Tim,
Funny the subject of cell-phones should appear on the list today :
As from today the 15th March a new law came into force in Norway which make
it illegal to use your mobile phone while driving your car unless you use
some sort of hands-free equipment. If you are caught violating the law, you
will be fined NOK 500 (approx. $62). Worse, if you have an accident and it
can be proved that you were using your mobile (without the approved
handsfree equipment) you will risk having the insurance payment reduced.
Initially I was against another law to dictate how I should behave, however,
after reading your summary at least there seem to be some sense behind this
one !
Regards,
Hans J. Wimpelmann
Stavanger
Norway
1964 TR4 CT33939
Date: Tue, 14 Mar 2000 15:41:08 -0500
From: Tim Gaines <mtgaines@cs1.presby.edu>
Subject: RE: CRASH!-Cell Phone use
Winnie,
As a driver of a Spitfire most days of the week, I shudder at the
thought of being hit by one of those SUVs! I'm glad you came out of
it with nothing more than bruises and scrapes. Your last comment, the
one about "cell phone while you drive," struck a chord with me. I am
an experimental psychologist who teaches a course in cognition. One
of the topics in the course is "attention." As a lab exercise, I gave
my class the task of designing an experiment which could demonstrate
whether cell phone use occupies enough attention that driving might
be impaired. I'll enclose the (long) summary of the study below, but
the upshot was that we have evidence that activities like cell phone
use do impair performance (as if we couldn't figure that out on our own!).
I apologize for the stilted language of the summary.
Regards,
Tim Gaines
Clinton, SC
1980 Spitfire
1974 TR6
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