New Study Refutes Assumed Link Between Cell Phone Use and Auto Accidents

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com>
Date: August 20, 2007 7:25:28 PM EDT
To: dfarber () cs cmu edu
Cc: lauren () vortex com
Subject: New Study Refutes Assumed Link Between Cell Phone Use and  
Auto Accidents


   New Study Refutes Assumed Link Between Cell Phone Use and Auto  
Accidents

              http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000271.html


Dave,

As regular readers of my missives may know, I've long been a critic
of the conventional wisdom that the anti-cell phone laws becoming
increasingly common (including one here in California set to take
effect around a year from now) will reduce auto accidents -- the
science and statistics just never appeared to be there to support
the types of legislation passed, as far as I'm concerned.

Now, a new U.C. Berkeley study appears to confirm that accident
rates simply have not behaved in a way that would validate the views
of those pushing these cell phone laws that affect the general
population:

http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2007/08/13_cellphone.shtml

Laws passed on the basis of gut feelings, rather than hard facts,
are often the ones that make the least sense and do the least good.

--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren () vortex com or lauren () pfir org
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
   - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Founder, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com




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