[IP] Calif. orders alteration of cell-phone accident report

[Dave Farber <dave@farber.net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren@vortex.com>
Date: Sun, 10 Nov 2002 10:03:08 -0800 (PST)
To: dave@farber.net
Cc: lauren@vortex.com
Subject: Calif. orders alteration of cell-phone accident report

Dave,

I have written and spoken previously about the astoundingly bad science
that is being used to justify hand-held cell phone bans in some states:

   Fact Squad Radio: "Cell Phone Bans" (mp3 audio)
   http://www.factsquad.org/radio/2001-11-12.mp3

   Reality Reset: "Cell Phone Follies"
   http://www.vortex.com/reality/2001-05-22

I'm all in favor of reasoned analysis to determine the ways in which
hand-held cell phones might contribute to accidents.  But I'm also
curious about hands-free phones, and of course all the myriad other
distractions in vehicles (children in the back seat, radios and
other multimedia gear, smoking, talking to passengers, eating, makeup
application, and so on) that appear to contribute to far more accidents.

Now comes word that California has delayed releasing a study of cell
phone accidents because the numbers came out "too low."  The push is for
a revised study to include data on anyone who was using a cell phone at
the time of an accident, apparently with the *implicit assumption* that
use of a phone equates with actually contributing to an accident.
(http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/West/11/10/cell.phone.crashes.ap/)

It seems that from electronic voting machines to cell phones,
the politics of "voodoo science" still reigns supreme.

--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren@pfir.org or lauren@vortex.com or lauren@privacyforum.org
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
Co-Founder, PFIR - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, Fact Squad - http://www.factsquad.org
Co-Founder, URIICA - Union for Representative International Internet
                     Cooperation and Analysis - http://www.uriica.org
Moderator, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
"Wired News" Commentaries -
        http://www.wired.com/news/storylist/0,2339,642,00.html


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