This is a follow up on a piece I had posted about the new cell phone ban that was proposed by our very own Rep. Rachel Quintana.
There is still a lot of criticism and doubt on the effectiveness of this ban.
Many of you have said that there has not been enough studies conducted to prove that the use of cell phones while driving is any more unsafe than doing other things like....
eating, changing the radio station to KHRO 1150 AM or flipping someone the bird while driving. (you like that plug?)
This weekend Rep. Quintana participated in scientific tests to help prove the effectiveness of the ban. The tests were conducted in a controlled environment just outside of the city limits.
Rep. Quintana did lead the charge on introducing the ban so I think it would only be fitting that she also lead the charge on conducting some of the studies her constituents have been asking for.
Rep. Quintana was first asked to maneuver through real life traffic situations using a hands free device.
Reaction time, acceleration, braking distance and other data were recorded.
To the surprise of those conducting the test, the first accident took place very early in the study.
One factor that was not taken into consideration when designing these tests was the complexity of the high tech simulators.
The simulators which are impact resistant and designed for safety seemed to be more than what Rep. Quintana expected.
A special team of engineers was on site to help Rep. Quintana maneuver around some of the more dangerous obstacles.
Parked cars are more dangerous than you guys think.
At the end of a long and frustrating day, Rep. Quintana decided to leave the testing and data gathering to the pros.
Many of you are wondering, did she reach for her cell phone while conducting these scientific tests? Did she send or read text messages while driving the high tech simulator?
As you can see in this exclusive photograph, Rep. Quintana was wearing a hands free device while conducting the test.
And after seeing her performance on the track with the hands free device, she showed no interest in running the track while talking on her cell phone.
The group of engineers agreed that it would be best that she didn't either.
Not much was proven by these tests this weekend. We didn't get any indisputable evidence to prove or disprove the effectiveness of the ban.
We are all still waiting on some reliable data to do that.
So if any of you guys out there have any please feel free to share it with us.
Our weekend wasn't a total loss, we did see a politician following the law she had proposed, that's always nice, and my research team and I enjoyed our afternoon running the track over and over once Rep Quintana completed her test. I love my research team!
(no kids or politicians were harmed in the making of this report)
She has time to getting her bumper bumped riding those bumper cars but doesn't have time to reply to the constituents of El Paso when they ask for assistance.
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