Hand-Held Cell Phones, Driving Don’t Mix

Re “2 Lawmakers Seek to Ban Drivers’ Use of Hand-Held Cell Phones,” May 23: Use of hand-held phones while driving is fast becoming a major problem. There has been mounting evidence--the almost fatal injury to model Niki Taylor, the Pennsylvania child killed by a driver dialing a cell phone, to mention just two incidents--that urgent action is required. Just last evening, sitting out on my porch, I saw a driver using a cell phone suddenly swerve into a small parking space, with no turn signal, of course, and cause a fender-bender. I am seeing this kind of thing daily on the road. We seem to have become obsessed with using the phone, often I am sure just for the sake of it.

Your rather sick cartoon, “If you want to take away my cell phone, you’ll have to pry it from my cold, dead fingers” (Jimmy Margulies, Commentary, May 17), shows where we are going. Let’s back New York Rep. Gary Ackerman’s proposal or, better still, make it illegal to use a phone at all while operating a vehicle. As this is a national problem, put it at the federal level and do not leave it to the states to make their own versions of the law.

Chris Chapman

West Hollywood

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I invite the head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, who urged Congress to be patient until definitive data on cell phones could be assessed, to join me in my daily drive down Pacific Coast Highway. He will see a dangerous dance I call the cell phone cross-the-lane shuffle. When a car in front of you suddenly and inexplicably slows down and begins to weave back and forth across the lane lines, you can bet your collision insurance that the oblivious driver has a cell phone stuck to his ear. Of course, this is only anecdotal. I realize that at least a few thousand more deaths and injuries, while being patient, are required by the NHTSA to better assess the danger. As far as its taking action, who knows how many must die.

Ronald Rubin

Topanga