Drivers and Cell Phones

I have heard on the news that some states have now banned the use of hand held cell phones while operating a vehicle. These news reports indicated that these states reference numerous safety reports on the subject. Now, a recent report in the news reports that even hands free cell phone use contributes to the increase of driving accidents and incidents.

Recently, I experienced an incident that was caused by cell phone use at least that is my belief. I was driving down a major road in town. This is a straight 5 lane road (2 each way and a center turn lane) with a 45 mph speed limit through a business area full of stores, strip malls and restaurants; and at the point of the incident you could see more that ¼ mile in each direction. Also, it was a bright sunny morning with very little traffic on the road. As I was driving down this road a car came out of the parking lot on the right making a left turn directly in front of me. In her hand, up to her left ear, was a cell phone and her arm was blocking her vision in my direction. Well, since I could not see her eyes I assumed her vision was blocked.

I put on my brakes and honked my horn. She turned and looked at me in terror as I missed her driver’s door by only a foot or two. She never slowed down and continued down the road. Maybe she did look first but it is hard to miss my big Dodge truck coming down the road.

I have seen many occasions where a cell phone was a contributing part of a traffic incident. I say incident because no accident happened in these cases, but sometime an accident almost happened. I am not saying that I am against cell phones while driving, but I wonder about the studies I read about.

When you drive you need to pay attention to what you are doing. Drivers are easily distracted already, especially if others are in the vehicle with them. Have you ever driven with more that one child in the back seat? How many times has your attention been directed to the back seat while driving down the highway?

I don’t have a simple solution for this problem but for now I strongly believe that you need to get that phone out of your ear while you are driving, especially while turning, negotiating city traffic and other high traffic areas. I have heard recommendations that you should pull over whenever you need to talk on your cell phone. Based on my recent and past experiences, I think that is a good idea.