Full U.S. Ban on Using Cellphones While Driving Being Reviewed, Is It Needed?
There are now two types of drivers on the road. Those who use their cellphone to text or talk on the road while driving a vehicle, and those who don't ( and also see everyone else on the road looking down at their phones to text while driving rather than looking at the road). It's been a huge epidemic lately since the popularity of texting over the past 10 years. It's gotten to the point where lawmakers need to seriously consider how to stop accidents and insurance claims to rise at a ridiculous rate.
The National Transportation Safety Board is seeking a new law to be made effective across the 50 states of the U.S. banning the use of cellphones while driving. Here's a summary from the NTSB;
"The safety recommendation specifically calls for the 50 states and the District of Columbia to ban the non-emergency use of portable electronic devices (other than those designed to support the driving task) for all drivers. The safety recommendation also urges use of the NHTSA model of high-visibility enforcement to support these bans and implementation of targeted communication campaigns to inform motorists of the new law and heightened enforcement."
The reality is that texting while driving is seen as the same type of impairment as drinking while driving. It doesn't take a genius to see that the swerving vehicle in front of you at 2pm isn't a drunk driver, rather someone texting while driving. It's much more common than many think, and it's also much more accepted than many think. In a test by Car and Driver Magazine, they checked the reaction time to someone who was sober, impaired by alcohol, reading an email, and texting to see how the reaction time to brake is affected. The results could be summed up by saying that you are safer to be drinking and driving than you are to be texting while driving. The test showed that the driver had significantly slower reaction time while driving at 70 miles per hour on an airstrip, with a vehicle driving in front to simulate highway traffic. When the vehicle in front put on the brakes, these were the results;
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