To the editor:
The air is full of spin and distortion from a year of political campaigns.
Now I read in the Times that state Rep. Brad Hill, the Ipswich Republican who represents Manchester, thinks we all should be able to talk on cell phones while driving 2,500-pound vehicles down the road, and that any law to prohibit this smacks of "Big Brother."
"Unfortunately, we are trying to legislate common sense here," he says.
No, we are not trying to legislate common sense. We are in fact trying to create a law that protects citizens from dangerous drivers by penalizing their hazardous behavior.
If you were working at a factory and operating a 1-ton machine, do you think that company would ever consider letting you chat on a cell phone as you work? Imagine the risks to the individual, to the machine and to the whole production line. No one would allow that risk.
Now pretend that you are in motion in an SUV, barreling down Route 128 at 65 mph (10 mph over the speed limit), chatting on the phone.
You are in danger, the children in your car are in jeopardy, and all other drivers around you are potential victims. This is a mass mutliplied by velocity, an irresponsible driver who thinks a phone call is more important than injury or death.
Remember times past when there were no cell phones. Massachusetts drivers were a hazard even then.
How many times have you nearly been crushed in Grant Circle? How often do you see people change lanes and risk collision with nary a look nor a thought nor a signal? Don't you find people tailgating you every day?
Even the National Transportation Safety Board wants to ban the use of electronic devices while driving because this particular distraction makes you as dangerous as a drunken driver, and we have enough of those.
So forget the easy spin of "government intrusion." Solve the problem of enforcement with a mandatory $300 fine and a surcharge on insurance for the first offense. Then we will have a law that does its job, and leaves you free to remember to yield with a smile and to use your turn signal with every lane change.
All we need now is politicians with courage, clarity and leadership, but they are probably out to lunch, and surely on the phone.
PETER PERTHOU
P.O. Box 127, Rockport
