal

A hands free phone is as dangerous as having a conversation or listening to music in the car. Your mind is not on the road in any of those cases. So should we ban radios in the cars too?