Hang up and drive!

One of my biggest pet peeves - people who can't stop talking on their cellphones while driving! I definitely am one of those who feel there needs to be a law - a law with TEETH - against this kind of thing. None of these namby-pamby, "slap on the wrist" with a $20 fine type of laws.

Please tell me, why is it necessary for you to be yakking on your cellphone while maneuvering a vehicle down a busy street or freeway? Or while driving through a parking lot? Yes, lady in the parking lot at Wal-Mart the other day, this means you. You were *backing out of your parking space* with one hand on the steering wheel of your car, the other holding that blankety blank cellphone plastered to your ear. Why couldn't you have made your call, finished your conversation, then put the key in the ignition, started the car, and backed up? Are you not aware that there are people, some of whom are elderly, or disabled, or little kids, walking through that parking lot right behind your car, and if your attention is distracted by your conversation on your cellphone, you might not even be aware those people are there?

Or you, lady who was trying to execute a U-turn in the narrow drive between the Forum office building and the Hilton Village shopping center on Scottsdale Road a few weeks ago. A U-TURN with ONE HAND on the wheel and the other holding that omnipresent cellphone to your ear! Could you not at least finish your U-turn before getting on the phone?

And the baseball moms who drive the big SUVs at 30 miles an hour or more down the alley behind my house, taking your sons to their Little League games at the school field. You are THIRTY SECONDS from your destination and driving down a narrow alley with blind spots, and there you are, yakking away on that cellphone. Couldn't you at least wait until you reach the ballfield and get settled in the bleachers before making your call? What call is so important that you couldn't wait an extra 30 seconds to make it?

And the guy who was driving a big boat of a car, an older model Cadillac, who was trying to maneuver that huge car through a left turn onto my residential street, with one hand on the steering wheel and the other hand holding the phone to his ear, and almost clipped me in my minivan as I sat helplessly waiting to make my own turn, with nowhere to go to avoid him. He missed me, and he saw me holler at him to "Hang up the cellphone!" and at least he had the decency to look guilty instead of flipping me off as I thought he might do.

Yes, I've heard all the arguments about how eating in the car, changing the radio dial, talking to a passenger, hollering at your kids, etc. etc. are all distracting, and I agree, those things are distracting. And I HATE seeing doofus women who are trying to apply makeup while driving, or the idiot I saw one day who had the newspaper spread out on the steering wheel, reading it while driving! But to me, the biggest offense commited by insane drivers by far is the use of a cellphone while driving. It's just brain-dead. There is NOBODY you need to be talking to that is so important you can't wait until you reach your destination, or at least PULL OVER, to make your call.

And no, it is not a "nanny state" law to have a law against using cellphones while driving, any more than it is a "nanny state" law to say you can't drink and drive, or be high on drugs and drive, or have non-working equipment on your vehicle such as burned-out lights, bad brakes, or bald tires. Driving is a privilege, not a right, and you don't have the privilege to endanger me or anyone I love who is on the same road as you while you're yakking on your cellphone.

HANG UP AND DRIVE.

Thank you. I feel better now. (At least, until I see the next person mindlessly carrying on a cellphone conversation while driving.)

Geri Ann