Cell phone drivers: get off the road or disconnect!
By Jenna DuffyEditor-In-Chief, The VOICE
As I sat bored, stationed at yet another red light, I started to watch the drivers racing across the intersection and the majority of them were talking on their cell phones.
Texting while driving was made illegal in Maricopa County last year, but talking on a cell phone was not. I have to ask why not?
Even though they weren't driving up on the sidewalks and crashing into each other they were all distracted from that possibility.
Talking on a cell phone has been paralleled with drunk driving, in lieu of the fact that it has been proven to slow down reaction time, the inability to recognize danger and one-handed steering so a vehicle is harder to control.
According to Human Factors quarterly journal, "Cell phone distraction causes 2,600 deaths and 330,000 injuries in the United States every year." Yet the drunks are put through the ringer while cell phone users aren't even cited, most times.
Cell phone talkers can receive tickets for "distracted driving," however damage or an accident has to occur before they will be cited. If accident or injuries do occur the distracted driver can be sued for negligence, which can be costly for just getting wrapped up in a conversation.
Even if they aren't causing accidents they are still impeding the flow of traffic and may be partly to blame for the heavy traffic on the I-10 or I-17 in the early mornings and afternoons.
An article written by Robert Roy Britt cited a study showing "drivers talking on cell phones were 18 percent slower to react to brake lights. In a minor bright note, they also kept a 12 per cent greater following distance. But they also took 17 per cent longer to regain the speed they lost when they braked."
Anybody that has ever owned a cell phone is probably guilty of this, workmen are forced to do this for their jobs and the "important" people will always have to make "important" calls. People talk on their phones regardless if they are in heavy traffic behind your family member or in a school zone when your child is being let out. Why should they care about the cars or people around them?
The next time you're driving along and you hop on that phone and say "I can talk, I'm just driving," what you are really saying is,"yeah I can talk I'm just driving down Bell road at 45 mph in stop-and-go traffic wrapped up in 2,000 lbs. of steel surrounded by dozens of innocent people that are about to pay for my inability to deal with the smallest amount of boredom, did you buy that salad dressing I like?"
