Workplace Calisthenics: Road safety starts with cell phones

Once was in a rental car on Interstate 4 in Orlando, Fla., and the second time was the exit ramp from northbound U.S. Highway 65 to westbound U.S. Highway 60.

Neither potentially fatal accident would have been my fault; both drivers in the other vehicles were preoccupied with vivid conversations using a hand-held cellular phone.

The world has changed, and we must, too.

License to talk

The “license” to talk on a hand-held cell phone while guiding a 3,000-pound automobile through a phalanx of metal and mental unpredictability must be revisited.

Does anyone remember when you stepped out of a car and it was morally and socially acceptable to walk into a place of business or a home and pick up a telephone receiver to check our messages? We all accepted that if your body was missing from a particular address, life would go on.

With the advent of microelectronics, we now assume information is to be digested at the point when the ringer gets our attention. We gladly munch on bytes and bits, and the faster the better.

But is faster and better always an improvement?

There was a time when we wrapped our world in asbestos, sprayed our trees with DDT and thought smoking cigarettes must be somewhere in the Bill of Rights. Because we can create it, does that make it good, safe or enriching?

I am a fervent believer in enforcing DWI checkpoints and in the obligation of restaurants and bars to refuse serving someone another drink when the person is obviously in an altered state.

According to the Center for Problem-Oriented Policing, 17 percent of all drivers passing me on the weekend are legally drunk. Without apology, I defend my right to drive to Walgreens, my daughter’s home or church on a Saturday night without the fear that someone’s preoccupation with a second six-pack will snuff out my life.

Why, then, is it acceptable in this society for us to steer a massive sport utility vehicle at 65 mph with a cell phone cradled between our shoulder and ear?

Now that you see where I am going, you are wondering if I will next be advocating the removal of all AM-FM radios, CD players, XM Radio, the maintenance of nasal passages and the discipline of children under the age of 3 in automobiles because they may distract the driver.

Some creative people out there already are formulating the new acronyms: DUID (Driving under the Influence of Dogs), DWMC (Driving with Marital Conflict), DWD (Driving While Dreaming) and DWAM (Driving While Applying Mascara).

Roadmap to safety

After recently dodging the marauding bumpers of cell phone-crazed drivers, this isn’t funny. When someone threatens your life because he is frantically digging into a back pocket to reclaim an electronic gadget playing the theme from “Fame,” no one is laughing.

So, what am I suggesting?

First, I support legislation that would make it a criminal offense if someone was involved in an injury accident while engaged in a cell phone call or “texting” (the newest verb in America).

Second, I believe all new cars should be equipped with Bluetooth hands-free cell phone communications that include the ability to verbally dial and end a call. This platform provides a medium for two-way conversation without the need to lose eye contact with the road and changing conditions around the driver.

Third, I encourage all of us to start saying to family, colleagues and friends, “If I get your call while I am driving, I will not take the call at that time. I regularly return all my voicemail messages. When I have to physically take a call on a cell phone, I impair my ability to safely drive. Thank you for your understanding.”

We simply have to come up with new protocols for our rapidly morphing technology. I admit, I drool over the capacity of my Blackberry Pearl to increase my efficiency every day. The address book alone is worth every dollar I spent for this gnome gadget.

But I have decided, I will die of and for something other than trying to answer the siren call of my Blackberry.

Cal LeMon of Executive Enrichment Inc. solves organizational problems with customized training and consulting. He can be reached at execenrichment@aol.com.[[In-content Ad]]