All this has prompted the Highway Traffic Safety Administration to take a look this week at whether federal legislation or regulation is needed to diminish the distraction of cellular phones and other gimmickry crowding into our vehicles dashboard computers, navigation devices, TVs and VCRs, CD players. A new federal study indicates that navigation devices are vastly more distracting than cell phones. Distractions of any kind are dangerous. One organization estimates the number of accidents due to distractions at 4,000 to 8,000 daily. But distractions are not all high-tech.
Drivers eat, apply makeup, fiddle with the radio and yell at kids in the back seat.
Precisely what kind of federal regulation or legislation would help is unclear. There have been sporadic local attempts to ban cellular phone use, but once again regulation is lagging behind the curve. With the drawbacks of new technology have come real benefits. Lives and property have been saved by the prompt reporting of accidents and crimes by cellular phone. As with any new technology, there is a certain teething period while motorists adapt the new gadgets into the driving routine and manufacturers make the gadgets more adaptable hands-free phones, for example.