The Wall Street Journal "Driver's Seat" blogger Jonathan Welsh says the National Transportation Safety Board's call for banning use of cell phones while driving to be a bridge too far - an abridgment of freedom.

When I heard that the National Transportation Safety Board is pushing for states to ban cell-phone use in cars I almost said, “Amen.”

Then it occurred to me that this could wind up being just another annoying restriction on things I like to do on occasion.

Of course, I talk on the phone while driving. Who doesn’t? Very few people, I suspect. While I don’t chatter incessantly or even take calls in the car very often, I want the freedom to answer important calls while on the road. Indeed, I want the freedom to use my judgment, which would be sharply limited by this sort of regulation.

I am also torn, however, because I have been nearly sideswiped and almost run over by people carrying on conversations behind the wheel.

Hands-free or not, and on the phone or in-person, conversation is distraction and drivers need to be careful. But after nearly 30 years of driving, much of it before mobile phones were ubiquitous, I think general inattention is the bigger problem, and I doubt banning phones will solve it.

Welsh mentions studies by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety of cell phone usage and texting while driving which concluded that banning the phones doesn’t improve driver safety.

The research group, which is funded by the insurance industry, said it compared states with laws prohibiting cell-phone use with states that had no similar laws, and there was no difference in traffic crashes or fatalities. In the case of texting, there was a slight increase in crashes for states that adopted anti-texting rules, an Insurance Institute spokesman said.

One of those studies, released in January 2010 by the IIHS's Highway Loss Data Institute, found "no reductions in crashes after hand-held phone bans take effect."  Comparing insurance claims for crash damage in 4 US jurisdictions before and after such bans, the researchers find steady claim rates compared with nearby jurisdictions without such bans.

Adrian Lund, president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, summarized the results thusly: "Whatever the reason, the key finding is that crashes aren't going down where hand-held phone use has been banned. This finding doesn't auger well for any safety payoff from all the new laws that ban phone use and texting while driving."

Meanwhile, other stats show that our highways have become much safer in recent years - even as mobile phones have gone from exotic luxury item to nearly ubiquitous. The number of traffic fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled has dropped from 1.73 in 1994 to 1.14 in 2009, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The NHTSA data shows we have a lot more people now than in 1994 - more drivers, more vehicles and more miles being driven - and yet fewer fatalities now than back then.

The NTSB claims there's an "epidemic" of cell phone-related crashes, but Welsh reminds us that the issue isn't just a matter of data - that freedom is at stake in this debate. Specifically, the freedom adult Americans should have to use their own judgment and make their own decisions rather than having such decisions made for them by bureaucrats in Washington.

In fact, one could even say that in some cases, cell phone usage might improve safety. Tired drivers can stay awake by calling up a friend to chat and the perpetually lost can get turn-by-turn directions from their phones' GPS software.

Luckily for common sense, the NTSB's recommendation is nothing more than that, a recommendation. Let's leave it at that.

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