AUDREY REED
News Editor
At 11:30 p.m. two nights ago, I got hung up on by my own cell phone. It went dead and could not be revived.
I had to come to grips that I may not be available 24/7, or that I may not be able to talk to people on a whim.
The latter has gotten me in trouble twice recently. If you didn’t know, people think talking on a cell phone while driving is dangerous, and I have two stories to support it.
At the beginning of the school year, I was being a good friend and made the trek down to LAX to save this friend a ride on the Red Van. The weather was perfect, and I was taking advantage of it by rolling down my windows and opening the sunroof.
As I was approaching the airport, my cell phone rang. It was the friend who I was picking up. We were trying to coordinate where to meet, which in this situation is what I consider to be a necessary phone call.
A person, also enjoying the weather with me rolled down windows, yelled out her car into mine as she was passing, “Get off your cell phone!”
Now, I’ll admit driving is not my forte. However, my squeaky clean driving record would show that I’m not terrible, and I recall that I was using care and caution while I was talking and driving.
The second incident was much more disturbing. Over the summer, I was making a left turn at an intersection in Ventura close to my work. At the intersection, I almost clipped the mini van across from me turning left. My steering wheel slipped, and I slowed down as I was overcorrecting. I proceeded to park my car at work and walked toward the entrance.
I was stopped along the way by the same mini van. A woman then asked if I knew that we almost got in a wreck. I said that I was sorry, but she interrupted me and accused me of using my cell phone as the reason I almost collided with her van. She also used a few choice words and let me know that she would be taking down my license plate number for what purpose I don’t know.
Ironically, I had left my cell phone at home that day, so there was no way that I could have been doing the incredibly odious act.
So far, three states have banned cell phone usage when driving, and many more have partial bans such as prohibiting school bus drivers from using a cell phone while on the job. California, however, has neither a full nor a partial ban.
The 2002 National Survey of Distracted and Drowsy Driving Attitudes and Behaviors showed that about one in three drivers use a cell phone for outgoing or incoming calls while driving. Although I’m not advocating using cell phones while driving, I would like to point out that the car phone, the antiquated cell phone, was meant to be used in the car. Also, 81 percent of all drivers talk to passengers in the car, which is a distraction as well. Will we outlaw talking in cars altogether?
Be prepared. The next public service announcement could be “Don’t talk and drive.”
09-22-2005