<p>I admit that I use my phone while driving. I’ve been able to stop doing it with a conscious effort but it’s not easy. I don’t dial, but if the phone rings, it’s hard NOT to pick it up. However, after seeing Oprah talk about it a couple of times, I’ve decided to give it up. <a href=“Oprah.com”>Oprah.com; I’ve never texted while driving - that just seems like an accident waiting to happen, but it’s not unusual for me to get a text and then look at it. I think I need to put my purse, with the phone in it, in the back seat. 
Anyone else giving their phone up in the car?</p>
<p>I have stopped talking on the phone while driving. I never did it much in the first place, because it was awkward and just didn’t feel very safe. But when California made it illegal that gave me all the excuse I needed to stop entirely.</p>
<p>I used to have a hands free device, but it is always out of juice and I never remember to charge it, or turn it on prior to driving. I think searching for the button above the visor to turn the thing on while the phone is ringing, is dangerous. I gave up on the hands free device a long time ago. </p>
<p>Now I let the phone ring and I drive to a safe place to pull over and then I answer. If I am on a long road trip, I tell my family NOT to call me unless it is an emergency, but I check in with them after I have pulled off the road/highway.</p>
<p>The statistics quoted on Oprah were sobering.</p>
<p>Liklihood of having an accident if intoxicated: 4 times the rate of a sober person.</p>
<p>Liklihood of having an accident if talking on the phone: 4 times the rate of a sober person not talking on the phone.</p>
<p>Liklihood of having an accident if texting while driving: 8 times the rate of a sober person not using a phone.</p>
<p>There is absolutely no excuse for texting while driving. I’ve seen people swerving on the road and wondered if they’d just left a bar. Then I pull up alongside and see that they are texting or dialing their phones. </p>
<p>I also answer my phone if it rings, and I need to stop doing that.</p>
<p>I do use my phone- and almost always use a bluetooth (hands free) device. I agree that almost everytime I see someone doing something stupid in traffic (including going too slowly in the left lane) they have a phone slapped up to their ear. I do think phone use is dangerous- in the case of my work Blackberry, it is locked after 10 minutes of non-use and I have to enter a code to unlock it to make a call. That isn’t particularly safe. I like to think I am the exception and am capable of using the phone and driving…but that’s probably not the case. It’s going to be a impossible to stop the use of phones while driving, though.</p>
<p>I am especially more conscious of it now that I have another new driver in the house - how can I tell him to not use his phone in the car if I AM? This has helps me to curb my use. I wish there was a simpler way to use a speaker option.</p>
<p>abasket, on the Oprah show, they had a guest discussing the use of cell phones in cars. Regardless of whether one uses a hand held,or a speaker phone, it was demonstrated that the driver is nevertheless distracted, and physically/neurologically is incapable of taking in everything. Apparently our brains are not wired to allow multitasking while driving. In the demonstration, it showed how the brain will “remove” certain things from the field of view while talking. For example, when not distracted, we take everything in. When on the phone, we might not have the same peripheral vision (so the lady coming across the cross walk isn’t visible) or we will “remove” the stopsign, etc. It was fascinating to watch this, yet discomforting, as many of us believe we are fine to talk on the phone as long as we are not texting. This show was a wake up call for me. Now I need to be a role model to my soon to be licensed driver.</p>
<p>My phone is has voice activation capability; so does my particular Bluetooth device (which was very difficult to find with this feature; mine is LG).
I turn the Bluetooth on and put it in my ear before I start the engine.
To start a call, I tap the on button (not unlike scratching my ear) and state the name.
The Bluetooth auto answers incoming calls.</p>
<p>Q for Nrdsb4:
Did the show indicate that talking with a handsfree device was worse than talking to a passenger?</p>
<p>I didn’t see the show, but I imagine that talking handsfree can be worse than talking to a passenger beside you (might very well be equal to carpooling a crowd of disruptive kids or something like that, though). At least the passenger sitting next to you has some awareness of surroundings and may instinctively stop talking if driving conditions become more challenging or if there is an obstacle, so as not to distract. That isn’t possible in the case of someone talking to you on the other end of the phone. I really do wish they would ban drivers talking on cell phones in my state - I was just behind some swerving person the other day. In any other decade you’d have thought she was completely drunk.</p>
<p>Good perspective, Roshke.</p>
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<p>I don’t remember if it addressed that or not. Common sense would say it would be no different, or even worse if you are glancing frequently at the passenger. Anything that distracts from the task at hand could be dangerous. That includes eating, yelling at your arguing kids in the back seat, putting on makeup, and reading. Yes, I’ve seen people reading while driving.</p>
<p>It wasn’t my teens cellphone which drew the minor but costly accident while parking (long scratch on side of car), it was her listening to her IPOD. Now she shuts off and glove compartments both.</p>
<p>Distractibility.</p>
<p>I never text and never call out while driving. Never. I accept calls if from family and then get off ASAP.</p>
<p>D has been told repeatedly not to use her phone while driving. She knows the tragic story of my friend’s family and the texting driver.</p>
<p>I don’t use the phone in the car - there’s no need to. I managed to live decades without a cell phone at all. If someone calls it while I’m in the car the caller ID captures the number or they can leave a voice mail and I’ll simply call them back in a few minutes when I get to my destination. There’s nothing that urgent and I don’t spend a huge amount of time driving anyway. If I were to drive a long distance and needed to take some calls I’d use the bluetooth. Besides - using a cell phone in the convertible with the top down doesn’t work well anyway.</p>
<p>From my observations it seems that most of the cell phone talkers in cars are females - probably talking to other females driving cars. It seems that many of them somehow associate driving a car with talking on a cell phone so it’s the first thing they do when they get behind the wheel - dial all their friends and just chat.</p>
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<p>According to Wikipedia (I know, I know) the evidence is mixed but tends to support the notion that talking on a hands-free phone is more dangerous than talking to passengers.</p>
<p>Oh, and reading texts while driving? Speaking as one of the distractions you guys are “removing” when you phone/text while driving (I’m a bicyclist), I’ve got to say, stop doing it. I know you think you’re a better than average driver, but everyone thinks they’re a better than average driver. When you are phoning or texting, you are a much worse than average driver. So knock it off. I don’t want to die.</p>
<p>What I found interesting on the show, and the several times she (Oprah) has mentioned the ‘no phone zone’ - which I have since adopted…I simply turn the phone off when I get in the car, and turn it back on when I get out. It makes me less ‘anxious’ if it rings and I am not going to answer it. She had a video with Nate Berkus who kept hearing the texts coming in, and it was making him a nervous wreck. Why put yourself through that? When I turn the phone on again I can check for “missed” calls. I even changed my outgoing voice message to say, “I’m no longer using my phone when driving, so if you get this message, I hope you’ll leave a message for me.” </p>
<p>Once I shut the phone off, it was easy.</p>
<p>I think the driver who used her/his phone and subsequently caused a fatal accident should be tried as “Manslaughter”. I’m not usually a big fan of too much prison/laws/ and taking away our civic freedom, but it sure seems that we won’t learn they don’t mix until we are extreme.</p>