"The most obvious cell phone offense is "driving while talking" or "inattention blindness." You take your eyes off the road to dial or to look up a number and find yourself in the ditch or rear-ending the car ahead.

Also, cell-phone users talking on the phone tend not to pay attention to the road while driving. Actually, if I am talking with someone on my cell, I probably am more alert than if I'm staring down a long stretch of U.S. Highway 2, with no cars and nobody to talk to. My mind wanders.

The experts put talking on the phone in the same category as drinking while driving (coffee or something nonalcoholic. Alcohol is another subject) or eating something such as a Big Mac (I guess when the juice drips and you have to look down at the front of your shirt, you take your eyes off road).

Also included in these hazardous activities is putting your makeup on while driving. Duh; who would do that? Putting makeup on while driving, I would think, might be hazardous only because you could end up looking really strange with your lipstick or eye makeup askew."

Get the Story:
DORREEN YELLOW BIRD COLUMN: Don't take away my cell phone (The Grand Forks Herald 6/25)

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