Politics & Government

Poll: Should Cellphone Use by Drivers be Banned?

The NTSB is calling for new state laws to outlaw all cellphone use. What do you think?

What if the government ordered a complete ban on cellphone use by drivers?

Hands-free; built-in-to-the-car; head sets: No matter.

That's exactly what a federal agency recommended this week, saying that distracted driving is causing accidents and killing people.

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The National Transportation Safety Board has called on the states to ban drivers from using hands-free devices, even wireless headsets. Neither New York nor any other state goes that far.

In its story this week, the New York Times, quoted Deborah Hersman, the chairwoman of the NTSB, as comparing cell phone use during driving to drunken driving and even smoking, which, the Times said "required wholesale cultural shifts to change behavior."

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“It’s going to be very unpopular with some people,” Heersman told the Times. "We're not here to win a popularity contest. We’re here to do the right thing."

The online publication TechNewsWorld said the call for the ban came after the NTSB's investigation into a multi-vehicle pile-up in Gray Summit, Mo., that killed two people and injured 38 others.

Let us know your thoughts by taking the attached poll.


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