Posted by The New York Times helped bring to light the dangers of using a cell phone while driving with their multitasking game. Clearly, it’s a problem (I missed 2 gates), but should new laws be passed to ban it?
The Highway Loss Institute (funded by insurance companies) studied the impact of cell phone bans in cars and found no correlation of bans and fewer collisions:
there is no indication that hands-free devices have reduced the number of car accidents that occur.
So far, banning phones doesn’t work, and we already have laws to deal with reckless driving . What we need is more education and awareness (things like the NYTimes game). Technology will help too (like the new Volvos that break when they sense danger – via CNet). But really people just need to use common sense, and you can’t legislate that.