The National Transportation Safety Board announced this past Tuesday its recommendation that all use of cell phones should be banned for operators of motor vehicles ”“ taking a hard line on an issue that has cost lives.

While we certainly agree with the board’s contention that “no email, no text, no update, no call is worth a human life,” it seems there are two main problems with the recommendation: Scope and enforcement.

It’s common sense to realize that anything that takes your eyes off the road while you’re driving is a bad idea. First, it was radios and cigarette lighters that were blamed for collisions, later GPS devices and cell phones, and now texting and the Internet.

But where do we draw the line on driver distraction? Will it soon be illegal to do anything other than have your hands at 10 and 2 and eyes on the road at all times? Food, pets, children, makeup, reading materials, music CDs and baggage have all been part of the equation in car crashes. Are we really going to pull out all the distracting features in our automobiles and make people buy cars where they are separated from passengers by sound-proof glass to avoid the distraction of conversation? That’s unthinkable, of course, and the American public would revolt.

Talking on a hands-free device that does not require physical dialing is no different from chatting with a passenger, so it seems the NTSB’s suggested ban on that is too far-reaching. But texting and updating Web pages while driving are two deadly, dangerous activities that obviously should not be allowed. It’s bad enough when you’re trying to scarf down a hamburger en route, let alone spell something correctly on a tiny keyboard and send it to the right person.

The second major problem is enforcement. Most communities simply don’t have enough police to make sure drivers are paying full attention, or enough money to fund such positions. Many other actions are illegal while driving, from drinking alcohol to wearing headphones to swerving in and out of lanes without a blinker, but people do these things every day ”“ often with deadly consequences. If there were a cop on every corner, it probably wouldn’t happen, but that’s unrealistic.

Use of communication technology is just not going to stop, even if it is banned, and we’ll never be able to fund enforcement to the point where people will actually be concerned about following the law for fear of legal or monetary repercussions. If the threat of death or bodily harm to themselves and others isn’t enough to keep them from texting while driving, how can the board think that the law is going to make any difference?

It seems education could be a key component in changing such behavior. Local police departments have made some headway in this arena, using golf carts to show local high school students how awful their driving becomes when they’re trying to send a text. Nothing gets the message across like doing it yourself. Perhaps such a program could be extended to all drivers, since it seems the main difficulty comes in trying to get across to people that they are, in fact, putting human lives in danger when they drive distracted.

While the NTSB’s recommendation seems like a common-sense, easy solution, it’s simply not realistic. The culture of technology has been embraced by business people, students and average citizens going about their daily errands ”“ and it’s not likely to become a thing of the past.

The newest smart phones are all the rage, and cars are being designed with more and more technology already built in. Jobs are requiring people to be reachable even when they’re commuting, and the social expectation has risen to that level as well. If board members think a parent is going to avoid answering a phone call from his or her child while on the way to an event or a shopping center, they’re not realizing the reality of today’s far-reaching use of technology. And that’s to say nothing of business people who conduct work calls on their way to meetings.

For many drivers who are too “plugged in” to leave their cell phones alone while driving, the only way to help prevent loss of life due to driver inattention will be to employ more technology. Perhaps cell phones could have GPS sensors installed that recognize when they are traveling at a high rate of speed and would not be operable for anything other than hands-free calling. Maybe steering wheels could sense when you have one or both hands off the wheel for more than a couple seconds and sound an alert. Any number of new technologies could help keep drivers eyes on the road even while they are using cell phones for communication.

Developers solved the problem of having to dial numbers and hold the phone with one hand while driving, hence the popularity of Bluetooth headsets and the like, so we’re confident they could come up with something that could discourage or disallow use of cell phones while driving.

Though we feel the NTSB has the best interests of all motorists and passengers in mind, we’d encourage them to consider other recommendations beyond a simple ban and work with car companies to help us all stay safer on the road.

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Today’s editorial was written by Managing Editor Kristen Schulze Muszynski on behalf of the Journal Tribune Editorial Board. Questions? Comments? Contact Kristen by calling 282-1535, Ext. 322, or via e-mail at kristenm@journaltribune.com.