NTSB statement on cell phones & driving

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bergbryce

Mountain climber

South Lake Tahoe, CA

Dec 14, 2011 - 04:18pm PT

Yup. I've had this flip phone for 3 weeks and have charged it 3 times.
Life is much simpler without that little constant distraction in my pocket.

Brandon-

climber

The Granite State.

Dec 14, 2011 - 04:21pm PT

I found that with smart phones I checked useless sh#t too often, cutting into productivity at work. Plus I'm a carpenter, so I was always scratching the things.

Less advanced mobility, more advanced mentality.

apogee

climber

Topic Author's Reply - Dec 14, 2011 - 04:22pm PT

"I personally like the California laws. There are 32 million people in the state and the freeways in CA are large and busy and you need to be paying attention."

I'm cool with them, too, though I'd like to see them enforced more stringently. Though the laws have been in place for some time now, you still see lots and lots of people out there with one hand on the steering wheel, and one hand holding that brick to their head.

JEleazarian

Trad climber

Fresno CA

Dec 14, 2011 - 05:04pm PT

True, apogee. Now, whenever I see a driver going dramatically slower than the speed of traffic, I look for the telltale mobile device. Any sign of enforcement is, at best, invisible.

That said, this is a very curious time for the finding, and even more curious a statement from the NTSB. There is a great deal of contractictory evidence on the alleged effects of merely talking on a cell phone, and the states are already addressing the issue. I suspect the real meat of this is the provision that exempts manufacturer-installed devices. Simply put, this Nanny State under this administration acts to help its friends. That's what this looks like to me. The feds had no need for any involvement here.

john

apogee

climber

Topic Author's Reply - Dec 14, 2011 - 06:09pm PT

John, I don't see any language in the NTSB's statement that infers intent to create a federal law. Not picking on you in particular, but just about every Repub ST poster thusfar has expressed similar suspicion about an underlying intent to create federal laws & serve special interests.

And as I mentioned a short time ago, while they voice this suspicion, they don't express any opinion as to whether any kind of law (State or Federal) is a good idea. Care to be the first?

Brandon-

climber

The Granite State.

Dec 14, 2011 - 06:17pm PT

Isn't this news from the NTSB a suggestion to the states?

Doesn't the evidence suggest that a driver using a hands-free device emulates an impaired driver?

Don't we all drive?

Do we want to be safe on our commute?

FRUMY

Trad climber

SHERMAN OAKS,CA

Dec 14, 2011 - 06:26pm PT

Bolt the dam thing to the steering wheel & let it do the driving.

Toker Villain

Big Wall climber

Toquerville, Utah

Dec 14, 2011 - 07:34pm PT

As a Libertarian I should decry intrusion of the Nanny State, but come down on the other side of this.

That is because I am a realist.

And the reality is that it is FAR too easy to get a driver's license.
PERIOD!

The drivers out there suck even without electronic gizmos.

One in three people sometime in their lives will be in an accident that results in fatality.

Poorly operated vehicles kill far more people than guns in this country. We need to do something about that.

Have you seen the photos of the wrecks caused by distracted Bozos?
What would you say to the families? That they gave up their lives for freedom?

Bull puckey!

Electronic devices should be banned except for 911 calls.

And most women shouldn't drive, but don't get me going,..

TGT

Social climber

So Cal

Dec 14, 2011 - 07:46pm PT

Yeah, farding women at the wheel is a huge problem.

It really gets bad when they try to fard, talk and drive all at the same time!

For some multitasking just ain't a good idea!

tradmanclimbs

Ice climber

Pomfert VT

Dec 14, 2011 - 08:09pm PT

0y problem is that I am old and blind. can't see the buttons or read the words. A simple thing like dialing or looking for a number in my contact list has me swerving all over the road.

nature

climber

Aridzona for now Denver.... here I come...

Dec 14, 2011 - 09:02pm PT

or the internet in general hahahahaha

enforce that around here and you'll end up with....

crickets

kunlun_shan

Mountain climber

SF, CA

Dec 14, 2011 - 09:11pm PT

And the reality is that it is FAR too easy to get a driver's license.
PERIOD!

The drivers out there suck even without electronic gizmos.

Am in total agreement. Ever get stuck behind the roughly 1/3 of the driving population who need to BRAKE on corners?!

Ksolem

Trad climber

Monrovia, California

Dec 14, 2011 - 11:49pm PT

P.S. Driving while talking on a hand-held phone can be as bad as driving when drunk.

Fail. Sorry - I don't buy that for a second.

A bunch of posts thusfar have stated similar suspicions, but then remain vague as to whether they think any kind of legislation is appropriate for cellphone/vehicle use, or whether it should be left entirely up to personal responsibility.

Your take?

I think that hands free phone use while in the car is essential for many people. In terms of safety, a lot depends on how one is driving while using the hands free phone. For example, a person who is late for a meeting, pushing it, while trying to catch up on business on the phone is a disaster waiting to happen. A real estate agent on schedule driving with the flow and making a few calls is not a death sentence for the rest of us.

Let the states deal with this. It's not a good area for nationally centralised control. Let's keep at least a little of our independence.

So yes, there should be laws defining phone use when driving. All of you citizens out there who live in a state without regulations? Get on it. Make your politics local.

corniss chopper

climber

breaking the speed of gravity

Dec 15, 2011 - 12:17am PT

NTSB should stick with mapping blood splatters at plane crashes and stay out the heck out of 1st Amendment rights.

The number of cars traveling the roads continues to increase.
Texting carnage is real but basically is as insignificant
as DUI or eating while behind the wheel.

Every car accident, whatever the cause, is a blessing as it
removes those drivers from the road and eases congestion.
(after the clean up)

Seems Darwin cannot be denied.

Ed Hartouni

Trad climber

Livermore, CA

Dec 15, 2011 - 12:27am PT

you guys are a piece of work...

here from the NTSB website

http://www.ntsb.gov/about/index.html

To promote transportation safety by

Maintaining our congressionally mandated independence and objectivity;

Conducting objective, precise accident investigations and safety studies;

Performing fair and objective airman and mariner certification appeals;

Advocating and promoting safety recommendation;

Assisting victims of transportation accidents and their families.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is an independent federal agency charged with determining the probable cause of transportation accidents, promoting transportation safety, and assisting victims of transportation accidents and their families.

my vote: about time...

http://www.ntsb.gov/about/history.html

History of The National Transportation Safety Board

The NTSB originated in the Air Commerce Act of 1926, in which the U.S. Congress charged the U.S. Department of Commerce with investigating the causes of aircraft accidents. Later, that responsibility was given to the Civil Aeronautics Board's Bureau of Aviation Safety, when it was created in 1940.

In 1967, Congress consolidated all transportation agencies into a new U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and established the NTSB as an independent agency placed within the DOT for administrative purposes. In creating the NTSB, Congress envisioned that a single organization with a clearly defined mission could more effectively promote a higher level of safety in the transportation system than the individual modal agencies working separately. Since 1967, the NTSB has investigated accidents in the aviation, highway, marine, pipeline, and railroad modes, as well as accidents related to the transportation of hazardous materials.

In 1974, Congress reestablished the NTSB as a completely separate entity, outside the DOT, reasoning that "...No federal agency can properly perform such (investigatory) functions unless it is totally separate and independent from any other ... agency of the United States." Because the DOT has broad operational and regulatory responsibilities that affect the safety, adequacy, and efficiency of the transportation system, and transportation accidents may suggest deficiencies in that system, the NTSB's independence was deemed necessary for proper oversight. The NTSB, which has no authority to regulate, fund, or be directly involved in the operation of any mode of transportation, conducts investigations and makes recommendations from an objective viewpoint.

In 1996, Congress assigned the NTSB the additional responsibility of coordinating Federal assistance to families of aviation accident victims. While originally legislated to provide assistance following major aviation accidents, the program has expanded to provide assistance in all modes of transportation on a case-by-case basis.

In 2000, the agency embarked on a major initiative to increase employee technical skills and make our investigative expertise more widely available to the transportation community by establishing the NTSB Academy. The George Washington University Virginia campus was selected as the Academy's home. The NTSB took occupancy of the new facility in August 2003. On October 1, 2006, the name of the NTSB Academy was changed to the NTSB Training Center to better reflect the internal training mission of the facility.

Since its inception, the NTSB has investigated more than 132,000 aviation accidents and thousands of surface transportation accidents. On call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, NTSB investigators travel throughout the country and to every corner of the world to investigate significant accidents and develop factual records and safety recommendations with one aim—to ensure that such accidents never happen again. The NTSB's Most Wanted List of Transportation Safety Improvements highlights safety-critical actions that DOT modal administrations, the USCG, and others need to take to help prevent accidents and save lives.

To date, the NTSB has issued over 13,000 safety recommendations to more than 2,500 recipients. Because the NTSB has no formal authority to regulate the transportation industry, our effectiveness depends on our reputation for conducting thorough, accurate, and independent investigations and for producing timely, well-considered recommendations to enhance transportation safety.

apogee

climber

Topic Author's Reply - Dec 15, 2011 - 02:24am PT

"Let the states deal with this. It's not a good area for nationally centralised control. Let's keep at least a little of our independence.

So yes, there should be laws defining phone use when driving. All of you citizens out there who live in a state without regulations? Get on it. Make your politics local."

Help me understand the underlying foundation of your position better, Ksolem.

You believe that there should be legislation that regulates the use of cell phones in motor vehicles. And you encourage all states to adopt such laws- obviously, if this were to happen, it would be the result of nearly overwhelming public support for such laws.

If all 50 states did go this way independently, how is this any different from a federal law? The upshot is precisely the same, yet I would suspect that you, and many of your ideologic peers, would find such a federal mandate to be abhorrent. Why would it matter if that mandate came from the state you live in vs. the Country you live in? Both are (theoretically) representative democracies.

Practically speaking, allowing such regulation to be decided by States sounds like a PITA. Probably not so much for us Cali Westerners, where state boundaries are often hours away, but imagine the implications for eastern (esp. NE) states...you can use your phone XX way here, but as that real estate agent drives 45 minutes to their next appointment across state lines, the law changes. Put the phone away. Sounds like a confusing, ridiculously ambiguous situation...and for what benefit?