I'm a "
Never!" person when it comes to talking on cell phones while driving. 99.9% of the time, my phone is off. The .1% that I forget and leave it on... well, that person can wait until I call them back after I safely pull over. Driving while talking or fiddling with a cell is one of my biggest peeves that I get really angry about. And I"m a pretty laid back person.
It was illegal in Germany from about 2-3 years ago, so I haven't experienced too much of this until recently. Sure there were violators, but it was rare and usually on the open road, not gunning down pedestrians in the supermarket parking lot. Around here, a cell phone seems to be issued with a driver's license. I saw a driver today turn the wrong way on a one way street because she more interested in yacking than paying attention to the roads. Scary. Thankfully, it was almost empty. No accident. Just a lot of dodging and trying to get turned around.
I'm not sure how these new ear bud/ blue tooth hookups work, but if there's a momentary distraction caused by trying to locate or press a button to send or answer, it's just as dangerous as a regular phone being used by driving. The driver is more focused downwards when fiddling with a gadget than what is occuring within the driving environment. It takes up precious concentration no matter how we use it.
There are a lot of little things that we do on this website to keep our children safe --- is it really worth it to endanger all that just to talk on a bloody phone? If it's that important, then safely pull over, stop, and focus on that vital conversation. Multi-tasking in this situation is dangerous to everyone around and inside that vehicle.
And that's my very strong opinion on this issue.