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There are a range of activities you can engage in while driving - some legal and some not. Driving while under the influence of alcohol or prescription medication is not allowed. Driving with children in the backseat is. Where do we draw the line, and where do cell phones fit in?

Alcohol and drugs are incompatible with driving because they alter the mental state of the driver. They may cause uncontrollable drowsiness, blur vision, or slow reaction time. All of these would have a negative impact on your ability to drive.

Cell phones do nothing to alter your mental state. They simply provide a distraction. In this way, talking on a cell phone is very similar to a lot of other activities that you would engage in without a second thought. For example, you might roll down your window, change the radio station, drink a cup of coffee, or do something else that requires the use of one hand. You might also talk to a passenger, scold your child, look at a crash on the side of the road, or do something that distracts your attention from the road in front of you.

None of us drive under ideal conditions. We don't sit upright at the wheel, hands at 10 and 2 o clock, blinders on, radio off, concentrating 100% of our attention on the road.

Instead, we deal with the distractions that life throws at us. Our attention is always partially diverted to something beside the road. We cannot ban passengers, children, radios, and coffee, so we shouldn't ban cell phones either. We rely on parents to be wise enough not to stare into the backseat at their children while driving, and we should also be able to rely on drivers to talk responsibly on their cell phones.

If someone is a careless or reckless driver, laws exist to prosecute them. This applies to careless driving caused by cell phone usage as much as anything else. There is no need to ban cell phones outright, when a perfectly useful tool exists to encourage drivers to drive safely and responsibly.

Learn more about this author, B. Rock.
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