7 of 117

No

Write now Article Tools

Driving is in large part about managing your attention. Are you watching the road ahead of you- yes? What about that car sneaking up on your left side? What if the car in front of you slams on its brakes- is there enough distance between you and them to stop? If not, is there enough room on the shoulder to veer to the side? Is that car across the intersection going to try to make a sneaky 'Pittsburgh left' when the light turns green? Your husband just spilled hot coffee on his lap- is he ok? Do you need to pull over? Your kids having been strangely quiet- you keep checking the rear view mirror to see if their still playing with their DS with the headphones on or if they've finally fallen asleep. Your current radio station just lost reception, time to find a new one. Using a cell phone while driving is effectively equivalent to fiddling with the radio while having a conversation with a passenger.

A million signals bombard your system while driving. Luckily we humans are very good at filtering, prioritizing, and processing multiple streams of input. However, though we may be innately skilled at this mental juggling, it's no secret that experience and just plain common sense help to augment this skill. Can you drive and talk on a cell phone? Sure! Should you have a long, engrossing emotional conversation while driving downtown during rush hour. Uh, probably not. Should you be dialing a number while trying to merge onto the highway? No. There are lots of common sense skills we need to master to function well in society. Should we write laws to enforce all of them?

I'm an advocate of individuals bearing responsibility for their own actions. If you can operate a cell phone and drive a car safely (and I believe in most cases, people can) then great. However- if you are in an accident while on a cell phone, I do believe rulings of fault should slant more towards you. I am certainly in favor of slamming people who do stupid stuff while driving- whether that's trying to open a candy bar wrapper while driving 75 down the interstate or texting your girlfriend while making cross traffic turns or just plain not using your turn signal when changing lanes. Everyone multitasks while driving. Just don't crash ; p

Learn more about this author, Elandra Simmons.
Click here to send author comments or questions.

Add your voice

Know something about Should cell phone use be banned while driving??
We want to hear your view. Write now!