As much a this cell phone user hates to admit it, he is compelled by the honesty and truthfulness of the journalistic spirit to begrudgingly present a recent study to you, suggesting that using a cell phone (even a hands-free unit) is as impairing to a driver as being drunk.  The University of Utah study shows that the distraction of talking to someone else over a phone removes our attention from the road (as could be expected), to a similar extent as a 0.08 percent blood-alcohol level (perhaps not as expected).  The study emphasized that there was no significant difference in risk between using a hand-held or hands-free unit--contrary to some current city laws, I might add.

The study involved participants driving a simulator, either while talking on a phone or while intoxicated (0.08 percent blood-alcohol).  They had to follow a pace car that "braked intermittently." 

While I  have no reason to doubt the results of the study, and in fact am not really surprised, I'm determined to think up all the criticism I can muster against the authors' conclusions: “This study does not mean people should start driving drunk,” said Frank Drews, a U of U psychology professor. “It means that driving while talking on a cell phone is as bad as or maybe worse than driving drunk, which is completely unacceptable and cannot be tolerated by society.”  Let's see what I can do.

1.  Does this car simulator really give us an accurate picture of most driving situations?  Highways, for example, involve few stops and starts, and neighborhood roads don't normally involve tailgating.  Yet is a cell phone user just as dangerous in your neighborhood or in the express lane as a guy who's had one too many?
2. Does this mean that drivers should not talk to other passengers, or listen to the radio, while in stop-and-go traffic?  What about reading road signs?  What about distractions from other drivers' turn signals?
3. The car simulator involved in the study was a PatrolSim.  Does the study imply that police officers who communicate over phone or radio are as impaired as the DUI offenders they arrest?
4. Exactly who were these study participants talking to on their cell phones?  Members of the opposite sex from the U of U psychology department?  Were they trying to distract the drivers?

Certainly, there's something to be said for cutting down distractions, especially in driving conditions that are just plain dangerous, with or without cell phones.  But studies like the one above lead to laws--laws that restrain liberty in an attempt to eradicate our personal responsibility to avoid danger and harm.  On Germany's autobahn, drivers don't multitask like they do in the U.S.  But in the U.S. we have speed limits.  We also live in a culture where demands and responsibilities are tightly scheduled, and where instant communication is essential to productivity.  Indiscriminately banning cell phone use on the road would be a blind swerve around a pothole.