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We all see it and many of us do it – chat on a cell phone as we drive. We know it’s distracting, but we convince ourselves we can handle it. Some people now use a hands-free device, believing it reduces the risk.
“I’m able to put two hands on the steering wheel and I’m able to concentrate on what’s going on around me,” says Romell Witherspoon of Renton, Wash.
Personally, this probably occurs when I'm driving when I shouldn't be... but, often if I'm tired, I will call someone and that conversation will keep my mind alert and awake. I think mostly its just you need to remind yourself than when you're driving, the action comes first and not to get absorbed in anything else.
It's illegal to even hold a phone while driving in Ireland, and the local paper always has at least two or three people who got caught and fined for doing it anyway.
The sad thing is of course that we don't NEED phones to distract us. Today on a road trip our kids spotted a woman styling her hair with both hands while driving in rush-hour traffic, and then there's everyone who's fiddling with the radio or yelling at their kids in the back seat or crying over something that happened at work...how many drivers actually have their mind on driving?
It's frightening. My daughter's learning to drive , so I'm constantly pointing these things out to her. I tell her to be as alert as a superhero ALL THE TIME because 99% of other drivers are either morons, or unfit to drive, or criminally insane.
I see people reading while driving at least once a week. Holding the paper or book on the steering wheel and just zooming along the highway. This is the person who needs to lose their license.
Not long ago, close to where I live a 18 year old was killed when he dropped his cell phone and was trying to get it and ran off the road in a dangerous curve..
I resent being in a car with someone on their cell phone. A drunk driver, you can say "Thanks but I'll get another ride." I see so many people walk right out of their house, get in a car, start driving and start making phone calls. I have seen people flying through parking lots without looking to see if anyone was in their way. I see them as a real danger, the most dangerous thing on the roads/highways today.... More so than drunk drivers.
Its a poor driving problem in my opinion. These people causing accidents are inattentive drivers in the first place, the phone just amplifies it.
Personally, I say remove laws saying you "can't" do it and just make the penalties for any accidents or situations caused by its use so hefty that any normal person wouldn't want to even risk it.
If you take away the phones, you have to take away food, drink, radio, and the list goes on. Problem is the person, responsibility needs to be placed there, not on some device.
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, so I'm constantly pointing these things out to her. I tell her to be as alert as a superhero ALL THE TIME because 99% of other drivers are either morons, or unfit to drive, or criminally insane. 
