Having recently totaled my car at five to ten MPH, I know a little about cell-phone distraction. I had about 25 feet to stop. Ten feet was used up by inattention because of my cell-phone conversation; the last 15 feet -- my ABS brakes would not lock at that slow speed (Volvo).

A policeman was called to the scene and did not ask about cell- phone use. (Nor did I volunteer that information. I felt stupid.)

Fred Bloom

March 15, 2000-- I was stopped in my 1991 Cavalier to wait for oncoming traffic before turning left into my driveway. I was rear-ended by a woman driving a Dodge Durango. She attempted to pass on the shoulder at the last fraction of a second, resulting in spinning me broadside into the path of an oncoming van. My left collarbone was broken and I had multiple bruises on my face, hand, knees, and torso. The only door that would open was the back passenger door and because onlookers yelled that they thought the car was going to catch on fire, I had to crawl between the seats and exit out the back passenger door. My glasses were broken and I could not see very well.

As I stood there, trying hard not to pass out, waiting for the ambulance to arrive, all I could hear was this woman screaming on her cell phone. She kept saying "I just got into an accident ... right when I hung up with you. When I hung up the first time, I got in an accident. I've never been in an accident before ... I got into an accident, right when I hung up with you," over and over and over.

It was insult to injury ... literally ... to have to stand there and hear that. When the ambulance arrived, the EMTs were trying to figure out if anyone else was injured. I heard one of them remark, "I don't know. She's still talking on her cell phone." The other asked, "What about the other driver ... the one in the white van?" To which the second EMT replied, "I don't know ... I tried to ask him if he was all right, but he was talking on his cell phone."

I thought it was pretty amazing that no one else involved in the accident was worried about anything but talking on their cell phones. Thank God there were other people around who literally held me up until the ambulance arrived.

It has been a very painful, slow recovery. And I was one of the fortunate ones. It could have been so much worse had I not been wearing my seatbelt.

Laura Martin

I had been a bit skeptical about all these careless cell-phone driver stories. Until today.

In broad daylight, perfect road conditions, while stopped at a traffic light, my new Jag was rear-ended (sigh) by some dumbo whose first words to me weren't "Are you OK?" but, instead, "I just HAD to answer my cell phone."

Al Mazzone

It's strange how things work. I'd just gotten up from bed and logged onto your site after laying there for an hour thinking about my girlfriend. She died Memorial Day weekend in a head-on collision on the 101 Freeway just north of our home in San Luis Obispo.

According to the police report, she'd struck a car from behind that was exiting the freeway, bounced off the right rear bumper, and hit an F-150 head-on in the oncoming traffic. The cause of the accident was listed as "driver inattention."

There was no mention of a cell phone being involved in the accident. I happen to know better because, at her funeral, I met the guy she was talking to on the phone when she died. The phone had gone dead on him at 10:50 A.M., the time to the minute as it was listed in the accident report as the time of the accident. He figured it was just bad signals on the grade, but he could never reconnect. Now, neither can I -- because she's gone.

Jeff Poel