On a 10-minute drive to my dentist this morning in south Minneapolis, I witnessed a city sanitation worker almost get hit by a motorist, a person on a bicycle almost killed by a motorist, a woman sit through an entire green light without even realizing it -- and I was almost rear-ended.
The common denominator was that those drivers were talking on cell phones. Without exception, studies find that cell-phone usage impairs driving ability as much as alcohol does, and that using hands-free technology makes no difference.
If people regularly drive and talk on a cell phone, it is only a matter of time before they make a driving mistake, and that mistake could be serious enough to injure or kill themselves or another.
Isn't it time for cell-phone use while driving to be made illegal?
DAVID BERGER, MINNEAPOLIS
