This from England, where the use of cell phones is banned while driving: At least 50 percent of the driving population is essentially ignoring the law, happily chatting away (or, by God, texting) while driving on the wrong side of the road.

Strangely, about 75 percent of drivers support the law and think those who violate it should be punished with a fine. Of course, we all ignore speed limits, that "come to a complete stop" rule, and that pesky yellow light, so I suppose this is just a natural extension of growing driver apathy.

In related news, studies have shown that it's not the looking away from the road to dial a number that makes driving with a cell phone so dangerous. Rather, it's the concentration required to focus on a conversation with someone not in the vehicle that distracts the driver enough to make him a real menace behind the wheel. In other words: "Hands-free" devices don't make you any safer while you're chatting away.

A year or so ago, fellow Yahoo! Techie Roger Hibbert and I put a theory to the test at our local Malibu Grand Prix: That driving with a cell phone was just as dangerous as driving drunk. Our experiments, wherein Hibbert consumed half a bottle of vodka, were inconclusive, but tended to support the concensus: He was just as bad a driver after five drinks as he was while trying to juggle a handset and a steering wheel.

Does your county or state ban cell phones while driving? And do people actually follow the law? I'd love to hear how successful these early rules have been, and whether accident rates have declined as a result.

yahoo news article

This post has been edited by garbage: May 31 2006, 12:48 PM

It's not really phone's in general that these people use.

They may eat, drink, read, and like you said, being drunk, while doing it. They're not forgetting the "Cell phone ban law" they're just forgetting laws.

Either way, it's stupid to do it, and sadly it's usually people who arn't doing it who get injured, which is obviously unfair.

meh, in Maryland, there isnt actually a ban on using cell phones while drivin. even though its a problem, people still use them.

I also notice alot of people tending to their children and not paying attention ahead.

Yeah thats real pathetic..
I mean you.Re driving with a fault and someone else suffers..

Well in my country ,India, That is, government has made a law to prevent using cell phones while driving but hey hey hey who cares? Nor the government nor the police and Nor the local people(which is more horrible according to me)

I agree its the handling and the conversation that makes people not concentrate on the road. I have talked on cell phones while driving but I usually turn it on speakerphone. lol. Sometimes I don't know where i'm going because i'm so into the conversation or listening intently all other processes that require my attention are decreased. Even talking to family memebers in the cars but the cellphone is more attention grabbing.

I did speech class project on this one time. But i forgot all the details. lol. All I know is its more dangerous than slow people driving. It won't be long before most of the states ban cell phone use or put some regulations on them. I don't want to die because of someone's mistake or even someone die because of mines. It could be preventable. I guess today starts my vow not to talk on the cell while driving. I'll just tell them i'm driving or not pick up.

Here in Spain there is a ban... but it hardly appplies. Policemen don´t bother about these kind of "little faults". I think it´s because if they have to pursuit each driver that uses mobile phone, unfortunately they will be all the day doing only this.

So there is a law for nothing... this happens constantly.

The problem is that people is so addicted to mobile phones that they can´t stop just for minutes... I mean, 10 years ago we didn´t have them and we were not so bad. They´re not "so" necessary, we can live without them.

in georgia they passed the same law. and just like in england, nobody obeys it. almost daily someone will pass a bus that's stopped and about 75% of them are talking on their cell phones. i think the police should actually do something about it instead of just passing a law and not enforcing it.