The New DUI: The NTSB’s last call for relevance [Op-Ed]

Driving in America has never been safer. That's good news for American drivers, but it's bad news for the government alarmists who make a living calling for increasing restrictions on their freedoms behind the wheel. The latest proclamation from the National Transportation Safety Board - an alarmist demand that states prevent drivers from using mobile devices at all times, even with hands-free technology - is all about survival. Unfortunately, the survival at issue is that of an nearly obsolete bureaucracy.

Leftlane reported on the NTSB's recommendations yesterday, including this very relevant quote from NTSB member Robert Sumwall:

"This [distracted driving] is becoming the new DUI. It's becoming epidemic,"

How deadly is "the new DUI?" NTSB has attributed 3,092 fatalities from last year to distracted driving. Given that approximately 20,000 fatalities per year come from "slip and fall" accidents, the message is clear: If distracted driving is the new DUI, then the new DUI is a hell of a lot safer than walking around in the bathroom. The "old" DUI, by the way, also known as "DUI," continues to be considerably more deadly than the new, accounting for 10,228 fatalities in 2010.

Complicating the matter is that, although measuring deaths from the "old DUI" is a fairly simple matter consisting of measuring the blood alcohol level in the driver, measuring "distraction" is another thing entirely. So far, the criteria for "distracted driving" appears to be a quick roadside assessment from whatever cop can be bothered to make said assessment. That's very far from being scientific, to say the least. Law enforcement officials are also being pressured to view distraction as a primary cause of accidents. The new DUI? More like the new terrorism: Mostly imaginary and exploited everywhere for the gain of power-hungry bureaucrats.

NTSB's recommendation to stem the threat? Ban "˜em all. Phone calls, texting, checking your stocks, watching YouTube, playing Farmville. Handheld, hands-free, speakerphone. The curious exception is for "manufacturer-installed systems." What does that mean? It either means that wealthy people will be able to circumvent the ban by buying cars with manufacturer-integrated cellphones (like the infamous Motorola Timeport which put perhaps the final nail in the coffin of the early Mercedes-Benz W220, desirability-wise) or perhaps the NTSB will just whip up a nice little bill of attainder to dispense the privilege where they see fit. Either way, don't look for mobile usage to be affordable.

Nobody's naïve enough to believe that the NTSB recommendation, even if it is universally adopted, would result in the elimination of mobile phone usage. It won't save very many lives - certainly not as many as, say, the elimination of tile floors in bathrooms - and it won't prevent very many tragedies. What will it do? It will simply do what unnecessarily-low speed limits have done everywhere they are applied: Make criminals out of normal American drivers.

These laws give cops another excuse to harass innocent people. They create a situation where anyone and everyone is subject to the whim of police and local government. Consider this: How, exactly, does one prove that one was not on the phone at the time of arrest? Don't look for small-town judges to be willing to wait for Verizon or Sprint to get a copy of your bill to you.

Earlier this year at the New York auto show, your humble author was sitting at a light looking up directions on his Droid. The light turned green, I put the phone away, and accelerated - only to have a cop literally step into my path. An actual distracted driver would have plowed over the revenue collector like a stray armadillo on a Texas freeway, but I came to an alert halt and was duly charged $150 for the crime of looking at my phone while stopped dead in traffic.

There was no way to fight City Hall: The cop said I was on the phone and the courts prefer the testimony of police. On the way out of the city, I saw hundreds of drivers on their phones and hundreds more using hands-free systems. There was no mayhem, no death, no "new DUI." Just a lot of people trying to make it in a world which is increasingly demanding of time and attention.

Those people aren't going to stop using their phones. They're just going to pay the fines, enrich the bureaucrats, and give worthless leeches like the NTSB a continued reason to exist. Meanwhile, the "old DUI" will keep causing deaths, the money will continue to flow, and it will be increasingly difficult to simply get along on the American road.

The NTSB cellphone ban makes for good headlines, but let's face facts: It's a bad call.