Should A School Bus Driver Be Allowed to Use A Cell Phone While Driving?
I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t want my child on a school bus being driven by a driver who is talking on his cell phone — even if he was using a hands-free device. A school bus driver’s job is hard enough. There are plenty of distractions sitting behind him in the bus. Allowing him to voluntarily add another distraction — talking on his cell phone — is just plain unsafe.
A study reported in Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, Winter 2004, found that using a cell phone, regardless of using a hands-free device, is a serious distraction to a driver. (”Human factors” — also called “ergonomics” — is the study of how humans behave physically and psychologically in particular situations.) A later study found that drivers who are distracted by cell phone use have impairments similar to drivers who have an alcohol level of .08 (the level at which a driver in Virginia is presumed to be drunk). Given the fact that drivers using cell phones are more numerous than drivers who are drunk, it is reasonable to conclude that drivers using cell phones are more dangerous than drunk drivers.
And, if so many drivers are on cell phones, I would certainly want my child’s school bus driver to be the most alert one, trained to avoid the dangers of the cell phone users.
What would your child’s school system say if you asked about its policy of allowing school bus drivers to talk on cell phones while driving?
Comments
Leave a Reply