I just got back from a quick grocery run, and because April 30 (tomorrow!) is Oprah Winfrey’s National No-Phone Day, I took a curious look at the drivers around me.  At a red light, I looked to my right.  A young woman was talking animatedly on her cell phone.  I looked in my rear-view mirror.  Another woman was thumbing her way through a text.

Getting onto the highway (the grocery store is one exit up), a Cooper Mini was coming up faster than I thought as I merged on.  The driver beeped, gesticulated…and went back to her cell phone call, making chatty hand-movements with the hand that was (mostly) on the wheel.

You guys, Oprah is onto something with her call for all of us to make our cars “No Phone Zones.” 

Text or cell phone chat while driving, and you risk joining the staggering number of people who are seriously injured (nearly 500,000) or killed (6,000) in “distracted driving” accidents each year. 

Personally, when I got my new car a couple of years ago, a crucial feature was a built-in Bluetooth device to allow for hands-free dialing and talking while I’m driving.  But even so, I’m a pretty conservative cell phone user in general, and my car calls are even fewer than my few-and-far-between “regular” cell phone calls.  But I know I’m in an ever- shrinking minority, and my anecdotal observations of drivers on my errand just now told me that getting the word out about the dangers of texting and phone-talking while driving is a worthwhile and serious endeavor.

Click here for Oprah’s No Phone Zone resources, which include a “Your Brain on Texting” quiz, moving testimonials from the families of those killed in distracted driving accidents, and more.

And weigh in – what’s your texting/talking while driving practice?  And if you do, why?  Boredom?  Busy-ness?  Stress relief during rush hour traffic?

(image via: http://www.oprah.com/)

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