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Believe it or not, but a passenger or radio playing is actually less hazardous than the cellphone.

In fact, that “virtual” conversation is more distracting than talking with a passenger, their study shows. In their study, Rose and Hunton suggest that “cell phone conversations consume significantly more attention than passenger conversations, resulting in more incidents and crashes during simulated driving.

“Due to the lack of nonverbal cues, conversations on cellular telephones demand more cognitive resources than conversations with passengers,” the study notes. “More working memory is consumed by cell phone conversations relative to passenger conversations, and fewer resources are available for the driving task.”
http://news.siu.edu/2006/03/030306tw5142.html

The reason is when the call comes in your brain does more than just chat with the caller. It often causes you to envision the person, maybe the place where they are, what THEY are doing vs. what you are doing(driving). The imagination is a serious distraction to driving.
In fact, that “virtual” conversation is more distracting than talking with a passenger, their study shows. In their study, Rose and Hunton suggest that “cell phone conversations consume significantly more attention than passenger conversations, resulting in more incidents and crashes during simulated driving.

I can relate, in a way. I'm a fiction writer, and when I'm on the open road with no one around me, I will often let my imagination go so I can work on the themes for the next chapter. Obviously, will not even attempt to do so in traffic for obvious reasons.

But out where I'm the only car, if you were to ask me, I'd probably couldn't tell you about the farms I passed or the cows grazing in the fields (unless one started wandering near the road, in which case I'd snap out of my reverie LOL).