NPR: Should Cell Phones Be Totally Banned While Driving?

Should Cell Phones Be Totally Banned While Driving?

Sunday night, I pulled up to the light at the intersection near my home. As I waited for a green, I glanced over at the car next to me. The young driver wasn't paying any attention to the light -- instead, she was madly texting on her cell phone. I thought once the signal changed she would stop, but no, she continued one-handed as she drove off.

And she's not the only one risking her life and yours -- Morning Edition reports that a survey by Zogby International shows that two-thirds of drivers ages 18 to 24 are using their phones to text message while driving. It makes me want to just stay inside my house and never go out on the roads again, ever.

You might yell, "There oughta be a law," but as Morning Edition found out, laws don't matter diddly squat. In New York, where the law says you can only use a cell phone while driving if you have a hands-free device, authorities say very few people observe it anymore. One self-admitted offender described it as being like "a jaywalking law."

Assemblyman Felix Ortiz of Brooklyn, who wrote the New York law, says enough is enough. He wants to pass a total ban on using phones while driving -- including hands-free devices -- unless it's an emergency.

Are you in favor? Or should we just bow to technology and hope that the next time the driver in the car opposite us makes a left-hand turn one-handed while talking on the phone, he or she is paying at least enough attention not to hit us?

9:24 AM ET | 08-21-2007 | permalink

Comments (Send a comment)

I believe that when radios were first introduced into automobiles, the same "distraction" concerns were voiced. And they're true. I am as distracted fiddling with the radio as I am punching cell phone numbers. But you can't stop technology. And as a businessperson to whom time is money, taking away my ability to use the phone while driving would create a significant hardship. So, my feeling is that we may all have to learn the hard way to police ourselves - not a popular concept these days.

Sent by carol morris | 9:48 AM ET | 08-21-2007

I was rear ended on the Ohio Turnpike by a driver who was having a conversation with his front seat passenger rather than watching the road. So lets ban all forms of driver inattention, including talking with passengers in the car.

Sent by Dan Schultz | 9:52 AM ET | 08-21-2007

Are there some stats we could view to make a better judgement on this subject? Sure the potential of distraction is there, but how many accidents have been made while a driver was sending a text?

Sent by Steph | 10:42 AM ET | 08-21-2007

Obviously this question has First Amendment implications. Such as, yelling 'fire' in a crowded theater. Phone cell conversations should be mandated between "yelling" and guranteed rights'conversation. First, cell phone calls to sultry sounding 976 operators can certainly be listed under the Constitutional category of "yelling fire" in definitive circumstances. Whereas a soccer mom who is worried about the whereabouts of her children comes under First Amendment guarantees. Before a police officer can issue a citation to a motorist using a cell phone, that police officer must first determine whether that cell phone call was being placed to a 976 sex service operator, or to a mom's soccer coach.

The same Constitutional issues obviously apply to motorist who read while driving the interstate in early morning rush hour traffic. A motorist who is reading about David Bechham in the sport's page of the daily news at seventy miles per hour deserves more police discretion than the motorist reading Penthouse letters from readers while traveling at the same speeds.

Then, of course, there's always the alternative of the ever present road rage - fred call aka bigbro

Sent by fred call | 10:54 AM ET | 08-21-2007

I've only just started to take driving lessons in NYC (and without being too specific, let's just say that I don't fall into the 18-24 range). When I first got behind the wheel, my head was spinning at the size and power of the car, how suddenly dangerous I'd become. I was terrified. All that washed away in minutes as I realized that every yahoo around me was on their phone and therefore way more dangerous than I could ever be.

I made a pact that first day. No phone. Not even with an earpiece. There's nothing that can't wait till I pull into a rest stop.

Sent by missbhavens | 11:01 AM ET | 08-21-2007

I see differences between the two examples above (tuning the radio and talking with a passenger) and cell phone use in a moving vehicle. Phone conversations go on longer than tuning the radio. Also, with passengers, at least there are more eyes that may catch a dangerous situation. Also, with cell phones (not the hands-free type) one side of your vision is blocked as you hold the phone to your ear.

That being said, I don't think a ban is going to work. I've seen enough people eating sloppy sandwiches, reading books and falling asleep while driving to make me treat every other driver as someone who is out to kill me :-)

Sent by Jim Dodd | 11:17 AM ET | 08-21-2007

How the heck are we going to enforce a ban on using cell phones in cars? It seems that law enforcement would be incredibly wrapped up in pulling over the large numbers of cell phone users in addition to speeders, drunk drivers, etc...

Sent by E.L. Gulbranson | 2:42 PM ET | 08-21-2007

I feel that cll phones should not be banned because anything can go wrong while you are driving. A person can follow you home. It may be an emergency or anything cell phones are only one distraction many people have accidents and they are not all because of cell phone usage.

Sent by Antonise Green | 10:31 AM ET | 12-14-2007

I am in favor of this issue of banning cell phone use by drving because I am doing a project for the ban of cell phone usage while I am drving. I think it should be banned because more in more people get in accidents because of this very bad issue today in are culture.

Sent by Tom Derr | 1:59 PM ET | 04-28-2008

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