Cell phone driver? Your days could be numbered
Podcast:
[podcast]http://www.worcesterwired.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/cellpodcast.mp3[/podcast]
Yelling obscenities at the dumb-ass driver next to you who’s chatting on his cell phone and veering into your lane? City Counselor Rick Rushton would like to give you some relief.
At the Sept. 9 City Council meeting Rushton asked the city to look into implementing a ban on driving in the city while chatting on a handheld cell phone — using hands-free devices would be OK. Moves to ban driving while chatting on the phone have failed to gain momentum statewide, but Rushton says he sees this as an opportunity for the city to take the lead.
“If we have to be the leader on this issue for the commonwealth of Massachusets then so be it,” Rushton told the council. “We’re seeing deaths with people driving and texting at the same time.”
If the city were to pass such a ban, you’d be free to talk on your cell phone while driving throughout the state, but cross the line into Worcester, and local police could slap you with a fine.
How dangerous is driving while talking on the phone? A 2006 study by the University of Utah showed drivers talking on cell phones while in a driving simulator exhibited impaired driving on par with driving while intoxicated — worse in some cases. But Rushton’s suggestion to allow hands-free devices, something allowed in several states where cell phone driving is banned, hasn’t really been supported by any statistical evidence that such hands-free devices are safeter. In fact, the University of Utah study showed little difference between drivers using hand-held devices and drivers using hands-free devices. The study was based on 40 participants who drove first undistracted, then while talking on a hand-held device, then with a hands-free device and finally after drinking vodka and orange juice to raise their blood alcohol levels to .08 percent.
The New England Journal of Medicine found that drivers were four times more likely to to be involved in a collision when using a cell phone while driving. The study went on to state that “decisions about regulation of such telephones, however, need to take into account the benefits of the technology and the role of individual responsibility.
