Deluged with horror stories of accidents caused by distracted drivers, lawmakers around the world are taking aim at a popular pastime of the technological age: chatting on the cellular phone.
Sixteen countries have outlawed the use of hand-held cell phones while driving. In the United States, with 101 million cellular subscribers, talking on the road is as common as fiddling with the radio buttons. But 300 local communities and 37 states - including Maryland - are considering "don't-talk-and-drive" legislation.
Most cell phone manufacturers - and many of their customers - argue that using a phone in the car is no more distracting than drinking coffee, eating, putting on lipstick or simply talking to someone in the passenger seat.
"We don't believe that legislation is the right approach," said Cherie Gary, a spokesperson for Nokia, the world's largest cell phone maker. "Responsible driving while using a phone is a matter of common sense, and you can't legislate common sense."
Nonsense, say campaigners for cell phone restrictions.
"If I hear the ridiculous analogy between eating hamburgers, putting on lipstick and using a cell phone one more time, I am going to bust an artery," says Patricia Pena, whose 2-year-old daughter Morgan Lee was killed a year ago this week in Hilltown Township, Pa. Police say the driver of the other vehicle was dialing his cell phone and drove through a stop sign.
Although most American drivers have encountered cell phone users who weave from lane to lane and cut off other motorists, neither side has a wealth of statistical data to back up its arguments. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that a quarter of the nation's 6.3 million crashes each year are the result of "driver distractions," a broad category that includes everything from taking one's eyes off the road to daydreaming.
In Maryland last year, 325 people were killed in accidents where driver distraction was a factor, but there are no numbers to suggest how many involved cell phones.
Academic researchers frequently cite a 1997 study in The New England Journal of Medicine that found motorists are four times more likely to crash when they're talking on a cell phone - almost the same probability of getting into an accident while driving drunk. That study was cited by lawmakers in England, Germany, Italy and other European countries that have banned cell phone use in cars.
