London incidents

Tue Jul 12 21:26:33 UTC 2005

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jay R. Ashworth" <jra at baylink.com>
To: <nanog at nanog.org>
Sent: Wednesday, July 13, 2005 9:17 AM
Subject: Re: London incidents

> On Tue, Jul 12, 2005 at 12:34:32PM +0200, Brad Knowles wrote:
> > The problem with mobile phones in the car has less to do with
> > taking a person's hand off the wheel (although that is something to
> > be concerned about), and more to do with the fact that the driver is
> > distracted by talking to the person on the other end.
>
> They say this, but it doesn't work that way for me, as a datapoint.
>
> It's not the conversation that's the big thing, IME; it's *holding a
> phone up to your ear*, which is an action we train ourselves to follow
> up with *ignoring what's going on around us*.
>
> When I talk while driving *without* a headset, my driving's usually
> fine... it's my *navigation* that fails totally.  Using a headset, both
> are fine.  YMMV.
>
> Shutting down the networks just because they can be used to trigger a
> bomb is asinine, though, yes.
>

Its the first step toward the Police State mentality that I fear is going to
develop over time.
And damned if I know what to do about it. But the enhanced security required
when crossing borders now is case in point.  Are they just going to keep on
locking down all the freedoms which we've come to enjoy in the last 50
years, in order to prevent their use in assistance of, or vulnerability to,
terrorist activity?  Thats a _big_ can of worms.

Funny the cellphone stuff is being discussed, tho - Local Media had this
today:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3343357a11,00.html

"People using cellphones while driving are four times more likely to have a
serious crash than non-users, and using a hands-free phone does not lower
the risk, new research has found.

The British Medical Journal has today published the results of a Perth study
of drivers using cellphones who have been involved in road crashes requiring
hospital treatment."

"Using phone company records, researchers assessed phone use immediately
before the crash.
They found a third of calls in the 10 minutes before the crash were made on
cellphones. This was associated with a four-fold increased likelihood of
crashing, and the risk was irrespective of age, sex or whether the phone was
hands-free.
Researchers said more new vehicles were being equipped with hands-free
technology. Although this could lead to fewer hand-held phones in cars, the
study showed it might not eliminate the risk."

I'm saddened by it, because IMHO people who let their driving suffer through
cellphone use have gotten it the wrong way around.  Personally I let my
conversation skills slip :)  Safer that way. Seems to make sense.  Or is
that just too obvious?

Mark.