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.

Did you know that up to one hundred million cell phones are replaced each year? As crazy as it sounds some owners aren’t aware that the electronics contain metals and other materials that can be hazardous to the environment and chuck them in their garbage cans, which then go to the landfill. Yikes!!!! FYI, cell phone circuitry and displays contain toxic compounds like cadmium, beryllium, arsenic, copper and lead.

Because manufacturers use so many different types of plastic in electronic equipment it’s the most challenging to recycle. It is also difficult and costly to sort all the different types of plastics used in cell phones. So my suggestion today is to donate your used cell phones!!! I am a drop off point for Cell for Soldiers. If you are not in the Los Angeles area remember that many charities will collect cell phones for fundraising or give them directly to people who need them. So do something easy, drop your phone off at a collection point or send it in to a participating site. Most will even send you a prepaid shipping label to speed along the process.

If you are a local customer of All Green Things, bring me your used cell phones!!!! Cell Phones for Soldiers is a great organization and they expect to collect 50,000 cell phones each month through a network of more than 3,000 collection sites across the country. The phones are sent to ReCellular, which pays Cell Phones for Soldiers for each donated phone – enough to provide an hour of talk time to soldiers abroad. Let’s show some love for our soldiers and our environment!!

It is unlawful in some states to not recycle your cellular phones and cell phone accessories. There is a growing movement to protect the environment and lawmakers all over the world are taking note.