by Amanda Harrington ’12

The five member panel of the National Transportation Safety Board  (NTSB) now recommends that states ban all driver use of cell phones and other portable electronic devices; This includes hands-free use. Currently 30 states and the District of Columbia have laws against phone use while driving.

The recommendation is based on a deadly highway pileup that occurred near Gray Summit , Mo., last year.  The board said that the initial collision was caused by a 19 year-old pickup driver that sent and received 11 texts in 11 minutes immediately before the crash.

The pickup truck crashed into a tractor trailer that had slowed for highway construction. A school bus then rear –ended and overrode the small pickup; a second school bus then rear-ended the first school bus. The pickup driver and a 15 year-old student on one of the buses were killed, and 38 others were injured.

So the big question is: how practical can this decision be? Automobile manufacturers are setting themselves apart by including high technology applications as standard equipment. In March, 2009,  Ford released a fully functional, dashboard computer — complete with a keyboard — geared to contractors and other business folks who want to access the web, review documents and log inventory while on the go. Later in the year, AT&T launched an in-car entertainment service with 22 satellite TV channels. With technology advances in cars growing rapidly, rulings on phone use become void and have absolutely no purposes because drivers can be easily distracted by other things in their car.