ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, February 16, 1997 TAG: 9702140059
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
GET OFF the darned phone.
Yes, if you're that driver who's swinging your car around a corner with one hand while the other is holding a phone to your ear, this means you.
Or the driver staring straight ahead, glassy-eyed, mouth flapping, oblivious to the kid who seems to be considering a dash across the street - in front of you, lady. This means you, too.
Or the driver who's speeding while engaged in intense conversation - absorbed, apparently, in ... what? Deciding what to have for dinner? Where to meet a friend? Whether his broker should buy or sell?
Hang up.
The lines of communication are open everywhere, anytime these days - at home, in the office, on the road, at the beach. But just as ubiquitous as computer hookups and cellular phones are ... studies. And the latest study takes on what must be the fastest-growing guilty pleasure of our time: car-phone talk.
Briefly, the research shows that drivers talking on car phones are a menace.
Results of the study by Canadian researchers are reported in the New England Journal of Medicine. The data show 699 drivers in the Toronto area with cellular phones were four times more likely to have accidents when they were on the phone. But, if we could be honest with ourselves for a moment here, did we really need the numbers to tell us that constant use of the phone might be a tad distracting while we're behind the wheel in busy traffic?
Cellular phones are a great advance in communications. They let us keep in contact with virtually anyone from virtually anywhere, untethered from wires. In emergencies, car phones are invaluable.
But their indiscriminate use apparently causes such emergencies to arise more often - an unanticipated consequence that can be eliminated by the simple exercise of common sense. Such as: Put the phone down when you have to think about what you're doing.
That is, if you don't want your number to come up prematurely.
LENGTH: Short : 43 linesby CNB