The nearby city of Amarillo, Texas recently banned the use of cellular telephones while driving. There was an online article in the Amarillo newspaper that used some data in a questionable manner, so I wrote this online comment:
The article expressed [an] increase of 57 accidents for the time period 2006 to 2010 from 3,352 to 3,409, which is a little less than 2 percent increase, which may or may not be a statistically valid increase based on the data collection methods. The population increase in the same time period for the state of Texas was approximately 8 percent, which would mean that the more important per capita accident rate actually decreased. When you factor in the probable (I have no data for this) increase in the ownership of cellular telephones in the same time frame, this would indicate an improvement in driver behavior concerning cellular telephone usage while driving.
[end of my online comment]
I came back to the article 7 hours later to see if anyone had any responses to my comment, but there were no comments. BUT in the upper right corner I noticed there had been 4 votes cast about my comment, one thumbs up, BUT THREE thumbs down.
WHAT?!?!? All I did was point out that a piece of their supporting data was logically backwards.
In case you want to know, I don't text and drive. I don't usually talk on a cell phone when driving, unless I am in the middle of nowhere, which in my part of Texas is probably half of my driving time.
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