[Avodah] Cellphones and Driving: A Halachik Perspective by R. Yosef Kanefsky

[Prof. Levine]

From  http://bit.ly/vr07qm   (Note:  This article was written in 2009.)

What do we know about the likelihood of a driver 
causing a car accident when he or she is speaking 
on a cellphone (not to mention texting)?  As 
reported in the NY Times on July 19, the 
likelihood that a driver holding and talking on a 
cellphone will crash, is equal to that of a 
driver whose blood alcohol level is .08 percent – 
the legal definition of driving while 
intoxicated. As the Times article put it, 
“drivers using phone are four times as likely to 
cause a crash as other drivers”. The article goes 
on to quote a Harvard study estimating that 
cellphone distraction causes thousand of deaths, 
and hundreds of thousands of injuries per year. 
The potential for committing a “great sin” is 
astonishingly high.  And the research is not 
showing that using a hands-free phone 
significantly reduces this potential either.

  As halachikly observant Jews, we go to great 
lengths to lower our risk of sinning. We do not 
climb trees on Shabbat lest we inadvertently 
violate Shabbat by breaking a branch. Many of us 
do not eat corn or beans on Pesach; lest we come 
to eat inadvertently eat chametz. On the first 
day of Rosh Hashana this year, we will actually 
set aside the Biblical mitzva of blowing shofar, 
lest we inadvertently carry the shofar through 
the public domain, thus violating the Shabbat. It 
is self-evident that our system demands that we 
not drive while distracted by our cellphone, lest 
we, God forbid, God forbid, inadvertently injure 
or kill someone. It’s that straightforward.

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