Fourteen years and 26 days ago, not that I keep this number in my head at all times, a family member was less than a mile from our house when another driver ran a stop sign. Because said family member reads my blog, I'll skip the details except to say her car was totaled and ambulances were involved. That other driver was on her cell phone.
For years, study after study has proved that driving while phoning is no different from driving while drunk. Yet the talking continues. On Monday of this week, a very large vehicle, driven by a woman, smiling and with a cell phone stuck to her ear, nearly hit me in a parking lot. Yesterday, my car stalled (it's winter, it happens), I switched on the hazard lights, and as I attempted to get going again, the car behind me, driven by, this time, a man on a phone, swerved around me, nearly side-swiping me and hitting the approaching car head-on.
What will it take for us to abandon this dangerous habit? Turns out driving while talking--whether with a headset or without--makes no difference. It's the brain, baby, that can't process the distraction of distant voices while doing such simple things as finding an exit. Tara Parker-Pope, who keeps the Well column in the NY Times, along with a very useful blog, reported yesterday that a total ban on phoning-while-driving has been taken up by the National Safety Council ("A Problem of the Brain, Not the Hands: Group Urges Phone Ban for Drivers"). Parker-Pope tells her own story of phone-distraction on her blog in "Will Drivers Ever Give Up Cell Phones?"
One of our very safety-conscious clients has gone so far as to ban phoning-while-driving for all employees. Violating this rule is regarded as a serious infraction.
Please. Tell me your stories and then pledge with me to just hang up. Quiet is good too, you know.
