Hands Free America - Driving and Cell Phones

The day is coming, when driving and holding your cell phone will not be an option, at least not in California. If the laws go into effect next year you will have to use ear pieces only. Which is just fine for me.

If you've been watching the news, you have seen the number of stupid accidents caused by being on the phone instead of being present in your car, just you and the road. One woman even went right through a window in a retail shop because she was confused. She had thought she was in reverse, when in fact she was in drive.

Ok, I don't want to get up on my soapbox and preach about this. I myself am a cell phone user, and it gives me great pleasure to talk to friends while I am stuck on the highway. But if you can't take a corner without putting that phone down, you probably should be hands free. It's alright. Single minded people are very focused, but then there are those certain people who just can't multi-task, and who are addicted to their phones. You know if you're one of them. Your cell phone rings in the car, and you are in a panic to answer it. You take your foot off the gas, and accidentally steer to the right over the line just a little bit, while you are frantically trying to get to it before it hits the voicemail. Unfortunately, it took you too long to find it, because it fell to the bottom of your purse, or slipped out of your pocket onto the floor under the seat of the car. Where is it Damn it! Now you obsessively wonder, "Who called me?" It stresses your mind until you reach that point of no return and start fumbling around at a red light, or stop and go traffic. You just have to know who called. You see the edge of it peaking out just under the passenger's seat. You think you are stopped, but in reaching for it, you take your foot off the brake and slam right into the car in front of you at 2 miles an hour. You're lucky though, you have a big bumper and it didn't scratch the other guys' car, and being an honest guy, he doesn't claim whiplash. Your in the clear this time, so you feverishly reach for that phone, you are on your way again. Just when you have hit the search messages button and your voicemail starts playing, you look up just in time to run onto the corner curb, pinching your tire and giving you a flat tire. Now you really are going to need that cell phone to call a tow truck. And the message you so desperately needed to hear is just your mom checking in to see how you are doing.
Most cell phones come with attachments, or you can buy them for cheap anyway. We are becoming a society of hands-free everything. Now you can have a vacuum that vacuums your whole house without ever touching it. And as most of us know our iPod's come with those ear pieces, so why don't we just become a hands-free America before they decide we can't talk on the phone in the car at all.