It was a clear night. I was driving in the far right lane just by the Rural Road and Eighth Street intersection in Tempe. A car emerged from Eighth Street with the driver visibly engaged on her cell phone. Sure enough, the women missed the stop sign and slammed into my car.
After the crash, I asked the woman, an ASU student, why she was talking on the cell phone while approaching such a busy road. She did not know what to say.
According to CNN, 10 percent of people on the road everyday are using cell phones, up from 8 percent in 2004.
So far, only New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and the District of Columbia have banned the use of hand-held cell phones while driving.
John Wallis, a publicist for the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association, will have none of this.
"Talking on a cell phone is one of many possible distractions, and narrowly focusing on just this one could create a false sense of security with drivers," Wallis said.
Someone should tell Wallis that there is research suggesting the dangers of combining driving with talking on the phone.
A study published by the British Medical Journal in July 2005 found drivers using cell phones were four times as likely to get into a crash that could cause injuries serious enough to land them in the hospital.
The study also suggested that using a hands-free device does not diminish the risks involved with cell phone use while driving.
University of Utah researcher David Strayer studied the impact of cell phone use on the driving ability of 110 undergraduate students.
Strayer used the supposedly safer hands-free devices for his tests. But the research concluded that talking on the cell phone, even with a hands-free device, affected driving performances adversely.
The study also concluded that slower reaction times, increased likelihood of crashes, and the tendency to forget billboards on the side of the road were some of the results of cell phone conversations while driving.
There are studies, and then there are personal stories.
A story on www.webmd.com tells of Patricia Pena from Hilltown, Pa., whose 2-year-old daughter died in the car seat after a motorist using a cell phone struck the car she was in.
This makes me question the wisdom of letting people drive while talking on their cell phone, especially around the ASU campus.
It may take a while for an Arizona ban on cell phone use while driving to be passed. For ASU students, however, the ban should be a no-brainer.
One look around campus and you notice that many ASU students drive like drunken monkeys anyway.
Pedestrians believe that traffic laws do not apply to them, so they cross even when the "Don't Walk" sign starts flashing.
Considering that University Drive and several other roads around campus are congested, bicyclists are especially vulnerable to accidents.
There should be a ban on cell phone conversations that take place while driving - hands-free or otherwise - in the area surrounding the ASU Tempe campus.
Anyone in violation should be fined at least $500 and the fines should be used to build more parking structures.
Maybe if the loons at USG spent more time dealing with issues like this rather than whining about Playboy, it would be worth having them around.
Nishant is a computer science graduate student. Reach him at nishant.bhajaria@asu.edu.
