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From
<a href="http://bit.ly/vr07qm" eudora="autourl">http://bit.ly/vr07qm</a>
(Note: This article was written in 2009.)<br><br>
<font size=3>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.<br><br>
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.<br>
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