The truth about driving and talking on the cell

All 50 states mandatory Car manufacturers... Stop letting cell phone companies profit off peoples lives!!!
Congress do your job handle the real problems in this country instead of waste of time subjects.. STOP LOBBIESTS FOR CELL PHONE INDUSTRY!!! JAM THOSE STUPID PHONES!! WITH JAMMERS IN EVERY CAR!!!

1. I know I am less attentive when I drive and talk on the phone, whether I am holding the phone to my ear or not. 2. Having said that, I don't understand the argument that conversing with someone who is in the car is LESS distracting. The idea that the other person will be an extra set of eyes only applies if that person has adequate vision (so, is it less safe to converse with a blind companion in the car than with a sighted one??) and is paying attention.
3. If anyone can, everyone will -- it is a requirement of my job that I be available at all times, and unless it is illegal, I have to answer when I am called (I do field work).
4. Therefore, using the phone while driving should be illegal in all states.
Selah...

I am against a ban on hands free in the car. I am sure talking on the phone is sooooo much more of a distraction than talking to the person sitting next to you, or yelling at your screaming kids in the back seat....

Just because some people don't think, doesn't mean everyone is that way.
This is just another way they will take away our rights. Good Job to those who let them, I myself will fight for my freedoms.

Hey RogB,

This is a Police State like it or not. Just remember, the People allowed this to happen. We gave the government this power. Look at the mirror and you know who to blame.

Oh come on! I would rather have someone holding a conversation on a cell phone than having them turning to face the person in the passenger seat. I have seen people "face to face" entirely too often, and the hand gestures.... Please, get real folks.

I think the kids screaming and fighting in the back seat of the car are WAY more distracting then my occasional phone call. So, are lawmakers going to ban kids from the backseat next?

I never use the phone while driving but I see lots of young kids out here in NJ driving with the cell hanging on their shoulder. If you need to talk pull over for a few seconds don't risk killing some Innocent person. As if talking was not enough they also tex-mess all the time this is really freaky to me, I think something has to be done I am just not sure what. I saw on the new that the car the future will have a Net connected already so now were will be able to type and drive :O

For that matter then, I guess we should have banned the use of holding CB radio transmitters by truckers and many other CB enthusiasts as well many decades ago! Why didn't we? Think also of all the others who use transmitters in one hand while driving....policemen, ambulances, firemen etc. By the way, is it also illegal to use a hand-held CB transmitter in these said states that have banned hand-held phones? I don't know. Something to think about as well.

All cell phones should be banned when anyone is driving a car. I have seen to many accidents occur because of people yaking instead of paying attention to there driving.
Driving while talking on the phone weather it's hands free or not is just as dangerous as DUI, no ifs ands or buts about it.
The penalties should be the same as DUI.

Working in public safety I see all the accidents you people are referring to. Wake up people, the cell phone is just an excuse, just like the soda, cd, radio, make up, etc. etc. People need to take responsibility for themselves and their actions (and sometimes their in-actions). While responding to emergency calls I am talking on a radio and yes sometimes even on a cell phone because that is sometimes the nature of the job. Drivers have talked on cb radios for years and we've never heard a thing about those, not that I am calling that to attention now. But again it is the people and their lack of being responsible. It seems that nowadays everyone is looking for an excuse as to why they messed up(it was the cellphone, it was just two beers, it was the dog in the road, the list can go on and on and on!) C'mon people just act and be responsible!!!

I am tired of the government deciding everything we can and cannot do. People have turned into sheep and want the government to provide everything for them. If you want to live in a dictatorship, I am sure there are plenty of countries out there that will let you come and live with them. Last time I checked we lived in a free country and some of us have sense enough to make our own decisions.

The only issue I have with the law is the specificness of it. The law exites (according to the article) because it is safer to have 2 hands on the wheel than 1. Well then, Is it illegal to drive with a Bic mac in your hand and Mouth - No. We have all seen the lady driving down the Road with her face in the rear view mirror putting on her Eyeliner. And the guys useing an electric shaver on his way to work. DO we hav e specifically worded laws against this. NO. Then why do we have specifically Worded Laws against Cell Phones. They should all be illegal and under one Law that is worded to stop ALL driving which is hazerdous.
These specifically worded laws is not needed. This law needs to encompass more. This shows how government is a knee JERK entity. Something like this should have been in place long before cell phones were even invented

WHATS NEXT NO TALKING IN THE CARPOOL

Cell phone Jammers in every car is the answer... equipped in all new cars!!

First, let me ask this question: How many people talking on a cell phone while driving actually HAVE to be talking? Is it a matter of life and death or is about what's for dinner tonight or did you set the DVD recorder for a TV program? So many, if not all, cell phone conversations are really about nothing that can't wait a few minutes. If it is an important call, pull off the side of the road and talk. Do we need to add to the traffic death toll by yaking on a cell phone?

Driving in a major city is bad enough on its own. Don't compound it. I ride a motorcycle a lot back and forth to work and shudder everytime I come to an intersection wondering if someone is going to not pay attention and run a red light or stop sign. Then when stopped at a light, I look around at the numebr of people talking on cell phones and shudder again.

Another question: Why does someone walk out of their office, home or other place, get in their car and immediately reach for their cell phone to make a call? If it is that important, why not make the call gefore they left the place they were?

Ban driving while talking on cells, just like DUI!!!

You can't have my assault rifle and you can't have my cell phone dagnabbit- it's all some communist conspiracy to rob me of my "rights"!

Talking is a principle act of life. When multiple people are in car traveling to work, on vacations, etc. they talk. Yes those conversations could get distracting, but people are not going to stop talking. Hands-FREE cell phones are really no different; same possible distractions, but both hand are free to control the vehicle as best as that person can under whatever conditions. If you are in bad weather, construction or school zones or other high traffic areas, the cell phone connection is not the problem. It is the driver's lack of good judgement. I ASK OUR GOVERNMENT IF THEY KNOW HOW TO LEGISLATE GOOD JUDGEMENT? In America, supposedly free America, we just can't legislate everything!!! We can however help to educate and explain the risks and potential cost or losses that may occur with inattentive driving. RESTRICT HAND HELD DEVICES IF YOU WANT, BUT TALKING WITH PASSENGERS NEVER GOING TO STOP, SO MAYBE IT IS BETTER TO TALK WITH ONE PHONE PERSON INSTEAD OF THREE TO FOUR PASSENGERS? Thanks for the opportunity to express free speach and thoughts!

I live in CT and this law has been in effect for awhile and guess what; you still see everybody riding around talking on their cell phones while driving without hands free devices. Unless local law enforcement steps up to enforce the law it will be the joke it is here in CT.

I think (for what it's worth), that using the "hands free" device, is no worse than chatting with someone in the vehicle. I have used a Bluetooth headset for almost 3 years, and wouldn't think of driving without it. It doesn't tie your hands up, block your view, or divert your attention the way hold your phone does.

What I see as a bigger danger, is the TEXTING mode of the phone! I have driven in many major cities, Seattle, San Diego, Chicago, Kansas City, over the last few years and I see people texting quite a bit. Or trying to read the messages as they drive.

Anything that takes your attention off of driving, cell phone/texting, CD's, cassette tapes, radios, cigarettes, kids, isn't worth the damage caused when in an accident. God forbid you would injure or kill someone.

Drive safely...

I have almost been run off the road more then a few times by people chatting away on their cell phones oblivious to the traffic around them..this is Vermont..I'ts getting more and more unsafe

I don't agree in the slightest that they should ban hands-free cell phone use. The studies suggest that talking while driving is distracting, ok, that's understood. Now here's where they get hypocritical. It's considered perfectly acceptable to talk to someone who is in the car sitting next to you, even though that's proven to be several times more distracting than hands-free cell phone use. When talking on a cell, the driver can continue to watch the road, keeping hands on the wheel exactly as they would otherwise. The talking is the only distraction. However, when talking to a live person, the tendency is to use body motions, since you're interacting with a live person, and to look in their direction. It's purely hypocritical to ban talking hands-free without even mentioning talking to someone in person in the car with you. This is as bad as the idiot mayor in New York trying to make it illegal to walk outdoors while wearing an mp3 player. A person dies when crossing the street because he didn't look both ways first and a car ran into him, but somehow listening to music was blamed for it. It was the fault of the guy walking, not his ipod, for not looking both ways. Noise does not impede on a person's ability to look, and to ban any mild distraction that anyone with common sense can live through is doing nothing but imposing feel good rules which in reality serve no real purpose. If they're going to ban talking using a hands-free device, they might as well ban listening to music which is proven by those same studies to be more distracting. They might as well ban driving with the window down which is also proven to be distracting. And they might as well ban having anyone in the car with you since that is proven by those same studies to be the most distracting. Put simply, you can't just outlaw every single potential distraction, we wouldn't be able to go anywhere or do anything. Focus on the potential dangers and the most distracting, of which hands-free is among the least, while educating on those least distracting such as talking on a phone. Either way though, they can't regulate it, since people sing while driving, and are prone to talking to themselves, and an officer in most situations will have little way of knowing if the person is in fact talking hands-free. One of the biggest problems though with all of these studies is they use numbers where every single accident that occurs which happens when a person is on the phone is blamed on the phone instead of the driver or any external circumstances, when police findings quite often contradict those numbers and show other causes. You run a red light while on a cell phone, the phone is automatically to blame even though it's quite possible and most likely that the person would have run the light anyway. A man was killed last Tuesday by a 17 year old who was talking on his cell phone. Was it the fault of the driver, or the phone's? Was there even a shred of proof that his actions were based on distractions from talking on a phone, or is that just an assumption without even the most basic of evidence? There wasn't anything at all to suggest that the phone was to blame, it easily could have been a kid who crashed his car, who just happened to be talking to someone on a phone when it happened. I was in an accident a few years back, with me as the passenger and on my cell phone. Somebody rear ended us, and totalled both cars. When we stepped out of the automobiles, I still had my phone in my hand, and when people asked if I was on the phone when we were hit I told them yes. I didn't understand why they asked at the time, until a few moments later when they turned and tried to blame the phone for the accident, without any reason to suspect it was because of the phone. They judged, before even learning that I was the passenger, not the driver, who didn't even have a phone with him. Even if I had been the driver, we were stopped at a red light, and WE were rear ended, yet people tried to blame the phone anyway even though we weren't even moving and someone else hit US. If I had been driving, I'm sure that the phone would have ended up on some statistic as causing an accident, even though it would have been impossible for it to be the phone's fault when another guy hit us while we were stopped. Basically, no valid study shows that talking to thin air, with a phone stuck to the dashboard, is distracting enough to cause anyone with common sense to stop paying attention while driving, and my job does not allow me the luxury of ignoring it when it rings. It's hooked up to my car speakers through my gps, and I hear the voice out of my speakers same as if I was listening to music, just less distracting. Voice activated, not a button is touched, and until someone can provide a study proving that talking to thin air causes accidents, I highly doubt I'll even be allowed the option of ignoring it when the car speakers start talking to me.

What's next? Criminalize "talking" passengers?

Why not ban drivers that can't drive while distracted, instead of banning distractions?? If you can't drive when your mind COULD be distracted, then maybe you shouldn't be driving! If we ban things that distract while driving, then everyone will be driving in a little sound proof bubble with absolutely no distractions, and to tell you the truth, that will be MORE dangerous than having distractions cause everybody will be falling asleep at the wheel!! Now, I'm not saying that everybody should be allowed to drive while talking on the phone (I was hit by a lady once on her cell phone, and can't tell you how many accidents I've had to avoid because of people who can't handle talking on the phone...)

Anyhow, why would we not, instead of banning things, teach people to drive DESPITE distractions?? If you can't handle having something breaking your concentration, then you can't handle driving, period.

Need more police to enforce the law.
Nothing worse than someone in front of you talking on the phone.

If cell phone conversation is distracting, how can anyone possibly concentrate while having a conversation with a passenger in the vehicle?
So much for car pooling!