John E

Controlled quantitative studies have verified that talking to the passenger does not tend to compromise the driver's attentiveness, and the extra pair of eyes can actually enhance safety. In contrast, any type of telephone conversation evidently distracts the driver to the competence level of someone with a BAC of about 0.08%, which is the legal DUI cutoff in most of the US (Western Europe uses 0.05%).

I strongly favor a major public safety/education campaign on the dangers and immorality of careless, aggressive, and/or distracted driving, including operating a motor vehicle when too tired to do so. As long as judges and juries sympathize with the perpetrators of crashes on the basis of "I could have been the defendant," or "aw, shucks, accidents do happen," we are not going to make any real progress.