By Chelsea Titus
Round Table editor

Ring. Ring. Ring. “Hello? Hi, how are you?” There’s a screeching of tires, a loss of control. A car accident. What caused this? By talking on your cell phone or even “hands free”, such as Bluetooth, while driving causes accidents.

Maryland passed a new law on Oct. 1 of this year. Bill 321 was passed to eliminate the use of a cell phone while driving.

Sounds like a good idea, right? However, the law does not enforce hands free devices such as Bluetooth or built-in phones used in cars.

The new law is a secondary offense, meaning that a driver must first be committing a primary offense such as speeding or reckless driving before they could be ticketed for a cell phone offense.

Why can’t the police pull someone over if they are only using their cell phone? Why not revise the bill to make it a primary offense?

I work at Chick-fil-A. Time and time again I see drivers talking on their cell phones while I’m trying to help them at the window. I’m seeing almost every other car using their cell phone while driving.

Using cell phones while driving distracts the driver. While using a hand held device or hands free, the driver is still talking to someone on the other line. Does it really matter what you call it?

According to nationwide.com, driving while using a cell phone reduces the amount of brain activity associated with driving by 37 percent.

37 percent? That’s over one-third of your brain activity reduced because you couldn’t wait to pull over and use your phone.

Nationwide.com also states that distraction from cell phone use while driving (hand held or hands free) extends a driver’s reaction as much as having a blood alcohol concentration at the legal limit of .08 percent.

Some people do not realize how using a cell phone either texting, talking, or whatever really does impact the attention of the driver.

Here’s another statistic from nationwide.com: driving while distracted from using a cell phone results in 25 percent of police reported crashes. One fourth of all crashes are from a cell phone. A simple device. 25 percent. Think about it.

Take my advice; don’t put yourself in a potential dangerous situation. Pull over to the side of the road if you must take a call, have a passenger answer the phone, or, better yet, keep your phone on silent and check any missed messages once you’ve reached your destination.

You can save your own life as well as other people’s lives. Be a smart driver.