At 15:06 9/2/99 , Tonya Pope wrote:
>No - lousy drivers are.  They were around long before cell phones.  Its
>just the current thing to blame.  There are many distractions available

Disagree -- people have intense and highly distracting conversations on
cell phones.  They can also do this with other people in the car, but with
the phone there's an additional concentration of effort to understand, and
further distraction b/c in the absence of the physical person, some
(probably unconscious, but it still steals CPU cycles) effort is being made
to visualize the person on the other end.  There is no need to turn the
head sideways to look the other in the face, just let your eyes go blank
from the inside....

I have made a number of cell phone calls from a cruising sailboat, and
almost ran aground once through lack of attention -- motoring on a clear
day through a narrow spot that I was quite familiar with.  I was about 200
yards to the right of where I should have been.  OTOH I've made three such
calls while driving, and was astounded at the effort required to manipulate
the phone and drive at the same time.  I strongly believe that it is
irresponsible and dangerous to use cell phones while driving, and I am
willing to bet that there will be liability suits in the near future which
will drive this home.

Steve, any opinions?

david
David Beierl - Providence, RI
'84 Westy "Dutiful Passage"
'85 GL "Poor Relation"