In a report released last week, the National Safety Council is recommending that top U.S. legislators pass a nationwide law to ban the use of any and all cell phones and accessories while driving.
According to the New York Times, the council mostly based its report on a 2003 study by the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis, in addition to an eye-opening study from the University of Utah. The latter suggests that hands-free gadgets cause as much of a distraction for drivers as using a cell phone with your hands for calls or texting.
The NSC is emphasizing findings that suggest hands-free laws and Bluetooth devices do more harm than good, serving as a psychological placebo for drivers. They say Bluetooth devices lull drivers into a false sense of security and actually make people call more than if they were just calling one-handed.
When confronted over the possibility that talking with a passenger might offer the same challenge as talking over a Bluetooth device, an NSC rep mentioned that a passenger’s awareness was more likely to help out a driver by censuring himself during a dangerous course than a remote speaker.
The National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration is backing up the report and will likely use it to pressure local governments into creating tougher laws over the next year. Currently, laws that govern transportation in this country are determined by individual states.
The National Safety Council is a 96 year-old non-profit that works
on behalf of more than 55,000 companies in the U.S. and focuses on
issues such as traffic and workplace safety and emergency preparedness.
It is also a part of the World Health Organization’s Safe Communities
program.
If you’re a huge talking and driving multi-tasker and think there’s
no way a single non-profit will take your Bluetooth-enabled earpiece
from your cold dead ear, think again. The NSC was one of the driving
organizations behind the spread of tough (and mostly successful) laws
against drinking and driving.
The growth of cell phone usage over the last decade has led to more
and more people using them on the road. The NIH has said that over
2,600 deaths are caused each year due to calling and driving, as well
as 636,000 crashes, costing over $43 billion yearly. In the last year,
many states passed laws banning the use of cell phones without
hands-free devices, including California.
I’d like to put this one out to the readers: Do you feel more in
control of a car if you’re completely silent, or does a Bluetooth
device make no difference in your driving habits?
Photo: Theo Moudakis
