famu, sears coupons, craigslist western mass, yahoo, amazon

Texting while driving is fatal. It's worse than stupid; it's a hazard both to yourself and to everyone around you. Forget tickets; anyone caught doing this epically dangerous activity should have their licenses suspended.

I can understand why, in the wake of an awful texting-while-driving crash, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) felt the need to weigh in. But the agency's proposed ban on all cell phone use while driving is impractical, it's overkill, and it doesn't make sense.

The best way to drive is looking at the road, with both hands on the wheel. To do anything else endangers yourself, your passengers, and the other people on the road.

So it makes sense to ban activities that take your hands off the wheel or your eyes off the road. Texting, the worst of all, makes you a non-driver for several seconds at a time. It's as bad as falling asleep. In a much-cited Virginia Tech study, texting was shown to increase the chances of "a crash or near-crash" by 23 times.

Handheld cell phone conversations are also a problem, especially when you're looking at your phone to dial or answer it—once again, you're taking your eyes off the road.

The science—and NTSB's recommendations—get much muddier, though, when we're talking about absolutely hands-free conversations. Notice that the stats the NTSB pulls out in its press release (rather than the shocking anecdotes) are about texting, emailing, and accessing the Internet.

CNN reports that "devices installed in the vehicle by the manufacturer" would be allowed, though I don't see that in the NTSB's recommendations. If CNN is right, why is talking on an OnStar or Ford Sync system less distracting than using a headset?

The Virginia Tech distracted-driving study showed talking on a phone to slightly increase chances of a crash, but didn't make any distinction between Bluetooth headsets and in-car kits, and saved the really scary stats for dialing a phone, texting, and emailing.

Furthermore, the NTSB permits "devices designed to support the driving task," which presumably means GPS devices. Staring and poking at a GPS unit or app is just as bad as texting.