Monday, April 3, 2000. I lost a daughter, a coworker, a friend, and the most giving person I have known. Her Pontiac Sunfire was destroyed when "T-boned" by a Ford Expedition. A careless driver, not obeying the law, brought an end to the life of a 23-year-old woman. Witnesses say he was on a cell phone! The investigation is pending.

The loss of young children is always the saddest, their innocence and laughter silenced forever. In my daughter's 23 years, she touched the hearts of many. Jessica was everybody's friend and always willing to lend a helping hand. She was going to become a nurse in just a few more months. The world has lost a true friend! Something needs to be done to help people realize that driving is an immense responsibility. We need to stop killing the innocent! Using a vehicle's keys is like picking up a loaded gun!

Daniel H. Bryl
Lawrenceville, GA

I was walking toward my car (with cart in hand) in a supermarket parking lot when some guy pulled out of his parking spot at about 90 mph. He hit my cart and smashed most of its contents, narrowly missing me. He then stepped out of his SUV with his phone still in hand and proceeded to scream at the amount of damage I caused to his vehicle.

Needless to say, the authorities settled the whole thing and I got reimbursed (by the cell-phone-wielding maniac) for the damaged food.

Kam

When I was working for WSDOT (Washington State's version of the highway department) as an inspector, I had to measure the length of a gore stripe. I am in the middle, with Interstate 405 on my left and the onramp on my right. The traffic is passing on both sides at 55+ mph. I am happily walking toward the traffic with my measuring wheel and look up and see a lady in a green Lexus crossing the newly painted gore stripe and on a collision path with me. Evidently the orange vest and yellow hard hat act as a beacon for people talking on their cell phones while looking behind them for a place to merge into traffic.

The lady turns around and sees me when she is only a couple of seconds away, and with a look of bovine ecstasy, she slips into a spot just small enough to fit her car into on the freeway mainline. Fortunately for me, I only needed to check the crotch of my pants to be sure that it wasn't wet, but unfortunately for her, she pulled in right in front of a state trooper, who immediately turned on his siren and lights. The trooper pulled her over, and I found out later he gave this person a ticket with three counts. The first was for crossing the gore (he told me that this was typically a $300 fine); the second was for some sort of reckless-endangerment thing; and the third was because after she stopped on the median, she didn't like where she was, so she backed up on the freeway median to get a better position.

There should be a patron saint for highway and road workers. Maybe Saint Donut?

Rob Klug

My 40-year-old husband was killed by a 17-year-old making a cell phone call in a rural area of Wisconsin. She lost control of her vehicle, overcorrected, and broadsided my husband in a ditch. She rolled our 1989 Dodge Caravan three times; this happened Memorial Day weekend, and now my three children and I are left without him. We had been happily married for 18 years and we were to spend a lot more time together!

Diane Wene

KANSAS CITY -- A driver ran a red light while reaching for her ringing cell phone and hit a bus, sending a rider through the bus windshield, police said. The bus rider was hospitalized in fair condition Wednesday. The bus driver and two other passengers had minor injuries. No immediate charges were filed.

Chuck Roque

I'm a 911 cell operator, and I know of people who have been killed talking.

One in particular stands out, because he was talking on the phone in one car with his wife following in another. He ran the stop sign and, guess what? Got hit, ran off the road into a ditch, and died instantly, cell phone still clutched in his hand! His wife saw the entire thing!

So sad, if only people would use common sense. Is it really that important that it can't wait?

Joyce M. Guidi

I was rear-ended by a pickup going full speed, about one year ago. He was on his cell phone. All I ask is that they pull over to talk. I want someday to make a difference for someone, or even save a life -- because this is going to affect me the rest of my life. I have 20 percent memory loss and a neck injury.

Dena Roberts

I was driving by a house when some guy backed out right in front of me. I had seen him talking on his cell phone in his driveway and had my eyes on him, so was able to miss him. At the time I wondered how busy he must be to not be able to just stay in his driveway until he finished the conversation, then back out and drive away.

A couple of days later, in the parking lot of a local shopping center, I saw the same guy, apparently talking on the same cell phone, back out of a parking space right in front of a minivan full of kids. By some miracle of physics and reaction time, the lady in the van missed this idiot and everyone went on their way. I just wonder how long it will be before he backs over a kid on a bicycle or an old lady walking down the sidewalk.

Paul Myers

I had the pleasure of having an incident with someone talking on a cell phone. He was so involved in the conversation, he ran a red light and hit my parents' maroon Saturn in the front passenger door, where I happened to be riding as my brother was making a left turn on a green arrow. What's worse is that he didn't even try to slow down because he didn't even notice what was going on.

Pete Osterhus

A couple of years ago my wife and two young children were stopped at a traffic signal in our family van. Suddenly they were struck from behind by a truck carrying railroad ties. One launched through the truck windows and into the rear window of our van. The cause: the truck driver bent over to answer the cell phone. My wife and children were belted in and suffered only minor injuries. There was $12,000 damage to my van.

Charlie Jacobs

Yesterday one of my employees was driving through the factory on his lift truck talking to his girl friend on his cell phone. Guess what? He ran over one of his fellow employees! Fortunately the victim was not hurt badly. And fortunately Chambers Truss is not a democracy. Starting today, all cell phones must be locked in employees' lockers.

Bob Becht

I found out that my 39-year-old brother's death was due to a pager and cell phone use. (It was him against a driver wielding a 10-ton dumpster truck -- and a pager and cell phone.) What irks me is that the "official" accident report does not list the cell phone use, so how are we even to know how many people out there are being killed as a result of such distraction?

Deborah Cumberland

Recently in San Francisco, a woman was driving her SUV and (believe it or not) talking on her cell phone. She then rear-ended a police officer's car with its light bar flashing while the officer was writing a ticket for another car. Fortunately, the officer was not seriously hurt.

David Brown

Some friends of mine were on a bike ride. The guy bringing up the rear was knocked over by an SUV, got caught on the axle, and DRAGGED along the road for quite a while until the others could get the attention of the driver to tell him he had someone underneath his damn car. The driverÑget thisÑhad dropped his cell phone on the car floor and was scrabbling around to find it.

Louisa Mackenzie

I was rear-ended by a driver who was on the phone. I stopped for a red light, and because people in this town (Austin) are notorious about running red lights, I glanced in my rearview mirror as I hit the brakes. I did not see her so much as I saw the antenna sticking up out of her right ear.

Rebecca Jordan

I was involved in an accident in Washington, DC, because an inconsiderate motorist talking on a cell phone ran through an intersection without looking where he was going. Fortunately, what he hit was my pickup truck and not a pedestrian. This inconsiderate nincompoop was given a citation for careless driving and let go. I wound up paying for my own damages because DC is a no-fault-insurance city. The other motorist had no insurance. Now, go figure: online time for a cellular telephone was more important than liability insurance.

Stevan Garner