Survey shows 4 out of 5 Vermont drivers support cellphone ban
An estimated 80 percent of the respondents to a recent highway safety survey said they favor legislation prohibiting cell phone use while driving in the state of Vermont. Less than one in five of the drivers surveyed in this study, conducted by Castleton College in Vermont, were in opposition to a legal ban on the practice of using a handheld communication device while operating a moving motor vehicle, and three percent of survey respondents were undecided about whether or not using a cell phone while behind the wheel creates a dangerous situation for the driver and other motorists on the road. In the state of Vermont, the state in which all of the survey respondents reside, sending and receiving text messages while driving is prohibited by law, but there is no statewide ban on talking on a cell phone while behind the wheel of a moving motor vehicle with or without the use of a hands free device. The survey questions did not differentiate between using a handheld communication device and using a cell phone equipped with a hands-free adapter kit. According to some of the survey participants interviewed, cell phone use while behind the wheel poses a safety hazard for motorists pedestrians, and everyone else sharing the road, whether or not the driver is using a hands free device because of the mental distractions it can pose to the driver.
