[LINK] Mobile phone use set to be banned in vehicles

[Steven Clark]

How many of those people are paying more attention to the call than the car?

A great many are relying on 'it never happens to me' to get through their daily driving 'experience'. 

Distractions are associated with causing or exacerbating a significant proportion (perhaps even most) road accidents. Phones and cigarettes being big players. Along with radios and cd players, and eating/drinking, and children. (Most people have their attention on the thing at hand rather than what they were doing. Multitasking is a HR myth.)

Most accidents are avoidable, but in general we've become complacent and over confident in our capacity to avoid them. After all, it'll never happen to me, right?

The real problem here is two-fold. First, inconsistent application: you have to be seen by a cop to be done (and that glosses over the evidentiary issues). Secondly, the penalty will sting, but not so much that people won't risk the slight chance of getting caught over the convenience of taking or making the call. 

If linking a distraction to an accident had a direct effect on the legal liability, then there might be a real effect to this kind of law. Otherwise, it'll be a cost passed on by real estate agents and the like in their fees. And the rest of us will largely suck it up like we do speeding fines. 

People still drive without wearing seatbelts, despite decades of evidence that they save lives. Just because something is more 'convenient' to do or too inconvenient to avoid or to do differently, doesn't mean it's nannying us to point that out. 

And frankly, for too many people, nothing will change their minds until I does happen to them. And then they *want* the other b*std 'done' for it. 

---
Steven R Clark

Sent from my outboard brain ...

On 07/02/2011, at 10:07, Kim Holburn <kim at holburn.net> wrote:

> Nanny state strikes again:
> People fined for "Touching their phones while driving"?  Yet I see people driving with phones held to their ear all the time.
> 
> http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1479411/Mobile-phone-use-set-to-be-banned-in-vehicles
> 
>> Mobile phone use set to be banned in vehicles
>> 
>> Calls from the road could be a thing of the past. (Reuters)
>> 
>> There are moves underway to ban all mobile phone use in vehicles, following a report from state transport heads, Fairfax reports.
>> 
>> The report comes amid a dramatic rise in the number of people fined for using a phone when behind the wheel.
>> 
>> In 2006, US researchers found that being distracted by a mobile phone was the equivalent of having a blood-alcohol level of 0.08, which is considered over the limit in every Australian 
>> state.
>> 
>> The Sydney Morning Herald reports that over 50,000 drivers were last year fined for calling, texting and also touching their phones while driving, in NSW alone.
>> 
>> The report arrives before changes to be made in Western Australia, which will restrict motorists from using mobiles.
>> 
>> Australasian Bus and Coach reports that amendments to the Road Traffic Code in the state will ban calls unless made from a mounting device or hands-free device, from March the 1st.
> 
> 
> http://smh.drive.com.au/states-urged-to-impose-total-ban-on-mobile-phone-use-in-cars-20110206-1aiez.html
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Kim Holburn
> IT Network & Security Consultant
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