Reply #19: I can talk and think and observe at the same time. I'm sorry that you can't

[ddeclue]

The big problem comes in pushing buttons and looking at controls which requires you to take your eyes off the road.

I have only ever had one at fault accident that was in 1990 before I had a cell phone and I haven't been IN an accident at all since 2002 when I was hit, ironically, by a cell phone talker.

I've had a cell phone since 1996 and have easily driven 250,000 miles since then without an at fault accident and only been in two accidents where someone else was at fault.

In one of these I was boxed in in a parking lot when a woman hopped into her Volvo and backed into my door without looking behind her. Her fault.

The other I got tagged in the passenger side rear quarter panel as I was going down an otherwise unoccupied street NOT talking on my cell phone when a woman in a parking lot pulled out into me without looking left first - she was a cell phone talker.

1996 is also the same time I started flying - something I haven't done since 2002 because of costs but hope to resume soon assuming falling fuel prices translate to falling av-gas prices.

I think the difference is that I know HOW to pay attention to the road and control how much focus I place on talking. I know when to hang up as well when the situation demands it. I also drive my car as far ahead in my mind as I can see. I don't obsess on the guy directly in front of me but the fools all around me and up the road 200, 300, and 400 yars as well - most people's eyes never get beyond 11 oclock and 1 oclock positions - they are tunnel vision drivers.

Doug D.