On Dec. 13, the National Transportation Safety Board came out with its strongest statement yet against the use of cell phones and text messaging devices while driving. The NTSB has recommended all 50 states adopt laws banning the use of such devices by drivers.
We shudder to think of yet more restrictions on personal liberty, but this is probably something that should be considered, on a state-by-state basis at the very least.
The NTSB’s recommendation essentially ranks distracted drivers right up there with drunk drivers in terms of the danger they pose to the public and they have a growing body of evidence to back up their position.
We weren’t and aren’t big fans of the mandatory seatbelt law, and we find it hard to endorse the no smoking with kids in the car rule with any sort of enthusiasm. We largely see those as personal decisions. The no smoking rule is PC run amuck. We might as well forbid people from smoking in their homes.
The facts and figures on the wisdom of seatbelt use are well established. If you want to dramatically increase your chances of sustaining a fatal or catastrophic injury in a car accident, well it’s a free country. There is no law against stupidity.
However, distracted drivers are different animals, and we see the NTSB’s recommendation more in line with the organized effort that elevated drunk driving from a minor social scofflaw to a major social sin. Drunk driving is a threat to the public safety and it is justifiably treated as such.
You have a right to put yourself at risk if you so choose. Riding down the road without a seatbelt is just such a choice. When you extend that risk to the other people on the road, essentially exposing innocent people to a risk they did not choose to take themselves, that’s when your right of self-determination ends.
Riding the line dividing personal liberty and public safety is an uncomfortable but sometimes necessary thing.
