Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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THIS WEEK WITH MARGARET by MARGARET DICKSON For a century now, we Americans have loved our cars. Maybe because of our vast spaces or perhaps our dearth of public transportation systems, but for whatever reasons, no other nation on earth has loved its wheels and everything about them as much as we have. Today, though, our love has become more complicated as another object of our collective affection has insinuated itself into our daily lives and made itself almost as indispensible as our vehicles. Our ubiquitous, fascinating and increasingly smart mobile phones. The problem is that while our two loves are each dear to us on their own, they are an undeniably dangerous mix. So dangerous, in fact, that the National Transportation Safety Board has recommended banning their use while driving under all circumstances except calls to emergency responders. Just think of that — no telephoning while driving ever again. It is a sweeping recommendation that would cool the conversational jets of millions of Americans from hardworking business people to busy mothers trying to keep a family on schedule to folks who just want to chat. It would be a major reversal of a recently acquired but widespread American habit which some are already labeling an addiction. In fairness, both researchers and everyday drivers have long recognized the distraction of telephoning while driving, and statistics confi rm that such distraction is dangerous and has contributed to or caused serious accidents and fatalities. All 50 states have imposed some restrictions on the practice from requiring hands-free telephone usage on down, though no state has banned mobile phone usage altogether. North Carolina restricts usage of mobile phones for beginning teenaged drivers and has banned texting while driving, a practice which research has shown can increase the chances of an accident as much as 23 times. But as the saying goes, it's complicated, and not just because so many Americans of all ages and walks of life are doing it. It is complicated because it is hard to detect and to access. I am in my car more than the average driver, racking up 20,000 or more miles each year. And like many of you, I have seen my fellow drivers engaged in all sorts of activities not usually associated with safe driving. I have seen women applying make-up at stoplights and occasionally while their vehicles were moving. I have seen people eating — not only food they could hold in their hands like hamburgers and French fries, but what appeared to be full meals with plates and cutlery. I have seen parents turn around to discipline children in the back seat, drivers who appear to be in intense conversation, even arguing, with passengers, and more. The driver who took the cake, though, was the fellow zooming down I-95 at interstate speed while he perused the pictorial and accompanying text in an issue of Playboy. I got away from that car as quickly as I could. Everything that happens in and around a moving vehicle can be a distraction, and many of them are beyond the driver's control. Speaking on the phone is within the driver's absolute control. The device does not have to be answered or even turned on, and as more and more public service campaigns are telling us, no text message or phone call is worth an accident which causes injuries, even deaths. That being said, human nature is what it is and people do fl aunt laws that are diffi cult to enforce, as a total ban on mobile phone use while driving would be. How on earth would a law enforcement offi cer tell the difference between a driver who was talking to a passenger and one who was on a hands-free phone? How about a driver who likes to sing or even pray while driving? Lips would be moving in all cases. If a ban were imposed, would we then trying to legislate against other inappropriate vehicular activities like eating, applying makeup and reading girlie magazines? That list would be endless. Traffi c regulation has largely been the responsibility of individual states — hence, the wide discrepancies in mobile phone usage laws across our nation. Be under no illusions, though. The NTSB's Cell phones, an object of our collective affection, have insinuated itself into our daily lives and made itself almost as indispensible as our vehicles. recommendation is a trial balloon being fl oated to test the national reaction. The federal government can, and many would say it should, put the hammer down on mobile phone usage as it did with the 55-mile-per- hour speed limit and the ban on alcohol use under the age of 21. It imposed its federal will by threatening to withhold desperately needed transportation funding to states, all of whom eventually passed legislation taking the federal position. That could certainly be done again. Lest I come across as holier than thou on this issue, the Precious Jewels have given me a hands-free device and insisted that the new car I got a year ago have one factory installed. Studies indicate, though, that hands-free is probably not safe enough. Maybe 2012 is the year all of us should assess and correct our own telephoning while driving habits before Uncle Sam does it for us. MARGARET DICKSON, Contributing Writer, Up & Coming Weekly, COM- MENTS? Editor@upandcomingweekly.com. 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