A little common sense please
Like an earlier writer, I find it hard to believe that blindly taking a bite out of a ham sandwich with no messy condiments while looking straight out the windshield has similar risk to eyeballing a phone's miniscule keyboard and display. You don't even have to lean your head back to take a drink of a cold beverage from a straw.
I've seen as many vehicles poorly controlled by drivers in animated conversations with live passengers as by drivers on cell phones. What about turning your head 150 degrees to look at kids in car seats?
And I've successfully dodged getting hit by a jerk eating soup with a spoon in his right hand and holding the bowl with his left. Is eating soup with a spoon the same as taking a bite of a ham sandwich with no messy condiments? They're both eating, right?
I try to use mass transit, but for trips where the schedule is impossible or there is no mass transit I am a lot more alert - call that safer - on an interactive cell phone call than getting hypnotized by being alone in the quiet or passively listening to a radio or iPod.
Let's stop the futility of trying to itemize and make illegal every possible stupid thing a driver can do and in the process making illegal what's perfectly safe when done by most drivers. Most jurisdictions have laws against reckless driving or words to that effect. If I get hit by someone eating soup the cop has good reason to write tickets not only for hitting me but for reckless driving, and the judge has good reason to sentence appropriately.
