Cellphone Use While Driving - is it a Risk?

As I'm sitting in my car waiting to enter the freeway on-ramp, I suddenly hear the screech of tires somewhere in the distance. I look in my review mirror to see what the commotion is and I view the grill of a Ford F-250 truck barreling down on my tiny Honda CR-V while the driver throws his cell phone out of his hands. There is little I can do except grip the steering wheel as I watch the truck slam into my tailgate at 40 miles per hour. The force of the impact sends me flying in to oncoming traffic to be pummeled again and again by unsuspecting cars and all I can think of is that I'm thankful that I just dropped my son off at daycare.

I live in Orange County, California and have a fairly short commute to work each day but in the small amount of time I encounter many potential hazardous situations of commuters talking on their hand-held mobile devices while driving in heavy traffic at various speeds. When I notice people with their heads kinked at an angle, cradling their phones in their necks, it makes me feel very wary of driving next to them. My all-time favorite is the driver who has one hand on the wheel (usually the left) and has their right hand stretched all the way over to hold their phone up to the opposite ear. They look like a tangled mess!

We are now a multi-tasking society yet I don't understand how people can sufficiently say that they are such expert drivers that they can check text messages, read emails and take or place phone calls while driving at 65 mph or in heavy stop and go traffic. The funny thing is we teach our inexperienced, young drivers that distractions such as playing with the radio, talking with passengers and reaching for items across the car while driving are not acceptable, yet here we are not practicing what we preach.

My new past time while sitting in traffic in the afternoons is counting the drivers who are talking on their phones. I give myself a point for each cell-phone driver and an extra point for one that is sending a text message or if they almost cause an accident while they are on the phone.

Here is an example of how much of a distraction cell phones can be for drivers - my husband and I were on our way home and were stopped at a light next to a very busy shopping center. A lady in a large SUV tried to pull out of the parking lot driveway and of course, she was talking on her cell phone. She must have been having a wonderful conversation because she was using her other hand in an animated gesture. She must not have been paying attention to the cars stopped at the light because the next thing I knew, she almost plowed into the car in front of us. She stopped just in time and reversed her SUV back up into the driveway, not looking and rammed into the car behind her. And she was still on her cell phone the entire time!

Let's all stop and think about the times we have seen people weaving in traffic, narrowly missing the cars in another lane. Now let's think about the times we have done this ourselves. Anyone who drives and owns a cell phone is probably guilty. I have even seen company vehicles being driven by employees chatting on their cell phones. Did you know that if an employee causes an accident while on their cell phones, that the employer and employee could be held responsible?

On July 1, 2008, a new law will take affect in California considering the use of hand-held devices while driving. If a cop sees you driving while using your hand-held device, they will issue you a ticket. The first offense will cost $20 and all other offenses will be $50 each. The only time you will be allowed to use your hand-held phone while driving is if you are calling in an emergency. A hands-free earpiece will be required to use your phone in the car.

But earpieces are not the solution to the problem. All use while driving should be considered dangerous. Studies have shown that a cell phone distraction both hands-free and hand-held causes "Inattention Blindness" in drivers. Chatting on the phone disrupts the driver's attention to their surroundings leading to the inability to recognize objects in the driver's field of vision. Being lost in thought while talking on the phone draws the driver away from the attention they need to pay to driving conditions.

In 2005, there were 1,334 reported accidents where the driver admitted that they were using their cell phone at the time of the crash. The number is probably higher but unfortunately most drivers in accidents make their cell phones disappear quickly so they can hide their fault. I have never heard someone return my phone call to say, "I'm sorry I couldn't answer your call. I was driving." Since when did our phone calls become so extremely important that we risk the lives of others around us just so we can talk?

I do admit to this as well sometimes but I try to keep it to a minimum. I have a Blackberry but I do not send text messages while driving. I may answer a phone call once in a while but I make it brief. Most of the time I don't answer and my husband laughs when I say, "If it's important, they will leave a message." If I have to talk to my husband, I usually wait until I get home. It's usually not that important anyways. I value the life of my son way too much and will not use my phone at all while driving with him in the car.

The staggering number of accidents caused by unfocused drivers is climbing every year and cell phones top the list of distractions. Although 71 percent of American drivers support prohibiting the use of hand-held cell phones while driving and 80 percent have admitted that their competence behind the wheel suffers when they are distracted, they still get in their cars every day, and risk their lives and other's lives to take that all-important phone call.

Here are some tips to follow if you absolutely need to use your phone while driving:

*Keep your eyes on the road at all times
*Program and use your speed-dial pre-sets on your cell phone
*Learn how to use the voice-activated features
*Use and hands-free earpiece or use speakerphone
*Never use in bad weather, heavy traffic or when you have children in the vehicle
*Your number one priority should be driving; conversation is the least important

Intentional distractions while driving are considered a form of reckless driving by the California Highway Patrol. I am hoping that the new law will help get cell phone use under control and save more lives on the road in years to come.