"Rausch said, "but a reasonable limit on the use of the technology we have today to keep us safer." - Granite Grok

“Rausch said, “but a reasonable limit on the use of the technology we have today to keep us safer.”

Higher RANK number is safer:

Fatalities Rate per Failure to Obey
100 Million Vehicles (Traffic Signals + Drunk Careless Total
State Miles Traveled Seat Belts) Driving Tickets Driving Score Rank
Vermont 6 5 28 8 1 48 51
Utah 14 12 1 20 23 70 50
New Hampshire 3 27 25 11 5 71 49
Minnesota 2 17 19 26 7 71 48
Oregon 22 3 7 16 32 80 47

Sen. Jim Rausch, R-Derry, who chairs the Senate Transportation Committee, which voted 5-0 to approve the bill, said the bill would give law enforcement the tools they need to make the roads safer.  “This is not an infringement on the rights of citizens,” Rausch said, “but a reasonable limit on the use of the technology we have today to keep us safer.”

Right. Actually, wrong.  True, there is not a “Right” to use a cell phone or to drive but if the goal is to make us safer, then pick circumstances in which that can actually be attained.  Once again, however, we see Government deciding to remove freedom of choice from its Citizens.  Remember what Ben Franklin say about safety:

They who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

Given NH’s standing, there is little Safety to be gained in this and the problem is that the Republicans in the Senate are falling (or is that embracing, given the BradleyCare / Obamacare Medicaid Expansion they also passed?) the Progressive philosophy that ALL risk can be removed from reality in their march to march the rest of us to their Utopia.  It simply turns out to be, however, an ideology casting desperately to declare a solution that advances, not a solution, but that ideology. And in doing so, it must be definition reduce overall Liberty. NH State Senator Lou D’Allesandro lied when he said: “The data is quite clear,” he said. “This is worth doing because it saves lives”.  The actual data (see full chart below) does not support this at allNew Hampshire is the third safest state for driving and fifth best for “careless driving” in the nation as determined by  the Insurance Business America pointing to a report by CarInsuranceComparison.com (that actually listed the WORST states first).  Steve first brought this up in a post on the Republican majority led NH State Senate magnifying the stupidity of the Democrat majority led NH House concerning the use of cell phones (“But We Have To Do Something” Lobby Passes Bill That Will Do Nothing…“).

Department of Safety data shows distracted driving is a factor in 27 percent of the fatal accidents in the state over the last three years, resulting in 116 deaths.

Indeed, a bad solution searching for a problem.  Yes, accidents happen and yes, lives have been lost over the use of cell phones and each is a tragedy.  And both Steve and I have talked about the fact that ctual data on the cell phone component of distracted driving seeming has evaporated the last few years. The question remains – how many of those 116 deaths are directly attributable to cell phone usage?  Let’s do some math: 116 deaths over 3 years is 38.6 per year.  At 27% attributable “distracted driving translates to 10.4 deaths per year.  Now, if my memory serves me well, cell phone usage was either the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd LEAST common cause of distracted driving accidents (think radio, eating, kids in the back seat, lots of other reasons) so lets use a figure of 5%.

Which means a final number of 0.5 lives per year.  Half a life (we are talking statistics, not people). Go big – 10%: 1 person a year.  Out of a state population of 1.4 million people. Now ask yourself: this is a huge public policy problem such that every driver in the State must be impacted?  Really?  I often rail about the lack of priorities within Government; this is not only that but a problem of perspective as well.  The usage single instance anecdotes / stories / events makes for very bad public policy.  Senator Andy Sanborn has it right:

“New Hampshire is the Live Free or Die state. What will lawmakers ban next”, he asked, Coca Cola and MacDonald’s?  “This is about what this legislative body tells people they can or cannot do,” Sanborn said. “Clearly this shows we are walking toward a Nanny State.”

The Nanny State – proscribing what we can and cannot do and in those things that we can, strictly defining how we are to act in doing so.  After all, if we aren’t taught how to act “rightly”, how are we ever to “progress” to Englightenment?  This is indicative of the Democrat Progressive outlook on society: ALL must be controlled and punished for the wrong doing of the very few – behavior modification.  Over and over again, this is done by the Progressives because the majority of us can never be trusted to do the right thing (or worse, never do the wrong things).  And they are now very open about it:

 NH State Rep Leigh Webb (D): “The role of government is to legislate behavior“

Thanks a bunch. Full chart:

Fatalities Rate per Failure to Obey
100 Million Vehicles (Traffic Signals + Drunk Careless Total
State Miles Traveled Seat Belts) Driving Tickets Driving Score Rank
Vermont 6 5 28 8 1 48 51
Utah 14 12 1 20 23 70 50
New Hampshire 3 27 25 11 5 71 49
Minnesota 2 17 19 26 7 71 48
Oregon 22 3 7 16 32 80 47
Maine 19 26 29 4 6 84 46
Connecticut 4 6 45 24 8 87 45
District of Columbia 5 1 10 44 28 88 44
Iowa 30 13 4 32 12 91 43
Massachusetts 1 18 44 21 9 93 42
Alaska 45 11 6 3 31 96 41
Rhode Island 8 8 46 10 27 99 40
Washington 7 4 37 36 16 100 39
Kansas 35 32 3 27 3 100 38
Idaho 25 39 23 9 4 100 37
Virginia 16 34 11 30 11 102 36
Michigan 17 15 13 22 35 102 35
West Virginia 50 16 15 7 15 103 34
Nebraska 18 24 43 19 2 106 33
New Jersey 9 19 14 29 38 109 32
South Dakota 32 28 40 5 10 115 31
New Mexico 38 10 9 14 47 118 30
Indiana 21 22 22 37 17 119 29
Delaware 27 7 27 12 46 119 28
Wyoming 42 20 36 1 21 120 27
Colorado 20 45 17 25 13 120 26
Hawaii 23 2 48 13 41 127 25
Kentucky 44 51 2 17 19 133 24
Wisconsin 26 35 35 23 20 139 23
New York 15 23 24 40 37 139 22
Illinois 12 30 39 34 24 139 21
Ohio 13 43 42 28 14 140 20
California 11 25 16 43 45 140 19
Maryland 10 14 33 47 42 146 18
Arkansas 48 42 8 15 34 147 17
Arizona 39 21 12 33 49 154 16
Pennsylvania 36 49 32 18 22 157 15
Georgia 28 46 5 50 29 158 14
Tennessee 37 40 21 35 26 159 13
Nevada 24 9 34 51 43 161 12
Oklahoma 43 50 20 31 18 162 11
North Dakota 46 31 50 6 30 163 10
Montana 51 37 51 2 33 174 9
North Carolina 31 36 31 42 44 184 8
Missouri 29 48 41 41 25 184 7
Florida 33 38 18 48 51 188 6
Alabama 40 41 26 49 36 192 5
Texas 34 33 47 45 39 198 4
Mississippi 47 44 30 39 40 200 3
South Carolina 49 29 49 38 50 215 2
Louisiana 41 47 38 46 48 220 1

 

 

 

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