by Elizabeth A. Marion

Created on: August 01, 2010

You have probably heard the phrase "Keep both hands on the wheel". You probably heard it from your parents, your driving teacher, someone at the DMV, and maybe even some of your friends. You have probably also heard about the dangers of texting and driving. This can be dangerous because you have to actually look back and forth between your phone and the road while you are texting or reading a text you received, but it should not be confused with talking on a cell phone while driving.

To talk on a cell phone, even if you put it on speaker phone, you will have to take your hand off the wheel. And if you don't use a speaker phone you will be holding the phone up to your ear while you're driving, which violates that phrase you heard from your parents and teachers. How about the phrases "Never rest your arm on the door of the car" or "Never change the air conditioning or radio station"? Did you ever here those from your teachers? You probably did not receive any warnings about those things, yet both require you to remove at least one hand from the steering wheel?

The reason most consider driving while talking on a cell phone to be dangerous is because you have to take a hand off of the wheel, but they don't consider things like pushing a button to turn on the radio or letting an arm hang over the window to be dangerous. People drive with one hand all the time. That should certainly be reserved for more experienced drivers, but the sole act of taking a hand off of the steering wheel, for whatever reason is not dangerous.

Taking a phone call does not require much concentration either. You grab the phone, either press a button or just open it, and you put it to your ear and start talking. If talking on a cell phone is dangerous simply because they are talking, then the argument could be made that drivers should not be allowed to talk to passengers in the car while they're driving. People have conversations in cars all the time. Talking does not make a driver dangerous.

People don't think about the contradictions they make when they call talking on a cell phone while driving dangerous, yet these same people take a hand off of the steering wheel or have a conversation in the car on a regular basis. Talking on a cell phone is not the same as texting and should certainly never be compared to drunk driving. Drivers should be careful on the road and limit cell phone use, but using a cell phone for its most basic function, talking to someone, is not putting other drivers at risk and should not be banned.

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