Aaron Adams’s Blowhard Blog

Those who wish to make America into even more of a nanny state than it already is want to ban the use of cell phones while driving. It creates an unacceptable hazard to everyone on the road, they say, and should be illegal.

I’d like to point out this article about reaction times while using a cell phone, and quote the appropriate passages:

A report from the University of Utah says when motorists between 18 and 25 talk on cell phones, they drive like elderly people — moving and reacting more slowly and increasing their risk of accidents.

“If you put a 20-year-old driver behind the wheel with a cell phone, his reaction times are the same as a 70-year-old driver,” said David Strayer, a University of Utah psychology professor and principal author of the study. “It’s like instant aging.”

Cell phone use reduces reaction time so much that it should be illegal in cars. So when are we taking dangerous elderly people off the road as well? After all, they’re just as deadly.

It doesn’t matter whether the phone is hand-held or hands-free, he said. Any activity requiring a driver to “actively be part of a conversation” likely will impair driving abilities, Strayer said.

If we ban cell phone use in a car, then we must logically make speaking to the driver illegal. Cars should be built with an isolation compartment for the driver so he cannot be distracted. It’s the only way to comply with the law.

I group the anti-cell phone people in with the anti-smoking people I’ve written about before inasmuch as they’re proponents of government interference into even more day-to-day activities of my life. It’s not bad enough that sex offenders are either released into a community when they’re still dangerous, or that they’re unable to ever pay the debt for their crime, even though they’ve been released from prison; it’s not enough that unconstitutional DUI checkpoints are permitted to operate; it’s not enough that you’re compelled to give evidence against yourself, under penalty of law, when you’re stopped for a DUI; it’s not enough that private property owners can’t choose to permit smoking on their private property in a growing number of cities; it’s not enough that many states require drivers to wear seat belts under penalty of law; now they want to prohibit the use of cell phones while driving.

Those of you worried about evil ol’ GWB “spying” on your phone conversations need to wake up and realize the real infringements against your civil rights that are happening at this moment and concentrate on doing something about them.