The UB Post

Point

Yes, indeed, it should be illegal. Most people can barely focus on driving as it is with their usual distractions. We've all seen people applying makeup, eating, drinking, holding a conversation with the person in the back seat, leaning against the window talking on the cell phone while they are driving and playing with their iPod selections on the stereo system. Just because everyone does it, does that make it right? You are behind the wheel for one reason- to drive.

We legislate other safety issues that affect how someone performs behind the wheel. For example, we do not allow people to drive while under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Why? Because they are impaired and cannot perform the task of driving as well as they can when they are not impaired. Cell phone use in the hands of some people amounts to an impairment of their ability to drive.

It's not just other drivers who need to be on the lookout for these distracted motorists. There's nothing worse than crossing the street in the pedestrian crosswalk only to have the person who cannot “ multitask” properly speeding through the intersection directly at you because they aren't looking ahead, but instead, leaning into the cell phone and carrying on a full- fledged conversation.

We live in a world where it is a necessity to be able to do several things at the same time, but driving behind the wheel of car is not one of them. If you think this is stupid, remember these words the next time that you are cut off on the expressway or a street because the driver was not paying attention to the road, but instead, focused on their conversation with the person on the other end of a cell phone. Remember these words when you barely avoid having an accident because someone was chatting on a cell phone. Then tell me if you still think this idea should not be passed into law.

Submitted by Dawn Henriques, publications design student

CounterPoint

Nope, no talking—period. Perhaps no singing, tuning the radio, gazing out the side window to catch the spring breeze? No chugalugging the Big Gulp cola or the extra-large UB water bottle? What's next? No leaning back to assist the toddler in the back seat with the Cheerios spilling in the car seat? Wait! I guess there should be no honking the horn numerous times at graduations, weddings, funerals, etc. All of these things involve bodily movement and mental distraction.

What good is technology that has hit us head-on at full speed if we must put the brakes on it at every turn? Where's the fun in that? Perhaps it's just a ploy to raise money for the state. Maybe it's a strategy to make the Bluetooth® companies boom with more Star-Trek technology that they can sell to consumers.

If, way back when, a phone operator could handle multiple calls and plug in dozens of cords in that big old manual switchboard, then I think we can certainly handle holding a phone while talking and driving.

Driving itself takes multitasking skills, which some of us still have trouble handling. Nonetheless, if one can drive, then one can drive while holding a phone. Is it the unfree hand that concerns the cell-phone-while-driving worrywarts? Or, is it the incessant talking that distracts one's mind that's the problem?

People talk while driving all the time. It's more dangerous to talk to a passenger in the car, as the distraction is far more concrete than simply spewing words into a small plastic handset.

To be perfectly honest, I found myself in a more dangerous situation when fumbling today to grab my phone and try to say to the caller in super-fast lingo, “I have to go, I'm driving, I'll call you later,” and then fumbling to put the phone back down again. I would've been better off just talking and driving. And perhaps talking to someone would have calmed me down—I thought I was in D.C. for a moment and I panicked!

Submitted by Sherri Weaver, English major

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