I know, from personal experience, that there is nothing worse than being behind someone who is next in line to turn at a stop light and they keep missing the ?perfect? opportunity because they are talking on their cell phone.
A study by Strayer and Drews found that people who talk on their cell phone while driving regardless if they are 17 or 65 years of age had an amazing 18% delayed reaction when coming to a stop. The study also showed that it takes drivers 17% longer to get back the speed they lost while quickly breaking.
These researchers also were responsible for showing that motorists who talk on the phone while driving were more impaired than drivers that had been drinking and had a blood alcohol level over 0.08.
So again I ask; should the use of cell phones be restricted while driving?
A fourteen year old boy from Minneapolis feels strongly about getting motorists to wait until out of the car to have a conversation on their cell phone. It all started when he was in the car with his older sister and a gentleman on a cell phone came extremely close to swerving into their car. Since then, he has gone as far as meeting with a representative on the House Transportation Committee and sharing his thoughts and opinions with the American Automobile Association.
To this day, many states are weighing the option of banning cell phone use in cars while driving to doubling fines for drivers that can't wait those couple minutes to talk on the phone. The way I see it is there are so many people out there that still have not mastered the skill of driving, why add a distraction like cell phones to the equation?
On the other side, is it really fair to discipline realtor's, doctors, traveling business men and women that need access to their cell phones at all time? Should we be asked to take a driving test that includes driving while talking on the cell phone? What about truck drivers that spend their entire days and nights on the road, should we fine them? How do we draw the line or when will the line be drawn for us?
