Re: Car phones

[Robert Myers <rmyers@inetone.net>]

Yes, Allan, it *is* dangerous to operate a cell phone while in a car.  It
is also dangerous to watch that deer beside the road to see if it's going
to step out in front of you.  It is also dangerous to sneeze.  It is also
dangerous to listen to the radio.  It is also dangerous to attempt to
intercede between fighting kids in the back seat.  It is also dangerous to...

I am sorry that your child was injured in an accident.  I'm sure that that
experience was extremely stressful and may continue as a stress even now.
Your use of the cell phone and the inattention to circumstances around your
car may well have been the main cause of the accident.  But that cell phone
was merely one of thousands of possible distractions which happen every
time you get behind the wheel.  It shouldn't bear more blame than any of
those other distractions.  If we ban cell phones, we should also ban
radios, GPS systems, CB radios, radar detectors, highway advertising
(hmmmm, now there's a thought), wildlife, crying children, and female
pedestrians with short skirts just to name a few.

At 06:52 AM 6/18/97 -0400, you wrote:
>Tom Haapanen wrote:
>> If you're going to pull over every time your cell phone rings.....
>
>> As for any accident statistics, I'll start believing in them once I 
>> see a study with statistically valid methods and sample size.
>
>	Or once you slam into the rear end of a 20-year-old pick-up truck that
>just happens to have a big ole' rusty steel tube for a bumper and had to
>stop quickly while you were looking down at your cell phone's face pad
>trying to dial an 'important' number...of course causing your baby's
>face to become very dirty, and worse...smashed in, gushing fluids and
>unable to see due to broken lenses!
>	In case you didn't figure it out, it happened to me and I now KNOW it
>IS dangerous to drive and use cell phones simultaneously. I was
>traveling and using my phone excessively without caring before that
>incident...and though I cannot say I don't do it anymore, I DO do it far
>less frequently and much more carefully now!
>	Hope this helps someone....
>  _____   _____________     ____________________________________
>                                                                
>  ALLAN   ampj@tiac.net      1986 COMMEMORATIVE DESIGN COUPE GT 
>  JONES   Burlington MA      169K Miles And Still Needing Work! 
>  _____   _____________     ____________________________________
>
>
>
___
   Bob
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