The problem comes when they are allowed to ring and ring to the point that it distracts the driver. Then when the phones are answered they are on loud speaker. The drivers say this distracts their driving.



The passengers have absolutely no intention of taking this lying down; they have struck back at the drivers.

They contend that the real problem is the drivers themselves. They chat too much on their own phones while they are driving.

Ken Hong, vice president of Oahu Transit Services had this to say about his chatty drivers, "It is a safety concern for the bus company. When you are on your phone, you are distracted,"

He went on to say that bus safety rules do not allow talking on them while driving. Their only form of communication is the radio phones. The bus company encourages its passengers to report drivers seen using them while driving. They consider it a dangerous practice that must be stopped.

We are all well aware that people talk on their cells while driving. We also know that there have been accidents caused as a result of talking on them. However we must keep in mind that they are beneficial most of the time.

The vast majority of people purchase the handsets because of security reasons. A whopping 50% of users have reported crimes, accidents, emergencies and drunks on the road. Authorities have said that they have cut response times dramatically. They also have been able to apprehend criminals more swiftly because of cell phones.

Take for instance the young lady who was riding the train on her way to work. A seedy male passenger began to grope and fondle her. She calmly moved away, used her cell to report the assault and the man was arrested at the next stop!

They have many positive benefits. However, I think we can all agree that there is a degree of distraction when driving and using a cell phone.

The main distraction has to be in the area of our response time. If we did have an accident that was not our fault but we were on the phone at the time of the accident, could we have avoided the accident were we not on the phone while driving?

Sometimes the problem is not so much that we are on the cell talking while driving, but it is the intensity of the conversation we have while driving. A complex business call, a mother trying to calm her upset child, a spouse having a loud argument and certainly lovers getting too hot and heavy.

These types of intense conversations certainly are more distracting than a light hearted meet you at the movies type of conversation. Studies have shown that the older you are the slower your reaction time to a possible accident.

Studies have also found that reading a map ranks as the high and lonely driving distraction. No other distraction even comes close; not even cell phone use while driving.