What North Carolina drivers say about texting and phoning

Lots of North Carolina drivers have something to say about the hazards of texting while driving and phoning while driving— and legislative proposals to ban them (also see Road Worrier column with readers' comments).

Most succinct is Milo Knudsen:

Sir, I do not eat, cell-phone nor shave while driving. Nor do I jump off tall buildings.

Pamela Price, a North Raleigh mom and Realtor, says it's getting out of control:

Not to have a cell phone I think is unrealistic in today’s lifestyle. But when you see a mother driving a maroon Windstar minivan, smoking with one hand and texting with the other — what in the world, that’s two hands! — and my 15-year-old son thinks that that’s not safe, you’ve got a problem.

A caller identifying herself as Patricia says she can always spot the drivers who are engrossed in cell-phone conversations:

When I'm behind a car that is holding up traffic or swaying back and forth across the line I say to myself, I bet that person is on the cell phone. And once I catch up with them, 99.99 percent of the time I am right.

Gene Gallagher was about to make a left turn in a North Raleigh subdivision a couple of weeks ago when something told him to watch out for a young driver who was supposed to stop for him. The kid's eyes were glued to the phone or gadget in his hand -- not to the road:

He barrelled through the stop sign. I blew my horn, and he barely lifted his head up. And he kept going.

Ruth Funk was rear-ended on Creedmoor Road last summer by a 16-year-old driver who was busy texting, and did not notice Funk braking in front of her. Nobody was hurt, and Funk's old truck was not damaged.

She was 16. When you're a kid, you do stupid things. But what if I hadn't had my brakes on? I could have slammed into other people, and there could have been a major collision.

Paul Story of Beaufort was stopped to make a left turn, with his turn signal blinking, when he almost got rear-ended by a woman behind him:

I could see her cell phone stuck up to her ear. I could hear her brakes screech behind me, because she was talking to someone and not paying attention. That tells me people are concentrating more on their phone than on their driving. One thing I was reading recently said it was as bad as driving drunk, the reaction is so slowed up.

Lee Thompson can't understand why so many drivers keep up long conversations as they travel down the road, for miles at a time. It's OK to use a cell phone for a short, urgent call, he says:

If you're late for the doctor, it don't take you 30 seconds to call and say 'I'm on my way.'

Patti Cameron knows that texting can be a lethal distraction for young drivers. Her daughter Missy lost five friends — all six had been cheerleaders together, and they had just graduated from high school — in a crash in upstate New York in June 2007. The 17-year-old driver had been sending and receiving text messages just before she veered across the center line and hit a semi-trailer.

It is a topic that every teenager's parent needs to discuss with their kids. Teenagers think they are invincible and don't have a good understanding of just how quickly your life can be taken away from you by one bad decision.

Sen. Charlie Dannelly of Charlotte faces an uphill fight for his proposal to outlaw phoning while driving:

The first hearing in committee didn’t look too well. For some reason fellow senators think differently. They don’t think it’s unsafe. So I am getting some more troops to back me up, and will probably have the bill come up later in the session.