Stupid CA Cellphone Law

Am I the only one who remembers various studies that proved that there’s no difference between hands-on and hands-free cellphone use while driving? Both are equally distracting:

Many studies have shown that using hand-held cellphones while driving can constitute a hazardous distraction. However, the theory that hands-free sets are safer has been challenged by the findings of several studies. A study from researchers at the University of Utah, published in the summer 2006 issue of Human Factors, the quarterly journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, concludes that talking on a cellphone while driving is as dangerous as driving drunk, even if the phone is a hands-free model. An earlier study by researchers at the university found that motorists who talked on hands-free cellphones were 18 percent slower in braking and took 17 percent longer to regain the speed they lost when they braked.

So how is this new California law that banishes hands-on cellphones, but still allows dialing, texting and headsets, more than activism? Yesterday a coworker almost got run into by a woman who was talking on her speaker phone. This morning, I saw a woman driving way under the speed limit on hway 101 while talking exitedly on her headset. But all of the sudden we’re forbidden from normal cellphone use because that is too dangerous?