if hands-free cell = distracted driving, why isn't talking to passengers?

[Janx]

I've been seeing some news articles about recent pushes to ban or discourage distracted driving.

One of the factoids is that using a hands-free set may still be just as distracting as holding a phone in your hand to your head and talking.

I'm a bit puzzled by this.

Now I'm certain it is risky anytime I hold my phone in my hand to try to do anything while driving, like texting, answering a call or trying to place a call.

But if I have a headset on and am in the middle of a conversation with a person before I even enter the vehicle, how is that different from talking to a passenger in my vehicle?

Bear in mind, I'm all in favor of selling all the possessions of the offender if they were texting while driving and caused an accident. including harvesting their organs or selling them into slavery to pay for the costs of their offense.

But despite my irrational application of justice, I should think that if it is unsafe to talk to somebody, it is unsafe to talk to somebody regardless of the method while driving a vehicle. Therefore, passengers should be banned from holding conversations with the driver.

It's the same thing as talking on a hands-free headset. Sometimes even worse as I've seen some drivers who do not posess the ability to speak without looking at somebody (you know the type, the darn near sit sideways in the driver seat while they talk at you the whole way).

What do y'all think?

 

[Dioltach]

I recall someone here in the Netherlands explaining that talking hands-free or to passengers was almost just as dangerous as using a hand-held phone, but there was no way to enforce a ban.

 

[SkyCAM]

I was so distracted discussing a work topic with a colleague while driving that I got clocked. Pretty much says it all. I believe though that hands free calling shouldn't be banned. Likewise listening to audio books or the plain radio on the car should also be banned.

 

[frankthedm]

if hands-free cell = distracted driving, why isn't talking to passengers?

It will be if folks don't start kicking their lawmakers in the pants to put a stop to the nanny-state legislation.

 

[Morrus]

Let's be careful about veering into politics, folks. CM's available for that.

 

[Deset Gled]

There have been multiple studies that show talking with a passenger in a car is significantly less distracting that having a phone call:

CAR TALK

Talk to passengers, not cell phones - Utah study | Hands Free Info

There are multiple reasons for this, including how your brain process the information and the passenger responding to some of the same stimuli as the driver, but its been a pretty well established fact.

 

[Dire Bare]

I was so distracted discussing a work topic with a colleague while driving that I got clocked. Pretty much says it all. I believe though that hands free calling shouldn't be banned. Likewise listening to audio books or the plain radio on the car should also be banned.

I was in a pretty serious accident as I was distracted by a conversation with my passenger. Talking to someone in the car CAN be very distracting . . . but kinda impossible to ban. Talking on a hands-free headset can also be very distracting, and easy to ban, but harder to enforce, so also kind of a pointless rule IMO.

Answer? More public transportation!!! You can be as distracted as you wanna be on the bus, the train, or the plane!

 

[Janx]

I was in a pretty serious accident as I was distracted by a conversation with my passenger. Talking to someone in the car CAN be very distracting . . . but kinda impossible to ban. Talking on a hands-free headset can also be very distracting, and easy to ban, but harder to enforce, so also kind of a pointless rule IMO.

Answer? More public transportation!!! You can be as distracted as you wanna be on the bus, the train, or the plane!

I would assume every accident would include a mandatory phone check for current time on phone, and recent usage history. Refusing a check would be equivalent to refusing a breathalizer test (and a trip to the drunk tank).

So it wouldn't be something you pre-emptively enforce like trying to catch speeders, but something you penalize for at accidents.

In DB's story, I wonder if there might be a legal case to sue the passenger for distracting the driver. If you are driving down the road with me in the passenger's seat and I yank the wheel and run a grandma off the road and she dies, who is at fault? I should think you telling the officer what happened and him dusting for prints would show evidence that I committed some kind of crime, and that you are not at fault.

Therefore, extending that to other ways of messing up your driving...

 

[Stumblewyk]

What about my case - my car will make my phone calls for me, and I can speak through a microphone built into the center console, and hear my conversation partner through my stereo.

If I get into an accident while speaking through my bluetooth-connected car and cell phone, and someone checks my cell records - I was certainly making a phone call. But at no time did I touch my phone to dial or receive a call. Heck, my car can even sent rudimentary text messages via voice-directed commands. I could conceivably send a text message moments before getting into an accident, and be cited for texting while driving, without ever touching my phone.

Additionally, I talk to myself ALL the time. Especially while driving. I'm constantly spewing out game ideas, running over code that gave me fits at work that day, whatever - out loud. If there was a law that hands-free calling was a citation, a particularly diligent officer could pull me over, and cite me for making a hands-free phone call because he saw me talking to myself and assumed I was addressing someone through my phone.

My point with all of this is that it's a mess. You can't possibly enforce a hands-free phone call ban. And if you try, you're only proving how ridiculous such a ban would be in the first place.

 

[Umbran]

What about my case - my car will make my phone calls for me, and I can speak through a microphone built into the center console, and hear my conversation partner through my stereo.

Unless the accident literally vaporizes your car, the fact that you had the capability would be obvious in the presence of the hardware. Then, innocent until proven guilty kicks in - lacking other evidence, they can assume that you were using your hands-free gear.