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by Paul Kerstein

According to the Insurance Information Institute, more than 236 million people subscribed to cell phone service as of May, 2007. This number is up from 4.3 million in 1990. This has led to a rise in the number of people who drive and talk on a cell phone at the same time.

How many times have you been cut off on the highway by a driver talking on a cell phone with not even the courtesy of a signal from the offending car? Can you count how often you've almost been side-swiped by a phone-talking driver who isn't paying attention to where his or her car is on the road? Have you ever had your heart jump into your mouth when you looked into your rear-view mirror and saw a person on the phone who didn't see your car stopped in front of them? And how many accidents have you seen or heard of, where one of the drivers was on the phone?

A study released in 2006 by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that 80 percent of crashes and 65 percent of near crashes involved driver inattention, and that the most common distraction was cell phones. It's important to note that while the study also found that cell phones were not the most common cause of crashes, this figure could significantly increase as the number of driving cell phone users rises.

Additionally, survey results from the NHTSA and the National Center for Statistics and Analysis found that the number of drivers who are using hand-held cell phones rose, on average, by 2 to 6 percent over the last two years within various age groups. Another study, in Perth, Australia, by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, found that drivers who use cell phones were four times as likely to get into serious, injury-causing crashes. The study also found that switching from hand-held to hands-free devices didn't reduce the risk of crashing.

Cell phone advocates can point to drivers' rights, contradictory studies and that blame should be placed on drivers, not mobile devices. But the aforementioned figures can't be ignored. As our population increases and the number of people on the road who talk on cell phones rises, it is imperative for society to regulate dangerous behavior, because the majority of citizens can't be counted on to regulate themselves, as the numbers clearly show.

Therefore, hand-held cell phone use should be banned or regulated for the safety of the growing number of drivers on America's roads.

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