When I got home late last night from work, I decided I needed my Oprah fix. What could today’s episode be about…maybe cutie pie Nate Berkus? Well I was wrong and boy did I learn something very powerful. I came away with a different and profound outlook on cell phone use and texting in the car. I am so guilty of talking on my cell in the car!! Texting, I just flat out don’t do anymore but this is because I almost barreled another car from behind one day. I was counting my blessings and I made a clear and firm decision that day to never text while driving again, however I have Bluetooth in my car so I am hands free when talking on the phone. No problem, right?? Wrong! Talking on you cell phone in your car while driving is equivalent to drinking and driving.

I guess I’m not alone because a recent survey finds 71% of people between the ages of 18 and 49 admit they text or talk on the phone while they drive. I think the age group above 49 is doing it too…Mom and Dad…guilty! I see it here everyday in Cali because every other person in their car has the phone up to their ear jabbering away as they are cutting across 3 lanes of traffic. Gotta love the LA drivers!! Look folks I think we are all doing it but we must make a commitment to stop.

Invincible is what we all think about ourselves. We can handle it. I get it because I think I can do it all, all of the time. Well we all are flat out wrong! Science shows your brain just can’t keep up. University of Utah researcher David Strayer has been studying distracted drivers for 10 years. “The brain just doesn’t work the way we’d like it to work,” he says. “We can’t multitask the way that a lot of people think they can.”

This is what a driver would see if she/he was talking on a cell phone. “One of the things we know when people are talking on a phone is that they get in kind of a tunnel vision,” David says.

“You don’t see the information in the periphery. So if there’s a car, a pedestrian, something like that, you just don’t see it,” he says. “They’re not looking at their side mirrors.”

David’s research found that talking on a cell phone quadruples your risk of an accident. “For comparison purposes, someone who’s drunk at a 0.08 blood alcohol level has a four-time crash increase. So talking on a cell phone is about the same as driving drunk,” he says. “When you’re text messaging, the crash risk goes up to eight times.” Hello people…8 TIMES!!!!

Oprah has spoken and is urging everyone to take her pledge today! Here is the pledge:
I pledge to make my car a No Phone Zone. Beginning right now, I will do my part to help put an end to distracted driving by not texting or using my phone while I am driving. I will ask other drivers I know to do the same. I pledge to make a difference. Click here to pledge.

Remember the Los Angeles commuter train?? The conductor missed a red light while sending and receiving more than 40 text messages. His packed train collided head-on with a freight train, injuring 135 people. The conductor and 24 others were killed, making it the second worst commuter train crash in U.S. history.

Distracted driving is an epidemic that is sweeping through our country, claiming lives and destroying families. I was sobbing while watching this episode. People are dying for no reason. What made me snap out of it is the fact that my stupidity could actually kill a little girl or little boy, or someones husband or girlfriend, mother and father, or a best friend. I am pretty sure I could not live with myself if this were to happen. Nearly 500,000 people are injured and 6,000 are killed each year because drivers are talking, texting and e-mailing behind the wheel. I took the pledge to never, ever pick up a cell phone again, hands free or not, while driving. It is simply not worth it. If I need to make a call I will pull over into a parking lot to do so.

“It is my prayer that this show, this day will be a seminal day in your life,” Oprah says. “Let it be the end, the end of you using a cell phone or sending a text message when you are behind the wheel of a moving vehicle. And until we as a nation decide we’re going to change that, those numbers are only going to go up.”

I am asking all of my family, friends and readers to please pass this on and take the pledge. Let’s save ourselves from a horrible situation that can happen if we choose to talk while driving.

Tags: Cell Phones, Orah, Texting, Texting and Driving