An opinion about cell phones/texting while driving

[HobieSport]

Here's another case. This guy was driving a tow truck while texting and talking on another cell phone, hit a car and crashed into a swimming pool.  Sigh.
Talk about multitasking gone bad...

http://tinyurl.com/mgkz3u

[HobieSport]

Trains, Planes, and Automobiles, Oh My.

Okay, so maybe it was a landline phone, not a cell, but still a possibly deadly distraction nonetheless:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/08/14/national/w003050D55.DTL

Excerpt:

"The controller had cleared the small plane, a single-engine Piper, for takeoff and then made a personal call to a woman...

While still on the phone, the controller handed off the Piper to the control tower at Newark Liberty International Airport, which monitors low-flying air traffic over the Hudson but doesn't actively try to keep aircraft separated, they said. The controller was still on the phone when the accident occurred. This sequence of events lasted only a few minutes.

National Transportation Safety Board and FAA investigators learned of the telephone conversation earlier this week while examining recordings of telephone calls on a landline phone in the tower that controllers use to communicate with other parts of the Teterboro Airport.

Air traffic controllers are expected to be alert at all times while on duty and typically are given about a 15-minute break roughly every two hours for that reason."