If drivers would post their cell phone numbers on their bumpers, we could give them a jingle to find out whether they are carrying precious cargo before we sideswipe them. By next year, about 80 million people will be using cell phones in the United States. And 85 percent of those who have them now report that they use them while driving. Some people believe that this poses a greater hazard than show dogs or flea spray. Illinois and Maryland lawmakers are considering restricting the use of car phones.
Any sensible person knows phones can be a distraction.
So can Rush Limbaugh. So can a toddler demanding to be liberated from her car seat. So can a back-seat driver. We don't have a study that tells us just how distracting any of those things might be. But we know the number of cell phones in the United States grew 1,685 percent from 1986 to 1995.