The National Transportation Safety Board’s recent recommendation that all 50 states ban all cell phone (including hands-free) and personal electronic device use when driving got a lot of attention. Now it turns out that the NTSB’s chairman, Deborah Hersman, has knowingly used false statistics to promote that proposed ban. The NTSB’s recommendation came in the wake of the report on a multi-vehicle fatality accident in Gray Summuit Missouri, where texting behind the wheel was determined to be one (but not the only) contributing factor. In her opening statement to the report, which is still on the NTSB web site, Hersman said,
And it was over just like that. It happened so quickly. And, that’s what happened at Gray Summit. Two lives lost in the blink of an eye. And, it’s what happened to more than 3,000 people last year. Lives lost. In the blink of an eye. In the typing of a text. In the push of a send button.
I think that any reasonable person would agree that Chairman Hersman is implying that 3,000 people a year are killed in road accidents caused by texting. That’s simply not true.
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When he’s not busy doing custom machine embroidery at Autothreads Ronnie Schreiber edits Cars In Depth and contributes to The Truth About Cars and Left Lane News
It is simply about justifying their jobs.
If there is not a boogeyman to chase, why have so many people in the ntsb.
See this all the time with consultants in my industry. They claim how horrible everything is, but not to worry, they are there to fix it.
More “chaff” thrown into the air to get people’s attention off of
Fast and Furious and the other scandals in the news. Most people just
don’t recognize when they are being “played”. When I see the picture
of the accident in Missouri being used to demonize cell phone use, I see
not just one driver in a pickup that was being stupid by texting while
driving but two —TWO—school bus drivers who were NOT DOING THEIR JOBS.
Do you hear a SINGLE word about their negligence? Nope, we just hear that
the “evil cellphone” has struck again and MUST BE OUTLAWED. The government
cannot protect everybody from everything that might possibly do them harm.
When people finally accept that fact then maybe we can all start living
again. Our government “nanny state” is a FAR bigger danger to us all than
cell phones.
I happen to think that using a cellphone while driving is a distraction and that texting is downright reckless. We absolutely forbid our kids to do either one. (I suspect that they don’t obey the first admonition 100% of the time, but I’m pretty sure they DO obey the one about texting.)
My own casual observation around town is that people yakking on phones ARE distracted and drive accordingly.
That being said, why the need to fudge statistics? Why the urge to ban even hands-free phones?!!!? (Are we going to ban radios? Conversation with passengers?) Above all, why is this a FEDERAL concern?
I am sick of these nannies, even when I (partly) agree with them.
I am so damned sick of them that I have half a mind to take up smoking.
In the car too!