Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2003 09:56:10 PST From: mojavegnopsamsp.com (Everett M. Greene) Subject: Re: OT: Cell phones and driving
davehinznopsamcop.net writes: > Someone who looks an awful lot like Malcolm Mason <MWM1nopsamjhu.edu> wrote: > > > Any behaviour which impairs our ability to drive... like drinking > > say... should be avoided and talking on the phone is distracting and > > it does not happen just occaisionally when someone has a phone in the > > car unless the use it responsibly. I would leave to each and all what > > responsible use is. But in my opinion is is usingthe "message-taking" > > capability of the machine and when convenient and/or necessary, > > pulling off and using the phone. > > So, I need to either sell my house, or get a different job it seems. > When I'm on call (I'm in the IT field), I have to respond to an incident > within 5 minutes, to acknowledge the incident and report that I'm working > on it. My first reaction to reading the above was that five minute response time is ludicrous. There's very little in this world except medical emergencies and ballistic missile defense where a few minutes one way or another will be of any significance. IT is certainly NOT one of the fields where realtime response is critical. My second thought was if you respond, what good does it do? It would not be possible to take notes or do much of anything more than maybe record a message. If you're going to record a message, you might as well just use voicemail and not even answer the calls. And even if there is something that can be done via a telephone call, anything beyond the most trivial is going to require some concentration and thought which is going to be quite if not totally distracting to job 1, operating your vehicle. Reckless disregard for others is a criminal offense in the worst-case scenario. > My drive home, however, is longer than 5 minutes by a factor of > 20 or so. If the occasional call during drive-time wasn't possible, I > would not be able to do my job and live where I do. Not an acceptable > limitation in my mind. A later response by Mr. Hinz indicates that the five-minute thing determines whether the next person on the list of trouble-shooters gets called. The solution is simple: Let them call someone else while you're driving.
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