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General discussion

Cell phone use in traffic

Nov 24, 2005 10:42PM PST

Back on November 15th of this year I was returning to town from work. Already dark with a driving rain, I was driving down the left-lane of a two-lane, one-way street named High Street (honestly, that is the name). I was to the left of a young, 30ish, lady and all of a sudden she decided to make a left turn onto Smith Street, from the right-lane with me alongside her. Our vehicles engaged each other in this turn and after both had come to a stop I got out of my vehicle and approached her car. She was talking on a cell phone. She seemed to be an otherwise intelligent acting person. I would guess that the cell phone played a major role in the accident with it causing inattention to her task at hand(while else would someone turn left onto a side-street from a right hand lane, on a two-lane, one-way street with someone alongside her in the left lane?).
Or, how many times have I approached someone from behind, on the freeway and they are driving way below the speed of through traffic and as I pass the car I see the cell phone stuck to the head? It's obvious that some drivers are incapable of driving and talking on a phone at the same time. Cell phones, in my opinion, are the worst development for safe travel since drinking and driving. There really should be laws against the combination for our sakes.

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