A few months back, I merely joked that after we had banned texting, phone calls, shaving, and more while driving, the next logical step — to protect the children — would be to ban listening to the radio while driving. Somebody didn’t get the memo that it was a joke, because a study just came out claiming that listening to your favorite sports team can be distracting and dangerous while driving. This is not a joke. The Kansas City Star has an article on the deadly radio epidemic here.
As absurd as this may be, I think we all know that some nanny-state politician somewhere will read this study, want to make the world a safer place, and attempt to implement some type of radio ban. And, sure enough, it will be met with ridicule at first, and go nowhere. But a few years after that, somebody will cause a major accident because they overreacted to a Tigers touchdown, or, worse yet, because they tried to change the radio station, and suddenly it will become a serious issue — one that must be dealt with because “public safety” demands it. And then, the next thing you know, radio controls will be mandated for the steering wheel, and internal car radio volumes will be legally controlled (we already have noise ordinances for the external volume), and sometime around 2025 I predict an outright ban on car radios. This study is just the start of an entire process.
