The National Safety Council calls for a full ban on cell phones while driving, a position I in principle agree with (I’d rather it just became the norm rather than a law but sometimes the former requires the latter):

“There is a huge misperception with the public that it’s O.K. if they are using a hands-free phone,” said Janet Froetscher, the council’s president and chief executive. “It’s the same challenge we had with seat belts and drunk driving — we’ve got to get people thinking the same way about cellphones.”

And to give you a little nudge in that direction, here’s a piece from today’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch on a truck crash that killed three people:

“Authorities have only described Knight as being inattentive, but a Missouri Highway Patrol report has revealed he admitted to an investigator that he was distracted by a cell phone.

In the report, Knight is quoted as saying, “I reached across the dash to get my cell phone. I flipped the phone open, looked back at traffic, and I was there right at the last car (in the line of cars stuck in traffic). I didn’t see any brake lights or emergency flashers. After I hit the first car, I just remember holding the steering wheel and seeing cars going to my left and right.”

(thanks Jack!)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 13th, 2009 at 2:42 pm and is filed under Cars, Traffic Enforcement, Traffic safety, Trucks, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.