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To: DaveMG who wrote (31154)	5/27/1999 10:44:00 AM
From: Michael	Respond to of 152472

Industry answers call about peril of phone use in cars uniontrib.com By Mike Drummond UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER May 26, 1999 Six years ago, Canadian physician Donald Redelmeier was on the phone with a patient when the conversation abruptly ended. The patient had been talking on a mobile phone while driving -- and had collided with another car. "I was concerned that I may have somehow caused this accident," Redelmeier said recently. So concerned, in fact, that Redelmeier, with the University of Toronto's Sunnybrook Health Science Centre and colleague Robert Tibishirani, studied the phenomenon of cell-phone use by motorists. Their highly controversial 1997 report concluded that driving while talking on a phone quadrupled the risk of a collision, akin to the odds of driving while drunk. The study played a role in triggering regulations around the world curbing the use of mobile phones by motorists, and launched a debate that continues to this day: Drivers caught using mobile phones in Israel can expect $200 fines; Australia slaps motorists with $1,000 fines. Beginning in July, New York cabbies caught talking on cell phones will be zapped with $200 fines. Earlier this year, Brooklyn, Ohio -- the first city in the nation to require that motorists use seat belts -- became the first in the country to restrict the use of cell phones in cars. At least a dozen states are studying or proposing an array of legislation from outright bans to requiring that mobile callers use hands-free devices. California's political machinery has been largely quiet on the subject, but for several years the state has required rental agencies with phone-equipped cars to provide phone operating and safety instructions. The mobile-phone industry -- this year led by the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association, Qualcomm and Sprint -- has designated this week Wireless Safety Week. Safety Week has been around for six years, but with mobile phone subscribers doubling to more than 60 million since 1995, and with renewed focus on mobile phones and accidents, the event has taken on added urgency. Although Redelmeier stands by his conclusions, which he said have "stood the test of time," the cellular industry association opposes bans on mobile-phone use in cars, and, like the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, says more research and driver education are needed. "There are already laws on the books that prohibit distracted driving," said association spokesman Jeffrey Nelson. "People get distracted while eating in their cars. What's next? Banning Big Macs . . . and screaming kids?" Nelson called laws that ban mobile-phone use in cars "knee-jerk reactions lacking scientific data." Similarly, the national traffic group said any legislation should be balanced by the benefits of cell phones in cars -- such as reporting accidents, emergencies and, yes, drunken drivers. Still, the NHTSA said "the inattention and distraction created by the use of a cellular phone while driving is similar to that associated with other distractions in increasing crash risk." California Highway Patrol Officer Mark Gregg knows this all too well. He recalled the time he tried to pull over a woman driving a speeding minivan on southbound Interstate 5 in San Diego. His lights were flashing for more than a mile before the woman, realizing an officer was pursuing her, finally pulled over on eastbound Interstate 8. She apologized, and explained that she was on the phone. "In this case her attention was so wrapped up with what she was doing that if something were to happen, she would have had no time to react," Gregg said. But he didn't blame the mobile phone. Instead, he chalked it up to a "complete lack of common sense."