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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: epicure who wrote (96540)	11/17/2008 9:15:03 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541933

Find some facts. And you should find some that are solid and relevant, and logical arguments to put behind them. Meerly throwing facts around doesn't really support your case strongly, esp. if the facts in question are questionable, or show the problem you talk about to be a relatively minor factor. In 2001, there were 1,032 accidents, with 8 fatalities, where cell phone usage was coded a contributing factor. 8 of of over 42 thousand? "More than 85 percent of the 100 million cell-phone subscribers regularly talk on the phone while driving, says a survey by Prevention magazine. Which is evidence of a relative lack of danger from cell phone use. If it was worse than drunk driving those 85 million regular users would cause more damage than 85 million people who are almost always drunk when they drive. The NHTSA estimates that your chance of getting in an accident increases by 300% if you're talking on your cellular phone while driving. An estimate, not an established fact. In addition their data shows that 25% of all traffic accidents are a result of distracted drivers And there are many forms of distraction other than cell phone use. An argument is often made that its not holding the phone, but just talking, so even hands free phones are highly dangerous. Well than maybe we should outlaw passengers in cars, after all there is a risk they will talk to the driver.

To: epicure who wrote (96540)	11/17/2008 9:30:32 PM
From: cosmicforce	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541933

It backs my empirical observations. Probably half of the swerves and sudden, unexplained braking or inconsistent speed control I see involves futzing with a phone. I've had people turn in front of me because the hand they were holding the phone to their face with was blocking their field of view.

To: epicure who wrote (96540)	11/18/2008 10:56:37 AM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541933

In 2001, there were 1,032 accidents, with 8 fatalities, where cell phone usage was coded a contributing factor. Orders of magnitude. 8 fatalities vs 304 in Wisconsin alone. "In 2001, 304 people were killed and 6,586 people were injured in 8,695 alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes in Wisconsin." dot.state.wi.us

To: epicure who wrote (96540)	11/18/2008 11:16:44 AM
From: Rambi	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 541933

OK, I was just about to go read the studies on line, but it seems you did it. There is certainly reason to find cell phones a contributing factor. So I am puzzled by this whole argument. It just seems logical to me that when something contributes to increased risk for others, you control it as much as possible. I don't get why arguing that it's not THAT dangerous or what factors might cause a study to be somewhat inaccurate is meaningful. If my child gets hurt by someone because they were busy texting on their phones,a statistic being lower or an estimate being too high won't matter a whit to me. And I have been behind too many weaving cell-phone gabbing drivers whose speed is erratic. That's just one too many weaving drivers on the road, imo.