I will admit, there are many times I have witnessed close calls at intersections with someone busy talking on a cell phone mashed into one ear and not paying attention to an oncoming car. I was following my wife’s car one day and watched a guy in a truck cut right in front of her, vigorously talking on his cell phone looking the other way. Thank goodness she is a good driver and swerved to safety. A good friend’s daughter was killed recently when she reached down to grab her cell phone that had slid into the floor and her car veered into a bridge post. Given that experience, you might think I would be wildly happy about Highland Park’s decision to ban cell phone use in active school zones. But, I think we may find ourselves on a slippery slope here on two different fronts.
First; if Highland Park goes the way University Park suggests it might go, and the direction some other cities and a few states have taken, banning hand held cell phone use on roadways entirely, do you really think that will solve the problem? Is not smoking a cigarette, putting on make up, drinking coffee, jamming to music, gabbing to a passenger or eating a burrito while driving just as distracting as chatting on the cell phone held up to your ear? Should we ban those other things too, in the name of improving attention to driving? You will get no argument from me that everyone would likely be well served by paying better attention to the business of driving while behind the wheel. But, do you really think folks in Highland Park, any more than people in other parts of the nation, will pull off to the side of the road to make a cell phone call, or two or three? Cell phones are made for convenience, portability and productivity. I would bet many would either get a speaker phone in their car or break the law by sneaking a call, while keeping a close eye out for a police officer. Again, no argument from me that a hands free speaker phone would be a much better proposition for improving attention of drivers who make calls behind the wheel, but not everyone can afford those gadgets.
That brings me to my second point; while there is legal precedent that allows cities and states to ban hand held cell phone use by drivers in cars, should we as a society get into the business of regulating personal behavior? Today the cell phone, tomorrow the burrito or diet Coke with a lime. Yes, we regulate alcohol usage in cars, but alcohol is a judgment impairing substance. You could argue a hand held cell phone is also judgment impairing if the conversation diverts a driver’s attention from the job at hand. But, drilling my daughter on her spelling words on the way to school in the morning can be distracting too. Whatever happened to the notion of personal responsibility? History is full of failures by those who tried to regulate behavior to achieve personal responsibility.
I think it might be wise for us to step back and take a look at what we are doing to our own freedom. I want my family and yours to be safe on the roads, just as much as anyone else. But, Benjamin Franklin warned us long ago,”He who sacrifices freedom for security deserves neither.”
