THIS WEEK’S TOPIC: BANNING THE CELL PHONE WHILE DRIVING

By AMY WILSON-CHAPMAN

Reporter

As the tourists roll through town, their windows rolled down enjoying the view, they’re snapping away at the mountains, stopping to peer through the window at the elk beside the road, probably with a coffee in one hand, kids in the back singing ‘the wheels on the bus’ as they cruise down Highway 16.

The phone rings and the driver bends over to pick it up.

Where do you think the concentration of the driver just went? With so much already happening within the car - baby hungry for another snack, toddler asking a million questions about why the mountains are so big, sky blue and grass green - the focus is probably not on the road ahead.

In a place where animals are rife, running across the road and darting in front of on coming cars - their minds are definitely not focused on making sure the cars are out of the way!

It’s pretty easy to just pull over and in the days of that amazing voicemail (which we all love!) there is no reason why it can’t just wait until later.

Given that back home in Australia it’s already illegal and highly expensive if someone catches you (say $200 or so) I guess I just got used to never using the phone while driving. 

Speaker phones aren’t exactly something of the past and are a good way to ensure the focus is on the driving - not on the phone call.

Admittedly, I used to make phone calls and quickly drop the phone, mid conversation, as I see a police car drive past. But, for the most part, I accept that its a law put in to keep me - and the people around me - safe.

I guess it all comes down to the hustle and bustle of daily life in 2009. We’re all so busy that we cannot wait to speak to someone when we get to our destination, or just let them leave a message and we can call them back.

Maybe laws like this help us to slow down, enjoy the drive, the view, and when we get to where we’re going we can deal with that really important phone call about our lunch date next Saturday. 

Imagine not having cell phones at all - now that’s just crazy talk, but I hear that (back in the old days) people used to actually manage. How? I’m not so sure myself.

By DANIEL Z. JACOBS

Reporter

Driving while chatting away on a mobile phone - for our UK citizens - is distracting, but so is fiddling with the radio, eating a donut, downing a coffee, smoking and then butting out a cigarette (if you don’t just through it out the window), creating a playlist on an iPod, reaching for your sunglasses, yelling at the kids in the back who want stop kicking your seat, playing with the windshield wipers, not to mention looking out at the mountains, wildlife and so on. I think you can see where this is going.

I don’t have a problem chatting on a cell while driving, as at least for me, it seems to be of similar distraction to chatting with a passenger in the front seat. There shouldn’t be a no talking rule, but a no texting, or email rule. It always makes me very very nervous to ride in a car with someone essentially using the 12 o’clock position on their steering wheel for a table, while feverishly texting somebody about something that is likely unimportant. 

Cell phone bans are also difficult to enforce. Even premier Danny Williams, who introduced a no chatting while driving law in Newfoundland, was caught by one of his constituents doing just that. Not only was Williams unfazed by the run-in, he was so with it and conscious of what he was doing that he flipped the law-abiding citizen the bird. No distraction here. 

I also wonder how laws that prohibit cell phone use while driving affect people who use their car as their office and do business while driving? 

I most definitely agree with my colleague that hands free talking is the way to go in a moving vehicle, but in a place like Jasper, where cell phone coverage can be somewhat patchy, depending on the carrier, is a prohibition on talking while driving necessary? Not to mention that I don’t care how cheap or advantageous a blue tooth headset may be, I’m not the secret service and I’m not going to wear one. 

The main benefit I can see for a law like this is that I won’t have to pull up to a stop light and listen to some teenybopper yelling over the pumping new John Mayer track, “OMG!, OMG!, I know. I can’t believe that how hot the Jonas Brothers or Zac Efron are.”