22548153   
   XPost: misc.phone.mobile.iphone, comp.mobile.android   
   From: rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com   
      
   Paul M. Cook  wrote   
   > Rod Speed wrote   
      
   >>> but we can *never* know what the use rate is while driving.   
      
   >> That is just plain wrong. That can be determined by   
   >> observation/measurement.   
      
   > This would be *wonderful* data to have, but, nobody has it.   
      
   Certainly no one has the most important data   
   on how many are stupid enough to use their   
   phone while driving when its not safe to do that.   
      
   > The idiots keep pointing to that essentially useless   
   > checkbox on the police reports, which we all know   
   > to be overrepresented data, because there is no easy   
   > way to tell if a cellphone contributed to an accident.   
      
   I've never mentioned that 'data'   
      
   > You can't even tell if the cellphone was being   
   > *used* during an accident for a bunch of reasons   
      
   You can actually if you know the time of the accident accurately.   
      
   > (e.g., not all cellphone uses require a cellular signal).   
      
   Sure, but those are clearly only a small minority   
   and so don’t matter much in the overall stats.   
      
   > If police, as a matter of habit, issued a subpoena upon *every*   
   > accident, they could then probably at least tell if a text message   
   > was occurring at the exact time of the accident, but, that begs   
   > the question of when was the exact time of the accident.   
      
   You could likely work out most of that from the data   
   of when the texting stopped due to the accident.   
      
   > Doesn't anyone see how bad the cellphone involved statistics are?   
   > They're essentially useless.   
      
   Doesn’t stop you proclaiming that cellphone use while   
   driving isn't dangerous because you can't see any effect   
   on the accident rate.   
      
   > Actually, worse than that, they're bad data because   
   > I believe police tend to over use that checkbox.   
      
   But you have no basis for that belief.   
      
   And there is no checkbox in ours, and we have banned the   
   use of cellphones while driving except with hands free anyway.   
      
   > That means most people are working off bad data.   
      
   You in spades, non existent relevant data in fact.   
      
   > No wonder they appear to be idiots.   
      
   You in spades with your non existent data.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)