Explain to me why

All good points (except Spendi's, because he doesn't even have a cell phone - but Reyn's right, that was romantic) but I'm still not sure. You could be having a heated debate with someone who is not concentrating on your driving so they might not notice what you're doing and so not gasp and say, "Slow down"... and yes to the ice cream issue - two hands is not the issue... it's the discussion part. I see where texting is the problem, of course, or dialling.... just not the talking part. It would be very interesting to know how many accidents were caused by people actually TALKING not texting or dialling.

There have been studies, you could probably look them up through a site like AAA/CAA.

Anecdotally, my neighbour's oldest son was killed when he (a pedestrian crossing a road on a crosswalk) was struck by a car being driven by someone who was talking on the phone.

I had this friend who was killled by a blue-hair driving her OLDS 98 through a parking lot while teasing her hair (she had thin hair). She didn't own a cell phone.

Aaaand, an old lady just ran down a 4 year old nearby. The 4 year old was crossing at a cross walk with her family at the time. And the old lady wasn't using a cell phone.

DOES NOT mean I think cell phones are safe to use while driving.

Given up the ciggies yet?

What decade was that?

Edit: Didn't meant to sound sarcastic - that's terrible about your friend. Just that "blue hair" and "teasing" implies ancient to me.

1998

That's very sad. 11 yrs. I had a friend who was going to work and died in a head-on from someone who was putting their coffee in the coffee ring thing in their car. Going too fast, obviously, and maybe not really awake? At any rate, these deaths were preventable.

I've had people talking on phones, change lanes without looking/comprehending that someone was in their blind spot.

I think it's mostly about the pure distraction, one is concentrating more on the topic they are discussing rather than the other cars on the road.

Personally I don't like having chatty passengers in the car when driving. They create their own distractions, like "oh look at that cool blimp!"

Also, although they may see the car in front of me, the passenger may not realize I'm not stopping at a yellow light because the car behind me is traveling too close. If I'm on the phone, I would probably react more to the color of the stop light (auto conditioning) rather than being focused on the driver behind me.

I suspect it is the absorbing nature of the activity. I once saw a television program in which they mounted a camera on the dashboard of the car of a busy real estate agent. She ran four stop signs and two red lights before lunch--and she was completely unaware that she had done so.

When i had to carry a cell phone for work, i had a standard message i would put in the voice mail, and i would use it: "I'm driving right now, and i won't take your call. Leave a message, and i'll return your call as soon as i'm off the road and have an opportunity." I once ran a red light while talking on a cell phone, and it so happens that i did notice.

Personally, though, the one that drives me crazy is women doing their makeup in the rear view at highway speeds. I have twice been run off the road at between 60 and 70 miles per hour by women doing their makeup and drifting across lanes . . .

Men doing their makeup is even worse, Heehee.

okaybyeseeya.

Women put their make up on in the car??? That's so stupid! I barely even glance at my passengers and I am really nervous when other people take their eyes off the road. Or if they tailgate - I hate that!

Well, maybe it is concentration, I don't know. Still don't know why it's any different than a person-to-person convo.

Does anyone know if there's a word for when you (or your partner) is pregnant (for example) and you suddenly start noticing all the pregnant women? Or when you're looking to buy a house and you start seeing For Sale signs? That strange kind of situation we find ourselves in? My daughter was wondering if there was a word and I couldn't think of any.

Are you serious? Are you pulling my leg?

Well, I've never done it and I've never seen it happen. Truly. It could just be an old joke from Don Rickles or Henny Youngman like "Take my wife, please".

I've seen make-up a lot.

I've seen newspapers, books, animals and kids (on lap).

(and some stuff would not be proper here...)

the phone thing is a pet peeve of most folks who have driven for pay.

There's no doubt that many people on phones are idiot drivers, but then, maybe they are idiot drivers without the phone..

undoubtably.

if i got to choose what it took to qualify to drive, we would need hella less cars...

The cell phones take up very nearly the driver's complete attention. As for putting on make-up, the driver is very obviously not watching to the road. In both cases in which i was run off the road, the driver applying make-up just began drifting across lanes.

Anybody would think that any danger to Set's physical integrity was more important that a lady applying her war paint.