Texting/talking on Cellphones while driving.

They just introduced the no handheld law here - think it's $195 fine. Problem is, I believe, that they are not going to solve the problem.

The difference is that unlike eating, drinking, smoking, listening to the radio, talking to a passenger in the vehicle, is that the driver can do these things and still remain focused on the task at hand. Even if conversing, the driver can easily interrupt or pause the conversation when the need to arises. When speaking to someone outside of the vehicle, that person has no idea of what the driver is encountering, and will continue to speak, ask questions etc. even if the driver is negotiating a dangerous situation.

I think of it like a computer. We don't "multi-task", we "task-switch". And if we give a higher priority to one task over another, than the "background" task will have a smaller slice of our focus. It's the inability of many people to keep focus on driving as their "foreground" task that will nullify any effect of disallowing hands-held phones, and using hands-free.

Of course, texting, or use of other devices that remove attention for long periods of time makes sense.

Grant