Phone drivers are hazard to others on road

At least once a week, I'll encounter a very dangerous driver just a few blocks from my home. They're typically yakking on their cell phone and driving in a school zone.

Talk about a lethal combination.

Some research says talking on the phone while driving is nearly as hazardous as drunken driving. There's no outrage because it's something we all do, to some extent. I don't see how government could effectively police "phone driving," but some private sector employers have begun to institute policies that prohibit employees from talking on the phone while using company cars.

Hmmm. Sounds like the insurance actuaries and university research have come to the same conclusion: It's unsafe to talk on the phone and drive a car at the same time, even if a hands-free device is used. It appears that phone drivers expend too much brainpower blathering away on the phone and too little watching the road.

I hark back to the driver education classes of my youth. My father was the driver education teacher in my hometown, so my experience could best be described as "continuing education." One of the mantras that has stuck with me in 25 years of driving since is: "Driving is a full-time job."

I catch myself muttering those words to the reckless phone drivers I see when I drive the carpool. Don't they understand they're risking the life of every child who happens into their path?

I'm fairly certain if the other carpooling parents saw me sipping something out of a hip flask while behind the wheel in a school zone, law enforcement would be notified. That's how it should be. But what about phone drivers who take the corner too short, weave or brake too fast because their conversation is apparently more important than attending to the road? Aren't they equally hazardous?

It's as if some of these folks believe they possess a special gift that enables them to multitask their brains to the hilt. They're kidding themselves.

New University of Utah research on this issue is instructive. Researcher David Strayer says young drivers have the reaction times of senior citizens when they drive while talking on the phone. Worse yet, they're blind to events around them.