JoeyBike

One in five are using a hand-held, non-Bluetooth phone behind the wheel at any given time. I sometimes count them as I see them. On the Interstate, my wife handles that count for me. "Watch out...she is on the phone!"..."Watch out...he's on the phone!".............

I'm not too worried about people talking while driving. It's looking away from the road for whatever reason that freaks me out.

On the other hand, my job requires an unhealthy amount of multitasking. I can juggle a lot of tasks and thoughts. But occasionally while driving under certain conditions (usually lasting one minute or less) I have to ask my wife to stop talking to me because I can not process what she is saying AND keep an eye on everything going on around me - usually on high speed freeways with lots of traffic, merging, etc. Even knowing that I can multitask with the best of them, I don't/can't do it behind the wheel of a car at high speed under certain conditions.

So what about the dingbat who can't walk and chew gum at the same time? How are they going to accomplish the multitasking without engaging an air bag sooner than later? Certainly some phone users are more dangerous than others. But even with Bluetooth, certain folks are going to lose focus on the task at hand - not engaging anyone's airbags. How many people are even AWARE they can't do it safely? They ALL think they can handle it. I have asked around. Not one person ever told me their phone use hampered their ability to drive.

My phone takes messages - both text and voice. This is how I handle it. Since I am not expecting a call from the President asking how I feel about the next imminent drone strike, there is no need for me to be instantly available to anyone.