Complete Ban on Cell Phones Good?

As many of us know, the NTSB this week has recommended a full ban on all cellular phone usge while driving. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recommendation is the most far reaching safety effort that the board has completed in the past ten years.

In short, if states adopts would ban all cellular phone usage except for emergency phone calls by all vechiles. Under the recent recommendation, hands free devices such as bluetooth will be banned. The recommendation does not affect hands free devices that are all ready installed in a car by the manufacturer.

According to an article posted by the Huffington Post, law enforcement officers may have to determine if the driver is talking to himself, singing or actually talking on a hands free device. There is one question that is being posed by police officers who patrol the nations roads, how do you determine if the chatting is illegal or legal? A Captain from the West Hartfod, Connecticut police department stated it would very difficult to determine if they were on a hands free device or talking to someone.

There are devices that can block or limit distracting driving currently in use today. On such device could determine if a cell phone is in a moving car by GPS and automatically turn it off. At Rutgers University is working on software that would determine if a cell phone is being used by a driver or a passenger.

I do not know how you can determine if a cell phone is being used by a driver or a passenger. The NTSB is asking to ban all cellular phone use except for emergency phone calls.

The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration stated that accidents that are caused by distraction kill 3,092 people last year. The Virginia Tech Transportation Institite states that an accident or "near-accident" is almost 7 times more liekly to happen when a driver is reaching for an electronic device.

The question still remains, how will police be able to determine if you are talking to a friend in the car or actually talking on the phone and how will they determine if your car has built in bluetooth?

Currently Maryland prohibits text messaging for all drivers, handheld cell phone use banned for all drivers and drivers under the age of 18 and drivers using a learner's permit or intermediate licenses are not allowed to use a cell phone. Fines for handheld cell phone usage are between $40 and $100.

In Maryland using a hand held cell phone is a secondary offense. This means an officer must pull you over for another traffic offense prior to citing you for using a hand held device.

This is a first introductory post concerning distractive and aggressive driving.