Bill fails to recognize
cell-phone distractionThe issue: Three Senate committees
have approved a bill to ban driving
while engaged in distracting activities.THE telecommunications industry is having a good laugh about a state Senate bill that would prohibit driving while engaged in "distracting activity," including talking on a cellular telephone. The measure adheres to the industry's bogus argument that cell phones are no more distracting than talking with a passenger or eating a sandwich.
The Senate bill would ban driving while "responding to events, persons or objects inside or outside the vehicle not related to the safe operation of the vehicle, such as personal grooming, food consumption, use of an electronic device such as a radio, personal digital assistant or wireless telephone, reading or interactions with passengers or pets." According to this absurd proposal, drivers would be best advised to duct-tape their mouths, plug their ears and wear blinders.
The nature of talking on a cell phone while driving is dramatically different than that of engaging in other activities. Researchers at the University of Utah found last year that reactions to simulated traffic signals were much slower while talking on cell phones than while listening to and changing radio stations or listening to audio books.
The Utah researchers found an inherent difference between cell-phone and in-person conversations. A cell-phone conversation diverts the driver's attention "to an engaging cognitive context other than the one immediately associated with driving," they concluded, which is why many drivers seen talking on the phone appear to be in another mind zone.
As driving demands increase, the researchers explained, conversation between the driver and passengers decreases. However, the person at the other end of a cell-phone call is unaware of the driving conditions and keeps on talking. Other in-car activities, such as eating a sandwich, are under the driver's direct control and can be stopped as driving demands increase.
Thomas Dingus, director of Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, told a congressional committee last year that using cell phones and other electronic devices is two to five times more dangerous while driving than changing the radio station or eating lunch. A 1997 study published by the New England Journal of Medicine found that the risk of an accident when using a cell phone quadrupled, about the same effect as driving while legally drunk.
Not surprisingly, the Senate bill has been endorsed by Sprint Communications Co., AT&T Wireless Services, VoiceStream Wireless and Verizon Wireless. The bill is so broad that, if enacted, it would be unenforceable.
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Skateboards demand
parents’ attentionThe issue: A pediatric group
advises parents to supervise kids
riding skateboards and scooters.IF parents haven't already recognized the hazards skateboards and scooters present to their children, a recommendation from the American Academy of Pediatrics should serve them notice. With injuries from foot-powered devices on the increase, the academy's guidelines should be observed.
Children under age 10 should not ride skateboards and those under 8 should not use scooters unless they are supervised by adults, the academy advises. The guidelines update the group's 1995 skateboard policy, which recommends that children under 5 not use the boards at all.
Younger children don't have the bodily strength or mental judgment to assess their skills for riding such devices. The result is that about 85 percent of the 50,000 people who required emergency care every year for skateboard injuries were children. Even adults are at risk. Last month, a 20-year-old man died after falling and striking his head while skateboarding at Kapiolani Community College. Meanwhile, injuries on nonpowered scooters have increased dramatically -- from 40,500 in 2000 to 84,400 from January through September of 2001 alone.
The academy's recommendation that all skateboarders and scooter riders wear helmets and other protective gear would seem to be common sense. Yet skateboarders, primarily teenagers, resisted a bill in the state Legislature that would have required such equipment. Such a law may be considered too intrusive, but may be necessary if parents and adults ignore the dangers.
The academy also recommends that children not ride skateboards and scooters on roads or streets and urges communities to develop parks where motor vehicles would not add to the mix of hazards. In that area, the city appears to be on track. By the end of the year, Honolulu is expected to have as many as nine skate parks ready for use. The newest, which opened two weeks ago in Keolu Hills, has 15,000 square feet of space for skaters and skateboarders. The parks are unsupervised so as much as they do at beach parks, parents and adults should be on hand when their children venture there.
Parks not only provide a safer environment for skaters, they lessen the danger to pedestrians on public walkways. The parks' bowls, banks and rails attract skaters and reduce the likelihood of them continuing to damage stairways and walls in public areas.
Neither foot-powered scooters nor their noisy cousins, the motor-powered devices that have become common recently, are allowed at the parks. The continued mix of scooters, cars and pedestrians will make it all the more necessary for parents to keep watch as they should.
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Published by Oahu Publications Inc., a subsidiary of Black Press.Don Kendall, Publisher
Frank Bridgewater, managing editor 529-4791; fbridgewater@starbulletin.com
Michael Rovner, assistant managing editor 529-4768; mrovner@starbulletin.com
Lucy Young-Oda, assistant managing editor 529-4762; lyoungoda@starbulletin.comJohn Flanagan, contributing editor 294-3533; jflanagan@starbulletin.com
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