Ray LaHood has a new bugbear, says Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. in The Wall Street Journal. The transportation secretary has declared war on "distracted driving," or the use of cellphones behind the wheel. LaHood would have us believe that the advent of the smartphone has resulted in a bloodbath on our nation's roads, but he is "spreading darkness as much as light." The highway fatality rate has actually been steadily dropping for five years, even as smartphones get more popular. Now, LaHood is threatening to enact an "outright ban" on using a smartphone while driving. But drivers are just as likely to be distracted by their breakfast, says Jenkins. Here, an excerpt:
No less a harridan for safety than the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has dubbed [LaHood's] campaign misguided. The group's own studies show that the numerous laws enacted around the country to ban or restrict cellphone use have produced no impact on accident rates. Even where phone use has measurably declined, crashes haven't...
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