I am not putting your life in danger. YOU are putting your life in danger by leaving the house (though I don't know, offhand, the statistics for in-hous accidents versus on-the-road accidents).

I do not text while I drive. I pay little attention to my GPS and now wish I could upgrade to the one my wife has which has much better voice directions. I have NEVER been ticketed for distracted driving. I have never been involved in anything more than a fender-bender and have never been sued for being 'at fault' of anything. *All* the accidents I've been involved in since I started driving in 1978 were condition-related (I believe I outlined the 3 I had earlier). My 'record' now consists of having ONE ticket (for driving on an incomplete inspection sticker) in the last 23 years.

In other words, you don't have to worry about me.

You have to worry about the drunk. You have to worry about the people who can't handle driving to begin with. When the NTSB says there are a little over 3000 accident where cell phone usage was a *factor* (and please note that multiple factors can be listed for any accident - like 'speed and alcohol'), understand that is an incredibly small percentage when compare to everything else.

A few months ago, an elderly woman rammed her car through a storefront window. Despite the overwhelming evidence of how much more dangerous it is to leave the elderly untested, cell phones get the news headlines.

I wonder why that is...

Army - you are proceeding from a false assumption. You believe that my talking to my wife is endangering your life. Even on my worst day (like when I was driving myself to the hospital with debilitating chest pains) I'm hardly a threat to you because:

- I don't drive impaired (drunk)
- I keep my car well-maintained (brakes, lights, windshied wipers, etc)
- I don't do drugs
- I don't take/make calls when the circumstances demand more attention from me.
- I've taken my car into a parking lot to test it's limits so I know what it can and can't do if I find myself in exceptional circumstances.
- I *have* pulled over when the driving has been so boring that I'm lulled into fatigue.

In other words - you're looking at the wrong boogeyman.

djplong

It sounds like you are one of the few who takes driving seriously. My response wasn't intended to insult you personally and if it did, I apologize. My response was intended to raise the awareness to all on this forum that any distraction is and could be disruptive. The use of cell phones and texting while operating a motor vehicle is in the least one distraction and needs to be dealt with. I have been in an accident where a distraction caused a death, and because of this I make the statement "Cell phone usage while driving is a distraction that at the very least should be illegal" Trying to rationalize that distractions aren't dangerous when driving is a falsehood.

No offense taken.

It's been my position that it doesn't matter WHY you are distracted. If you're weaving over all the lanes on the road you should be PULLED OVER. I don't care if the problem was that you had an itch! Distracted driving is distracted driving.

By the same token, if your brain works differently and you can be eating a sandwich, talking to your spouse on a blutooth while plotting your course with the latest traffic updates on the radio - and you're rock-steady in your lane and maintaining proper spacing, etc - then you are ovbiously NOT distracted.