While Others Applaud Cell Phone Use Driving Ban, The Auto Channel says "Drop Dead"

It's time to stop the errosion of liberties

By Marc J. Rauch
Exec. Vice President/Co-Publisher
THE AUTO CHANNEL

AUTO CENTRAL - December 13, 2011: The "cause of the day" today is the NTSB's (National Transportation Safety Board) call to ban American drivers from using portable electronic devices — including cell phones, even if you use a hands-free device.

The underlying reason for this radical position is, according to Deborah Hersman, chairwoman of the NTSB, that "No call, no text, no update, is worth a human life."

Shortly after the NTSB made this announcement at a Washington press conference, and then throughout the day, a number of organizations - notably insurance companies - jumped on the bandwagon.

Well, I take great exception to the NTSB's position.

In case Ms. Hersman or anyone at the NTSB isn't aware of it, driving a motor vehicle is dangerous. It is dangerous to the driver and passengers; it is dangerous to pedestrians, it is dangerous to drivers and passengers in other vehicles.

Driving a heavy, metal object at speeds that can easily exceed 100 miles per hour is dangerous. Lives can be lost.

But that's the price we pay for the benefit of the technology.

Now I'm not ignoring the hazardous nature of drivers being distracted by cell phone calls and text messages, I completely agree that there is a problem. But my problem is that there are a lot of distractions, and I don't know of any others, with the exception of drinking alcoholic beverages, that have been banned. For example:

Eating while drivng Drinking while driving (non alcoholic beverages) Talking to passengers while driving Listening to passengers Listening to the radio Reading passing billboards Driving with children in the vehicle Thinking about work, the economy, sports teams, love interests Trying to decipher vanity license plates Smoking while driving Looking at street signs to find an address Applying make-up while driving Fellatio, cunningulus or masterbation while driving Tending to symptoms of a cold or flu (blowing your nose and/or coughing)

All of the above actions are distractions and have caused accidents, and undoubtedly deaths. If you ban cell phones entirely, you have to ban everything else.

Then, on top of everything else, there are bigger driving safety issues to be concerned with, such as licensing: It's just too easy to get and maintain a license. Virtually any fool can get one and then for the next 60, 70, 80 years they are free to continue driving without taking regular refresher courses and tests. In addition we have tens of thousands, if not millions, of illegal residents without insurance driving cars; and we allow darting, weaving bicyclists to "share" the same roads. Oh, and I haven't even mentioned the absurdly stupid policy of allowing motorcycles to share lanes with cars and to weave in and out of traffic (I am a motorcycle rider and this lanes-sharing thing is insane).

Things are dangerous; life is dangerous that's how it is. Make laws to enhance and protect our liberties, not curb them.