New Year’s Resolution – Stay Off The Cell Phone

Ahhhh a brand new year.  Such potential.  I won’t bore you with my list of resolutions, but I’ll share one of them that may save your life.  I know it is hard to resist the siren song of the cell phone while you’re driving.  I succumb to it occasionally.  I am being so much more productive talking and driving!  Here is the resolution – hang up the phone and drive.  Here are some interesting statistics from David Strayer’s research group at the University of Utah:

1. You are 5.36 times more likely to be in a car crash while talking on the phone (real life example – my mother-in-law was rear-ended on a freeway last month by a college student on his cell phone).
2. Hands-free phone devices are just as dangerous as holding the phone to your ear.  It’s the conversation that is the distracting part (notice how everyone stops talking in the car when you get in a tense, congested situation?  The person on the other end of the phone keeps talking).
3. When young adults are talking on the cell while driving, their reaction times are as slow as a senior citizen’s.
4. People on cell phones drive the same as a person impaired with a 0.08 percent blood alcohol level (legally drunk in most states).

Wishing you a SAFE and happy new year – hang up and drive!