Hands Free or Don’t Drive
Two Indiana lawmakers have proposed bills that would ban driving while talking on your cell phone.
State Senator Pete Miller of Avon and State Representative Milo Smith of Columbus have both introduced bills that would ban talking on your cell phone while driving unless you are using a hands free device.
It’s already illegal to text and drive in Indiana and advocates say a ban on using the cell phone while driving, unless hands free, will save lives.
I’m not fully convinced, per se.
Don’t get me wrong. No one gets more annoyed than I do with someone who should be paying attention to the road instead of talking on the phone. However, I’m not sure a total ban is necessary.
Personally, I would rather see the penalties increased for someone who gets into accident if it can be proven they were talking on the phone when they should have been paying attention to the road. And if there must be a ban on talking and driving, I have no problem with that existing in a construction zone with workers present or a school zone when children are there.
But a total ban? I can’t get behind that. There are plenty of things that contribute to distracted driving that don’t involve a cell phone. We’ve all seen it: the person putting on make-up, eating a cheeseburger and my personal favorite, reading the paper. I am not making that one up.
The problem for me is not cell phones, it’s distracted drivers, regardless of how they are distracted. If we want to increase the penalties for distracted driving, I say go for it, but don’t just single out cell phones.
Now if you don’t mind, I need to pay attention to the road.
