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Hmm, was this study paid for by Cellular companies or the guys that make headsets.

How many of you guys know how to drive standard trasmition. Imagin driving that stick shift through windy hilly country roads. Now imagine doing it holding a phone in your hand. "hold on, I've got to shift ... and turn and opps Bang-Crash-Crumple-Crumple TREE."

This sounds like the arguement over speed limits. Germany has autobahns with no speed limits and less accidents than Americans. My boss can drive his Porshe at 220 Km/h here, but he's got to hook his phone into the car hands free when he drives (so says the law). Personally I think it'd be cooler if I could drive faster then 70mph in Texas, than it would to be able to talk on my phone as is.

...and units that allowed the hands to be free (relative risk, 5.9) offered no safety advantage over hand-held units (relative risk, 3.9; P not significant).

The study wasn't paid for by folks who make hands-free, that's for sure.

I was listening to a call-in radio talk show about a year ago. Some idiot was haranguing the host from his cell phone while commuting to work. He was really into making his point. Suddenly, he said "Oh, Jesus!" About two seconds later there was a big noise and the phone went dead.

That talk show banned calls from cell phone users after that. I never did find out what happened to the idiot.

Hang up and drive!

How many of you guys know how to drive standard trasmition.

I drove an ’89 Kenworth with an 18 speed road ranger. That was a delight after driving the ’70 Peterbilt that had a 5 over 4/2 – which is essentially a five speed transmission in front of a four speed transmission with a two speed splitter behind that.

If you ever get a chance to see one of those old rigs you’ll notice that the shift levers are usually real long and bent in weird directions. That’s so that (if you’re good) you can shift both transmissions simultaneously with one hand when needed. Otherwise, if you can’t figure it out you have to hook your left arm through the steering wheel and use both hands to shift.

At any rate, I spent many nights for years listening to Art Bell, jabbering on the CB, smoking cigarettes, drinking coffee, etc, and never had any problem. (Except once when a couple of drunks going the wrong way on I-84 decided to drive under the cab.) But we didn’t have cell phones then so maybe that’s the difference. Ha.