Not Ranked
I'm continually fascinated by people that get all in a twist over laws intended to improve safety. It seems that some folks have such a high opinion of themselves, and their ability to make reasonable and rational decisions (however flawed their personal observations may be), that they are blind to the fact that there are many people that have no clue whatsoever. It's as if they feel personally insulted at having to be told what to do. This, my friends, is how a rule of law society works. If everyone always did the right thing, which would presume the ability of everyone to know what the right thing is, and then to do the right thing, there would be no use in making laws that govern our behavior.
Sadly, we all give up a certain amount of liberty for the safety of everyone. There are speed limits, drinking and driving limits, rules for right-of-way... The list is long and may seem silly to some, but the intent is to protect the citizenry at large. I understand this as being a necessary part of our civilization. I may not agree with, or abide by, all of the laws of the land, but I willingly accept the consequences of my actions if caught disregarding those laws. I have several years of racing experience and can operate a vehicle in varied conditions at speeds most people would find uncomfortable at least, and for some, downright scary. But I know the laws still apply to me, and there are places that are very bad to be speeding, so you won't see me griping about 20 MPH school zones, 35 MPH residential speed limits, etc.
I know I can maintain a level of concentration that allows me to have a reasonable margin of safety, even at fairly high speeds, but not everyone can do that. Even I suffer from a lack of attention sometimes, and so I usually drive within the speed limit. My concentration also allows me to avoid tickets even though I routinely speed, because I can pay attention to where I am, what I'm doing, and I know the tactics used to catch speeders. I also understand that other drivers don't have the same ability to pay attention, so I take that into consideration in traffic, and rarely drive more than 5MPH faster than anyone else on the road.
At the end of the day, I don’t have a degree in psychology, so I try to use common sense, and my own experience, to decide what’s bogus and what’s valid. I have had the experience of using a cell phone while driving and I was somewhat annoyed by how much it took away from my ability to concentrate on driving. I thought I had enough natural ability to be able to talk on my cell phone without any impact on my driving. I was wrong. I don’t do that now. I don’t know how I could handle knowing that I had caused injury to someone else because I was too self-centered and insisted on driving while using a cell phone.
When I stop to think about it, I wonder about those folks with room temperature IQs that do insist on driving while using a cell phone and/or texting. Surely, this behavior must have a negative impact on road safety. To say that fines would have no impact on this behavior is both right AND wrong, in my opinion. I believe that if law enforcement agencies had the resources, training, and motivation to aggressively enforce a ban on using cell phones while driving, this behavior would diminish very quickly. Currently, speeding and DUI get all the attention because they are the high revenue generators for municipalities and governments. Think of all the times you were ticked off because someone didn’t use a turn signal, rolled through a stop sign, or failed to yield the right-of-way (merged without looking, for example). Now imagine that law enforcement put as much emphasis on those infractions as speeding or DUI, and the fine structure made it “worth their while”. Those behaviors would start changing quite quickly, I think.
The point here is cell phone use while driving reduces an individual’s ability to concentrate on operating a motor vehicle. It’s not some nefarious scheme to relieve people of their freedom or money. Anyone that argues to the contrary is certainly entitled to their opinion, as this is still a (mostly) free country. But to suggest that enforcement of a law forbidding this behavior would have no discernable impact is to say that laws against any other deplorable and dangerous behavior (speeding, DUI, etc.) don’t work either. You may point out that people still speed and drive under the influence of alcohol and drugs, but the vast majority of people drive at a reasonable speed and are reasonably sober. I shudder to think what our society would be like without these restrictions on out behavior.
The time has come to ban cell phone use, or at the very least, the use of hand-held electronic devices while operating motor vehicles. A substantial fine or imprisonment would be the least of someone’s worries if their use of a cell phone while driving causes an accident that injures my child or spouse. I hope and pray that never happens to me, or anyone else. The reality is that this behavior does cause accidents and it needs to stop.
To those that understand, this little rant is completely unnecessary. To those that don’t, I fear no explanation is possible.
Eric
|
Threaded Mode
