SAFETY POINTS: We’ll hold our nose as we reference a commentary on the Huffington Post (aka Puffington Host) today about why for-hire drivers in New York City should be allowed to keep using their cell phones while underway. The Huffington Post is a far-left, hack-ideological website, not exactly friendly to free markets and private sector businesses, but the above commentary makes good points against the heavy-handed TLC proposal to “nanny-ban” electronic communications for chauffeurs and cabbies.
COMMON SENSE: Another sane argument comes from Joe Jordan, president of the Limousine Assocaition of Houston: "The FAA thinks it is "just fine" for the captain of a Boeing 747 with 450 passengers approaching JFK at night to be piloting the plane and talking on the radio at the same time. A 747 is a lot more complicated to operate than a Lincoln Town Car."
TAKE A DEEP BREATH AND THINK: Anyone who's ever driven a vehicle while talking on a headset cell phone; and at another time (typically when young and stupid) driven a vehicle after too many drinks knows that the two are not one and the same. The assertion that driving while "handless celling" is the same as driving drunk is absurd and a desperate scare tactic. I've been talking regularly on my hands-free Bluetooth for almost three years while driving (no accidents so far) and am much safer and in control than if I downed four beers at a happy hour and drove home. A sober user of hands-free phoning is much less of a distraction safety threat than a motorist who weaves home after multiple alcoholic beverages. To conflate the two is a deceptive ploy.
-- Martin Romjue, LCT editor
Print | posted on Thursday, October 22, 2009 9:49 AM