Thursday, March 02, 2006

Also, you can't pull over when steering with knees and eating French fries

The Roanoke paper correctly lampoons new Del. Bowling for opposing a ban on cellphone use by teen drivers based on the illogic that the roads of Southwest Virginia are too narrow and winding for the teen drivers to pull over to talk on the telephone.

The editorial says in part:

"A House subcommittee found no shortage of lame reasons for turning away a ban on cell phone use by teen drivers.

But of all the excuses -- that included the usual pandering that cell phones are no more distracting than radios, eating or talking with a passenger -- the one offered by Del. Danny C. Bowling, D-Tazwell County, takes the prize.

Bowling didn't like the provision that would have required teens to pull to the side of the road before taking or making calls. The roads in his district are too narrow and too windy to provide safe shoulders, Bowling offered. Yet they are safe enough for Virginia's most inexperienced drivers to divert their attention away from the curves and onto calls?"

All this makes me think of the reasoning attributed (in this book) to George Burns, who supposedly said: "I never jog. It makes me spill my martini."

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