Hands-free won't make cellphones safer in vehicles

I feel compelled to write regarding last week's Acorn Opinion piece on the hands-free cellphone law for drivers starting July 1. I'm afraid the Acorn is another victim of the political propaganda machine up in Sacramento when it comes to "proof" that hands-free devices prevent accidents.

Study after study has shown that cellphone handsfree devices have no measurable effect on improving vehicle safety, including one published in the British Medical Journal in 2005 and another published by the University of Utah in 2006.

The source of the accidents isn't the act of holding the phone, but rather the distraction of the conversation itself. In the Utah study, drivers both with and without hands-free devices were 9 percent slower to hit the brakes than a drivers not using a cellphone.

Cellphone users also had 24 percent more vehicle speed variation. Three participants on cellphones in the Utah study rear-ended the pace car.

Other than the cellphone ban for younger drivers, about the only thing this law accomplishes is making it nearly impossible to tell if a distracted cellphone user is driving behind you so you could get out of their way before being rear-ended.

It's sad that a political body that drones on and on about how important education is, in particular math and science, simply ignores scientific studies when making laws that put restrictions on its citizens. Michael Adams Newbury Park