Re: New Study Refutes Assumed Link Between Cell Phone Use and Auto Accidents

[David Farber <dfarber () cs cmu edu>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Roman Gollent <roman-ip () gollent com>
Date: August 21, 2007 10:04:03 AM EDT
To: lauren () vortex com
Cc: dfarber () cs cmu edu
Subject: Re: [IP] New Study Refutes Assumed Link Between Cell Phone  
Use and Auto Accidents

Hi Lauren,

While I respect your point of view (and thoroughly enjoy many of your  
contributions),
my personal experiences contradict whatever studies you might cite.   
Of the 3
times that we've gotten rear-ended (two times while waiting for a red  
light and a
third time while stationary in a traffic jam on I-90), all 3  
incidents involved
people who had been on their cell phones.  Not people that had dozed  
off, not
people paying attention to their kids, not people fixing their  
makeup, etc.

In my case it's not conventional wisdom but unfortunate reality that  
leads
me to believe that it might make a difference.  By that same token,  
and at the risk
of making the strongly libertarian crowd roar, I wish that they would  
ticket
distracted drivers, period.

Best Regards,
Roman

On Mon, Aug 20, 2007 at 07:50:23PM -0400, David Farber wrote:
> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com>
> Date: August 20, 2007 7:25:28 PM EDT
> To: dfarber () cs cmu edu
> Cc: lauren () vortex com
> Subject: New Study Refutes Assumed Link Between Cell Phone Use and
> Auto Accidents
>
>
>   New Study Refutes Assumed Link Between Cell Phone Use and Auto
> Accidents
>
>              http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000271.html
>
>
> Dave,
>
> As regular readers of my missives may know, I've long been a critic
> of the conventional wisdom that the anti-cell phone laws becoming
> increasingly common (including one here in California set to take
> effect around a year from now) will reduce auto accidents -- the
> science and statistics just never appeared to be there to support
> the types of legislation passed, as far as I'm concerned.
>
> Now, a new U.C. Berkeley study appears to confirm that accident
> rates simply have not behaved in a way that would validate the views
> of those pushing these cell phone laws that affect the general
> population:
>
> http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2007/08/13_cellphone.shtml
>
> Laws passed on the basis of gut feelings, rather than hard facts,
> are often the ones that make the least sense and do the least good.
>
> --Lauren--
> Lauren Weinstein
> lauren () vortex com or lauren () pfir org
> Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
> http://www.pfir.org/lauren
> Co-Founder, PFIR
>   - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
> Founder, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
> Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
> Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
>
>
>
>
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