Unsafe at any Speed

by Steve Chapman

The driver could have been lost. He could have been driving very carefully. He could have been gazing at the scenery. He could have been consulting a map, fiddling with the radio, or listening intently to a book on tape.

But you, faithful reader, were not born yesterday. You know what he was doing. It was so obvious that even a child could guess. In fact, a child did guess. Hearing me I mutter, "I wonder what his problem is," Isabelle Chapman, age 9, instantly diagnosed the problem: "He must be talking on a cell phone." When I finally passed him, our poky motorist did indeed have the universal symbol of incompetent driving held to his left ear.

Not many years ago, if you saw someone driving badly, you might assume he was drunk. But thanks to strict new laws, drunk motorists are a rare danger. They have been replaced by cell-phone users, who are just as perilous to life, limb and sheet metal, though far more numerous.

A 1997 study published in The New England Journal of Medicine found that a driver using a cell phone was four times more likely to have a wreck than the same person not using a cell phone -- "similar to the hazard associated with driving with a blood alcohol level at the legal limit," as the authors noted. Last month, a British government commission reported that "engaging in a mobile phone conversation impairs drivers' ability to react to potentially hazardous road situations." Surprisingly, it doesn't seem to matter if the phone is hand-held or hands-free.

The public is aware that flying down the highway while carrying on an electronic dialogue is about as smart as asking Bobby Knight to straighten your necktie. A poll by the Insurance Research Council found that 82 percent of Americans firmly believe that using a phone while driving is a distraction and increases the chance of an accident.

If you're a car-phone user, you're probably thinking that poll is ridiculous because many of those surveyed are technological primitives who wouldn't know a cell phone from a kumquat. You have a point. When the pollsters asked just people who own cell phones, the number saying it's dangerous to use a phone in the car was not 82 percent. It was 84 percent.

Thirteen countries have adopted some type of ban. But here, though states have adopted tough laws against driving drunk, none has prohibited driving while under the influence of a cell phone. At last count, only three towns in the country had banned the use of hand-held phones by drivers. The Chicago City Council is considering one, though its not chances are not high.

We're in the same position on this matter that we were 30 years ago on drinking and driving -- everyone knows it's a bad idea, but we haven't gotten around to doing anything about it. With so many car phones out there, people have come to assume they are natural and ineradicable, like cockroaches.

But people once regarded drunk driving as an inescapable part of life, and attitudes and laws changed. No one today thinks DUI laws are a violation of liberty. And it's hardly a gross intrusion to say that when motorists climb into a 2-ton machine capable of killing and maiming themselves and others, they should focus their attention on the demanding job of driving, not talking on the phone.

Cell-phone supporters protest that many side activities, from putting on makeup to disciplining kids, can be just as distracting as phoning. But lots of things besides alcohol (over-the-counter drugs, fatigue and emotional distress) can impair a driver's control of the car -- which is not exactly a powerful argument against punishing drunk drivers. A lot of yakking motorists think their driving skills are such that they can easily handle this sort of multitasking. To which millions of Americans who share the roads with them would reply, "Ha! Ha! Ha!"

Neither Al Gore nor George W. Bush has made an issue of banning car phones, perhaps because they fear alienating voters who think they can't live without them. But the stark political reality is two out of every three Americans -- including 31 percent of those who say they frequently use the phone while driving -- favor a ban on the practice.

So if either candidate wants a campaign slogan that will assure victory, he might try a line millions of people utter every day: Hang up and drive.