The best car safety device is a rear-view mirror with a cop in it. ~Dudley Moore

Don’t do it.

Please don’t do it.

Talking on your cell phone does have a tendency to cause accidents. But, don’t blame the cell phone, it’s not their fault, it’s yours.

Consumer Reports published an article in their recently released April 2011 issue that reports the Department of Transportation stated that 5,500+ auto accidents related to distracted driving in 2009 were fatal out of 500,000 accidents. They also state that 18% of those fatal accidents are related to cell phone usage (about 1,000.)

This article was also funny in that it showed photograph of motorists doing things from texting, to putting on makeup, to wearing headphones, to reading a book. Funny to see, not funny to watch.

Consumer Reports makes a few good suggestions to get around texting on the phone while driving. A good one that I support is setting your phone to automatically send out a response message to a recipient stating that “I am driving a car, I will get back to you as soon as I can.” The amount of youth that text while driving (the younger generation is the biggest culprit) can easily set their phones up to use this feature, saving their little inexperienced driving life from turning over (literally.)

The article also suggests using a hands-free headset while your driving if you absolutely must talk on the phone. I disagree with the purpose of this because even if you have someone talking to you on the phone or even with you in the car (this even applies to listening to the radio or music), your mind and ears are instantly distracted to another sensory impulse of information. Such a distraction can block out sounds you need to hear on the road, such as a truck blaring the horn before it crashes into you, or the sound of an ambulance coming to pick your dead body up off the road.

I suggest picking up a copy of the issue before it goes off the shelves this month, or even picking up a back-ordered issue from Consumer Reports directly.

I admit that I am guilty of talking and texting while driving every so often despite my better judgment, but if I can try to curb the habit little by little, so can you. You’ll even live longer too…..little by little.