THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 15, 1997 TAG: 9702150001
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: 48 lines
So the husband calls his wife from the Monitor-Merrimac Bridge and says, ``Honey, I'll be a trifle tardy getting home. I had a tiny fender-bender. But isn't it great that I have a car phone so I can alert you that I'll be late?''
``Dear,'' she says, ``how did the accident happen?''
``Well, I was talking on my car phone. . . . ''
What everybody already knew or suspected has been confirmed by Canadian researchers: Talking on a cellular phone while driving is dangerous. It may quadruple a person's risk of having a serious accident and, in fact, is about as dangerous as driving while tipsy.
Results from a Toronto study of 699 collisions involving drivers with car phones were published in the current New England Journal of Medicine. An editorial in that issue says the study provides the ``first direct evidence that the use of cellular telephones in cars contributes to roadway collisions.''
It stands to reason that a driver is dangerous when distracted or even preoccupied by a phone conversation.
There's a reason brain surgeons never chat on the phone while operating. There's a reason students shouldn't chat on the phone while doing their homework.
Still, tens of millions of Americans drive and talk on the phone at the same time.
Modern cars are so quiet and have such splendid steering, sound and shock-absorption systems that a driver talking on the phone may forget he's on the road.
Insurance-company actuaries will read the Canadian study with great interest and perhaps do studies of their own. Currently, rates for motorists with cellular telephones are the same as rates for anyone else. But that could change - if more studies show drivers talking on the phone are dangerous, hence expensive.
Actually, drivers are inclined to do a number of dangerously distracting things.
For now, we recommend that no driver ever talk on the phone while eating French fries, applying makeup, inserting a CD or lighting a cigarette.
Apparently it would be safer for everyone if drivers parked to talk on the phone. Most of us have mastered walking and chewing gum simultaneously but not driving while talking over the phone.
Remember, friends don't let friends drive and chat on the phone at the same time.