[geeks] Stuff fo' sale

[der Mouse]

> I'll emphasize the point I was trying to make:
> "People who talk on cell phones while driving, EVEN USING HANDS-FREE
> DEVICES, are as impaired as drunk drivers, researchers said
> Thursday."

> I'll say it again: Banning handheld conversations while permitting
> handsfree ones is a feelgood measure that DOES NOTHING for safety.

That does not follow, actually.  Strictly, the former is saying that

(a) People talking on handheld cellphones are at least as impaired as
    drunks, and
(b) People talking on handsfree cellphones are at least as impaired as
    drunks.

(The "at least" is making explicit something I, at least, see as
implicit in the wording given.)  Even if we accept both of those, we
are not, logically speaking, forced to any conclusion about how people
talking on handheld cellphones compare to people talking on handsfree
cellphones.

Personally, I suspect that handsfree is safer than handheld, but I also
suspect that the difference is slight compared to the difference
talking on the phone at all makes.  I also suspect that the latter
difference varies tremendously from driver to driver, probably to the
extent that it is measurable only statistically, and then only in
fairly large samples.

I do not, however, have any particular evidence to support any of those
suspicions.  I'd be very interested in any studies that bear on any of
them.

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