Should Cell Phone Use Be Banned While Driving?

It is prudent to think an issue through before making rushed decision about whether something should or shouldn't be banned. In the case of cell phones while driving there are several important considerations supporting the claim they should not be banned.

-Cell phones do have headsets which can be used in vehicles.
-Cell phones could save a family member's life.
-A cell phone equipped with a Global Positioning System (GPS), could save you a lot of time and gas money if you are lost.
-Speedy communication aids busy working people in performing their job faster and more efficiently.

These are the reasons cell phones are useful in automobiles and serves as the first set of reasons not to ban them while driving. It also happens to be unethical to ban cell phones while ignoring all the other road hazards that existed long before cell phones. The reason it is unethical is because a ban would appeal to fear more than logic. Logic states there are many contributors to driver negligence which may even be worse than cell phones. Yet these things are not always banned. Consider for a moment the following factors.

-Truck drivers have communicated with CB's for decades.
-Drunk Driving/Intoxication has existed for even longer.
-Falling asleep on a long road trip can cause accidents and even death.
-Distraction from eating, drinking, talking with passengers, intimacy, music and smoking while driving is a driving hazard.
-Wild animals such as Moose, Elk, Dear, Squirrels cause accidents.
-Negligent pedestrians can also cause accidents.
-Injuries caused by failing to wear a seat-belt.
-Improper auto up-keep between safety inspections.
-Poor driving habits, offensive driving, driving without license.

www.car-accidents.com provides statistics relating to some of the above causes of accidents, the complete link can be found at the bottom of this page with other links supporting continued use of cell phones. It is only reasonable to consider these other things before jumping to conclusions about one thing while failing to recognize potentially worse dangers on America's and other country's roads. So who is really more dangerous, a pepped up truck driver who is smoking while listening to and talking on his CB and driving to Alaska or a Soccer Mom talking to a babysitter about picking up the kids? Let's look at the statistics:

31.44% of crashes are speeding related (www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov)
7.9% of 2003 fatal auto incidents involved trucks (www.lawcore.com)
11% of accidents in 2000 were caused by alcohol related circumstances (www.car-accidents.com)
1.5 million car accidents involving deer occur every year. (www.car-accidents.com)

The evidence demonstrates cell phones are the target of a focused public fear and misguided judgment. Cell phones have unjustly become the scapegoat of road safety paranoia. The instinct many have is that cell phones alone are dangerous. This is clearly a half-truth. Cell phones are instruments, driver's are dangerous. Driver negligence is the real cause of accidents and driver negligence is assisted by things worse than cell phones. It would be unethical and irresponsible to ban such a useful tool without first considering distractions of potentially less worth and more danger.

Sources:

http://www.lawcore.com/truck-accident/statistics.html
http://www.car-accidents.com/pages/stats.html
http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/pdf/nrd-30/NCSA/Rpts/2005/809_839/pages/Trend.html#Anchor-Figur-11874
http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov
http://blog.tmcnet.com/telecom-crm/2005/07/12/first-coffee-for-july-12-2005.asp
http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/04/70713

Disclaimer: The opinion(s) and perspective(s) in the above article are for debate purposes and do not necessarily reflect the true opinion(s) or belief(s) of the author.