Cell phones and driving

[non-political post ahead]

I've got a few posts for tonight (including JD Hayworth's farewell speech to the House!), but I'm going to start with the short one:

As of tonight, count me as one of the people who believes that the use of cell phones while driving should be BANNED except for a verifiable and real emergency.

I was driving back from a forum about proposed changes to Scottsdale's ordinance regarding political signs (more on that later) when, thanks to somebody who was paying more attention to the conversation on his cell phone than to traffic signals, I thought I was going to die.

At the 90th St./Pima Rd. on-ramp to Loop 101 Southbound, somebody on a cell phone ignored his red light and nearly crashed into two lanes of traffic turning left onto the freeway. Traffic that had a green left turn signal.

We all stopped and leaned into our horns.

The idiot didn't even hang up; he just kept on driving and talking; he didn't even acknowlege the event.

While most of the evidence that I have to support a ban is anecdotal (i.e. - witnessing accidents and near-accidents), there's a LOT of that anecdotal evidence.

Enough is enough - Ban using 'em while driving.

Even Tom and Ray of NPR's CarTalk agree.

Later!