How Do You Legislate Common Sense?

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) thinks it’s by banning all cell phone use while driving.


It actually recommends banning the use of all hand held electronic devices, even if they’re ‘hands free’. So answering a call while wearing your Bluetooth headset would be illegal. Interestingly, they exempted GPS devices, most of which are not integrated into the car dashboard, because they are “designed to support the driving task.” Hmm. So a navigation app on my cell phone would probably be illegal, but maybe not. I guess that will depend on the interpretation of the officer that pulls you over.

None of us would reasonably argue with their premise that, “no call, no text, no update is worth a human life.” But there are many distractions available to drivers, from fiddling with a sound system, to drinking a cup of coffee or eating while driving, to even arguing with a passenger (usually a family member). How about the folks that are smoking and driving? While using a standard transmission?

I personally will answer a call with my Bluetooth, but the only way I initiate a call is by using the voice controls, which means you have to be in my address book. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve made a caller wait for a time (seconds to minutes) until I could pull over and safely have a more in-depth conversation or to write something down.

I think those of us that are on the road a lot, whether you call yourself a ‘road warrior’ or not, are more in tune with safe driving practices. Michigan already has a ban on texting and driving (July 2010) which I think is reasonable and a good thing. But don’t tell me I can’t use my hands-free device to answer calls. If I think conditions are too bad for that, I will let the call go to voice mail. But then, I consider myself a reasonable person.

Regardless of your opinion, contact your legislator and let him or her know how you feel about it. You can use this service to find your Michigan State Representative if you don’t already know who they are.

The entire NTSB Meeting summary on this topic is here.