FiReSTaRT wrote:Hands-free is almost as unsafe.
Just a small but significant quibble, FiReSTaRT: hands-free is just as unsafe as hand-held, and is quite possibly more so.
There's a good roundup of the scientific studies on this in a New York lawyer's summary post from Feb. 09 at http://tiny.cc/8pZFY , and one of the recent studies (by psychologists at Dalhousie University) is in the Journal of Safety Research vol. 40 (2), abstract available online since 9 April ( http://tiny.cc/kKBcJ ). The study in JSB concludes: "Our review shows that talking on the phone, regardless of phone type, has negative impacts on performance especially in detecting and identifying events. Performance while using a hands-free phone was rarely found to be better than when using a handheld phone. Some studies found that drivers compensate for the deleterious effects of cell phone use when using a handheld phone but neglect to do so when using a hands-free phone."
The science is clear, repeatable, and unequivocal. Both sorts of cell phone use are dangerous, and to ban only one while continuing to allow the other would be just plain silly, particularly if it turns out that the more dangerous of the two is condoned.
Our legislators wouldn't be that stupid (or that venal), would they? Would they?