One morning in 1997, as I walked near Boston's South Station, I was nearly run down on the sidewalk by a driver who was talking on a cellular phone. She was apparently too busy to turn her head and notice me coming her way, as she one-handed the car's wheel and drove into my path.

"Watch your driving!" I shouted at her.

She gave me an incredulous look. Then she replied, "I'm on the phone!"

Tom Revay

Never mind the people slamming down a 12-pack and driving. Never mind the 90-year-old hags driving 2 mph on the expressway with their left blinkers on. Never mind the moms with 10 kids climbing around the minivans and screaming. Never mind the hillbillies in their '71 Monte Carlos with 40 or so different colors, half the body parts they should have, not a nickel's worth of insurance and bologna-slick tires passing you at about Mach 1 in the pouring rain...none of this is dangerous! Just don't use your cell phones and do any of this, and you will be safe!

If you can't talk and drive at the same time, you shouldn't be on the road anyway. Maybe you should all take classes like Walking and Chewing Gum 101, Blinking Your Eyes and Breathing 101, etc.; then later maybe we can learn to talk and drive. WOW!

Classes start soon, so sign up now!

Chad

One year ago, while stopped at a red light at a very busy intersection in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, I looked into my rearview mirror only to see a little red Nissan 240SX barrel into the rear of my then three-month-old truck at nearly 70 mph. The driver of the car was on her cell phone at the time, which flew out of her hand during the collision and became smashed against the front panel of the bed of my truck. She told the police officer that she was distracted by a friend in the car and that I had swerved in front of her and slammed on my brakes. Thank God the officer saw the accident happen and knew that I was sitting dead still at the red light for approximately 20-30 seconds before being hit.

Take care, guys.

Matthew

As I got onto the Massachusetts Turnpike this morning, I was handed, along with my toll ticket, a printed message from the Executive Office of Public Safety. It says, "To report an impaired or reckless driver, call the State Police at *SP from your cellular phone." On the back, it says, "Drivers--we want you to stay safe." The obvious irony here is that if you call *SP from your cell phone, you'll get into a conversation with the state police about the make and model, license plate, and behavior of the car you're reporting--while on your cell phone, driving down the Mass Pike. By making the call, the person making the call makes himself (or herself) a reckless driver.

My tax dollars at work....

Tom Duval

In light of your "Drive Now, Talk Later" campaign, my friends have encouraged me to tell you what happened to me on my way home from work a couple of Fridays ago:

I was approaching an equipment rental business in my aging Dodge minivan when a man who was talking on his cell phone (and pulling a small trailer with a ditch witch on board) pulled out of the rental store parking lot right in front of me. I slammed on the brakes and managed to get the Caravan stopped. Annoyed, I slammed my hand down on the horn and held it for a good while as he continued his LEFT TURN ACROSS A BUSY STREET! When I blew my horn, he attempted to lift the middle finger of his left hand (the hand holding the cell phone while propped up in the open window of his Blazer) toward me, and in so doing lost control of the phone, which flew out his open window directly toward me.

Wait, it gets better! The phone flew a short distance, bounced and came to rest just in front of me. As I rolled forward, I heard the phone crunch under the left front, then the left rear tire of my van (a feat I couldn't duplicate in a hundred tries!). As I continued, I glanced in my rearview mirror and saw the remains of his cell phone in a small pile of high-tech particles on the street. I can only hope the driver of the Blazer attempted to retrieve his phone. Moral of the story: There is justice in the universe for those who talk on the cell phone while driving! Give 'em "what for," guys!

Bill Hobbins

Generally, my approach to cell phone users is to spy a driver yakking away on a cell phone, then slowly let my SUV drift over the lane toward the car. When I am within a foot or two of the side of the vehicle, I hit the horn. The result is that I see a startled driver jump with fear and in the process accidentally hurl the phone out the open window or sunroof as they try to grab the steering wheel with the cell-phone-laden hand and steer away from me. In LA this is the only really good use for an SUV. I figure that I have freed three or four drivers of the shackles of the cell phone and simultaneously made them better drivers.

Carpe eturnum phonum. (Seize the damn phone.)

Eleazer D. Hunt

What I would like to do is get everyone to carry around those suction-cup guns with bright fluorescent darts, and when they see someone talking while driving (or just driving like an idiot), they can shoot a suction-cup dart onto the offending car as a warning to other drivers. As a bonus, if they collect enough suction cups, they should be pulled over by the cops and soundly lectured while other drivers continuing past get to laugh at them.

Michelle Klishis

On a recent list of Darwin Award nominees (the Darwin Award is an award for taking yourself out of the gene pool in a spectacular fashion), I read about a gentleman who killed himself by WALKING into a tree while talking on his cell phone. And people think they can DRIVE?

Diana

I propose another solution: grounding! I mean, if these jerks want to gab on their phones like a bunch of teenagers, then maybe we should treat them like teenagers.

If you get caught driving and using a cellular phone, than we take away your cell phone privileges for awhile. If you are talking on the phone when you get into an accident, then we not only take away your cell phone but for forbid you from ever having one again.

Finally, if you happen to get into an accident and--God forbid--you kill someone, than you get ALL phone privileges stripped from you...except, of course, for the one free phone call from jail.

ryan james sarnowski

The other day I saw a man speeding along the streets of Philly with his cell in his right hand and his left hand up his nose. I thought, There is a man who's too preoccupied...

Carl Griffin

Just the other day, I was behind two Italian men stuffed into a small sports car. The driver was waxing eloquent with hands waving everywhere! And looking constantly at his friend, he paid attention to the road, only to give the finger to other drivers. I think that first we should ban excitable Mediterraneans who converse with their hands. Then worry about poor little old beleaguered Yankees second. (We can hardly get anyone to talk to us anyway.) So when we finally score and "talk" to our aging, taciturn relatives by cell phone, please leave us alone--they know our home phones and block our calls otherwise.

Have some cappuccino and relax!

Anne Sterling

Scene setting: A few years back. Baltimore-Washington Parkway (Baltimore, MD, to DC), the original gridlocked parking lot of highways, Maryland side. At the 197 junction to Laurel, southbound.

Stopped at the bottom of the hill--as always during rush hour when there's construction too--and last in line, so I'm using the rearview mirror to keep an eye on the traffic coming up behind me. Like that big black pickup truck that seems to be going a little fast. Like that HUGE black pickup truck that seems to be going AWFULLY fast.

Now I can see the driver through his windshield and...he's sitting sideways on the seat, left hand on the steering wheel, right hand holding a cell phone, the phone extended to near the passenger window. And he's obviously SCREAMING into the cell phone, and his truck is speeding up! And it's aimed RIGHT AT ME!

Oh, sh*t.

I can't move the car anywhere and he's just getting bigger and bigger and going faster and faster, and the only thing I can think to do--other than pray--is keep tapping on the brake pedal and hope it catches his eye (while I wait to die). Something does, because just before his windshield passes out of the line of vision in my rearview mirror he turns forward, sees what's going on, drops the phone and grabs the wheel with both hands.

That's where I lose sight of him. But the grille of his truck is very, very large now. He must have applied the brakes hard, because suddenly he's fishtailing all over the place, and then the front end starts to go sideways too and he yanks it back and over into the breakdown lane and finally gets it stopped. Without hitting me!!! And I'm just sitting there, staring at the front grille of his pickup, which is right beside the passenger door--right there. See it? I can lean over and touch it. So can you. To tell you the truth, I have absolutely no memory of what happened next. I don't know if he stayed there, or pulled off at the next exit, or followed behind me down the parkway. I don't remember exactly how I managed it, but I did get to work. I think. Unless I just turned around and went home. And I now harbor a deep and abiding fear of all things cellular.

Please send me a bumper sticker.

Kathleen Mogan

I think someone needs a soapbox and wants to gather attention and publicity for themselves.

Jim Fink