Analysts said today that legislators need to take care in how they craft new laws. "You can't legislate common sense, and I'd say the Boston operator was an idiot," said Craig Mathias, an analyst at Farpoint Group who has followed the debate for many years. "I'd say that instead of more laws against driving while talking or texting on a phone, that we should have driving while distracted laws, from any kind of distraction."

Mathias said that the use of mobile devices has led to unsafe situations that need to be addressed. "We need to pass a law, apparently, because common sense is no longer common, period." He said it is outrageous that the crash caused US$9 million in damages and will probably lead to lawsuits by injured passengers totaling many times that amount.

But another analyst, Jack Gold of J.Gold Associates, has studied the issue for years as well, and opposes more laws. He believes there are plenty of laws that govern poor driving and added, "It's hard to legislate ways to get people to act correctly."

Gold said he drives the roads in California frequently and has seen many drivers texting while holding a mobile device beneath the steering wheel -- despite a new law against doing so. "I don't think it's working," he said of the law.

But both Mathias and Gold agreed that taking away the cell phones from subway drivers completely, as called for by the transit authority chief, makes little sense because an operator might want the device to communicate to 911 in an emergency, just as any passenger would. "Taking away the phones is treating them like they are children," Mathias said.