Friday, February 5, 2010
Page 15
AT THE SIDEBAR (Column)
It’s Not the Phones, It’s the People
By J’AMY PACHECO
I read a newspaper article a few days ago indicating that California’s hands-free cell phone law isn’t having a significant impact on traffic accidents in the state.
I have one thing to say about that: “Duh.”
A study by the Highway Loss Data Institute, released last week, found there wasn’t a significant reduction in crashes following the enactment of the law.
There are, in my opinion, two primary reasons why traffic accidents haven’t dropped as a result of this law. One of them is that fumbling with a hands-free device that goes over the ear is way more awkward than holding up a little cell phone. Mine, for example, is always falling off.
You can’t tell me that trying to find a tiny earpiece that has fallen in the car is safer than holding a cell phone to my ear. Fortunately, most telephone calls I receive are unimportant enough that I don’t feel the need to take them while I’m driving. Most of the time, I ignore them until I’ve stopped the car.
The way I see it, anybody important enough to need to take calls while on the road should be important enough to have their own personal driver to watch the road while they discuss matters of grave national concern. People like the President. Or Ellen DeGeneres.
Unfortunately, most people feel differently, and use their telephones regularly while on the road. Which brings me to the other reason: The law isn’t making a difference, because nobody cares.
Drive 10 miles down any California freeway, and I’ll bet you’ll count at least a dozen drivers chatting away on their cell phones like there is nothing anybody can do about it. That’s because a $20 fine and no violation point to show for it is hardly incentive to postpone a conversation until the vehicle is parked.
I’m sure I’m not the first person to consider that it may not be the devices themselves that are the problem, but the conversation that comes out of them. Can you imagine, for example, what might have happened if Taylor Swift had been driving that stupid old pickup truck when Joe Jonas made the breakup call heard ‘round the world? I shudder to even think of it.
It’s not just cell phone laws people ignore. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen a driver roll right by a stopped school bus, in spite of the flashing red lights and the “stop” symbol protruding from the side of the bus. And this is a vehicle filled with children!
Drivers often don’t pull over for emergency vehicles, either. I used to live on a hospital route, and couldn’t believe how many cars would refuse to stop for an oncoming ambulance—or even to let other motorists get over and out of the way.
I’m continually amazed at the number of drivers I see not using their seatbelts, transporting unrestrained children, speeding in heavy rain or fog, declining to stop for yellow or red lights, and—my personal favorite—doing high speed passing in the right-most lanes of the freeway.
The good thing about being a free society is all that liberty we get.
The bad thing about it is that we tend to think we should be free to do just about anything we want, whether it’s driving fast past stopped school buses or chatting with our peeps on our cell phones while we motor down the highway.
The answer isn’t to stop people from holding their phones in their hands; it’s to convince them to pay attention to their driving. I suspect the only way to get people to pay attention to their driving is implement stiffer penalties and higher fines for not doing so.
Well, OK, apparently I have more than one thing to say on the topic. Frankly, “duh” just doesn’t seem to cover it.
People aren’t going to stop chatting on their cell phones while driving any more than they’re going to stop eating hamburgers, reading newspapers, putting on makeup, shaving, changing, feeding their babies or engaging in any other activity that is inappropriate behind the wheel—at least, not until they start feeling responsible for their own actions.
Do I think the cell phone law should be repealed? Nah; to get rid of it would probably only encourage more of us to chat. Do I think people should just hang up and drive?
Oh, yeah.
Copyright 2010, Metropolitan News Company