For over a decade the dangerous technological obsession has been studied with no uniform political action. In 1997, a study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that the risk of crashing the car quadrupled if the driver was talking on a cellphone. A 2003 Harvard study found that cellphone use was involved in 636,000 accidents, causing 330,000 moderate to critical injuries, 2,600 deaths, and $43 billion of health and property damage.I'm not going to try to refute the data supporting Mr. Jackson's claims. In fact, I have had my share of close calls over the years. I, however, overcame the problem and now have no difficulty answering a telephone call and negotiating traffic. How did I do it you ask? Two words: instrument rating.
University of Utah researchers found in 2006 that driving while talking on a cellphone slows down reaction time so dramatically that it is the equivalent of driving drunk. They also found no difference in the effect of hand-held vs. hands-free talking devices. Talking on a cellphone while driving is so intense, with drivers deluding themselves that talking is an act that can be taken for granted, the researchers said "drivers may not be aware of their own impaired driving. . . . There appears to be a disconnect between participants' self-perception of driving performance and objective measures of their driving performance. . . . One consequence of using a cellphone is that it may make drivers insensitive to their own impaired driving behavior.''
Between February and July 2008 I trained for and obtained my instrument rating allowing me to fly in instrument meteorological conditions (the clouds). Instrument training was intense -- perhaps the most difficult exercise I had participated in post college. Instrument training doesn't just train you to fly in the clouds, it trains you to fly precisely in the clouds. It also teaches you to do many things at once, including talking on the radio, precisely. Perhaps the most important thing that is learned by the aspiring instrument pilot is that there are times when you do not talk on the radio or to your passengers. These are the high stress times when one's concentration needs to be focused on flying the airplane. The same goes for driving. A responsible talker knows when to shut up and drive.
There may well be a problem with people talking on mobile telephones and driving carelessly. However, banning such telephone use for everyone through the force of the state is hardly a solution. I would argue that a better solution would involve the insurance industry and some sort of training program that the insurers believe to be comprehensive enough that completion of such would qualify the participant to a discount on his auto insurance. Or, if a discount was not enough to alter behavior, the threat of cancellation of insurance for those drivers caught talking and driving without having completed the appropriate training might be necessary.
