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Vail Daily’s view: Hang up the cell while driving

Vail Daily Editorial Board
Vail, CO, Colorado
newsroom@vaildaily.com

The Rocky Mountain News reported recently that at least seven people in Colorado have died in traffic accidents in which someone was distracted because of using a cell phone.

The latest was Nov. 25 in Fort Collins, when a 9-year-old girl was killed by a driver who was talking on a cell phone.

Now, some Colorado legislators are talking about introducing a bill that would ban the use of cell phones while driving.



With some reservations, we believe it’s high time that happened. Everyone who commutes in our valley probably has a story about some dingbat driver on the interstate who, almost inevitably, was yakking obliviously on a cell phone.

And our valley hasn’t been immune from serious injury and death thanks to phone-distracted driving by young people.

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Study after study indicates that being distracted by a cell phone conversation can be almost as bad for your driving skills as drinking.

And we can’t help but believe that young people texting ” and texting remains primarily something the under-30 set dominates ” is even worse.

Young people ” in this case, those 21 and younger ” are, by definition, inexperienced drivers. Throw in an attention-diverting activity like texting, and trouble is almost sure to crop up somewhere along the road.

Now, there are plenty of things that distract drivers every day, from changing a radio station to arguing kids to … well, you get the idea.

And, no, we’re never going to be able to ban all distractions a driver might face.

In this case, though, we’re all for a new law that would restrict cell phone use only to hands-free devices and ban texting all together.

In the meantime, please hang up and just drive, OK?


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