Imagine this

You are driving down the road in the middle of a blizzard. The wind is blowing and the snow is blinding. You can not see see three feet in front of the car. Your kids are in the back seat strapped into their car seats when your tire blows out. You pull your car to the side of the road and have a decision to make. Turn off the car so that your cell phone can operate or leave your kids in the car with the engine running and the heater going, but you have to get out into the weather and wander far enough form your car so that your cell phone will work. Why these two options? Because the government has decided installing a cell phone jammer in your car is the only way to keep idiots from driving themselves off bridges, or into buildings.

Apparently now it is the business of the United States Government to intrude into your life to the point where they could disable your private property in your private property. Seriously. Lets think this through a bit though. If they put this device anywhere visible or known, the operator can just disable it. It can not be in a place where the operator can be tempted to disable it, because it will only be a matter of time before they do. It can also not have an on and off switch, as the operator will simply turn it off. This means it has to be directly connected to the batter, or the cars electrical system in some fashion; as soon as your car is on, the device necessarily has to come on.

What then do you do in the case of an emergency like the one above? How do you safely call a tow truck while keeping your family safe as well. I have been in cars that will not start up in extreme cold when minutes earlier they had been running (for those of you from warmer areas, this is why people leave their cars running while they go into a convenience store in the middle of December). The bigger question though should be is this even a valid concern of government?

I have a better solution. Let the idiots on the road be personally responsible for their actions. Stiffen the civil and penal penalties allowed for idiots who harm others while on their cell phones in vehicles. You do not punish the whole for the actions of a few, unless the whole is wrong to begin with. The US government really needs to stay out of our cars, our homes and our pants.