Cel Phones vs talking to a passenger - a surprise

January 4, 2026

I’ve been pretty adamant over the years about not participating in the activity called “talking on a cel phone while driving”. My opinion is founded on a few things, some rational, some less so. Research has shown that a person who is talking on a cel phone conversation has been shown in research to be impaired equivalent to having consumed one alcholic beverage.

Less rational is a bit of television I watched years ago. The story is from one of those summer short seasons they used to fill time with on TV. Traditionally, TV series would go into reruns during the summer, showing the same shows that had aired for the first time during the time between Septembber and March. They’d put something else during the summer so that not everything is reruns. This particular show was an anthology series of short form horror stories, each one done by a different directory/producer.

The episode that got me was about a guy who is a workaholic, but has a picture perfect relationship with his SAHM wife. He decides that he’s going to go to the office on a Sunday afternoon to catch up on some work that didn’t get done during the week. This might seem odd today, but it wasn’t that unusual in generations past amongst people who were trying to climb the corporate ladder. He kisses his wife goodbye and heads out. On the way, his wife goodbye and heads out. A few miles away, his wife calls him on the phone asking him to get some milk on the way home. He asks something inane like whether he should get low fat or regular milk. He’s stopped at a light, the light turns green and he proceeds.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, he is t-boned by a truck running the light. The last thing we see before the commercial break is a phone in a pile of broken glass, with a voice saying “honey, what was that noise? what happened?”.

That seems pretty horrific, but after the break we find out that both drivers were taken to hospital and somehow are revived. Yay. Except one thing: the conscious of the two drivers have somehow traded. Turns out the driver of the truck was a rather unsavory character and the action of each dealing with the circomstances of the other’s life takes the rest of the time.

The image of the cel phone, in a pile of broken glass with some blood stuck with me. I decided that I never wanted to be the wife in that situation, having essentially witnessed removely the accident that might have killed my spouse or friend. For many years, if I found out that someone was calling me while driving around, I wouldn’t lecture them about the risk they’re taking, but i would find some excuse to get off the phone. I didn’t want to witness that in that way.

I have my own personal experience related to this. I was involved in a situation like that not too long ago, like in the last year. For reasons I can’t fully articulate, I relaxed my policy and had a few conversations on the phone while driving. As fate would have it, while talking to a friend on the phone, I was involved in a minor accident. No one was hurt, the cars had minor scrapes, and both drivers decided not to pursue the police report. I got lucky.

While discussing this opinion of mine, I have been asked well how is it different than talking to someone in the car while driving. I’ve usually said that there are mitigating factors, like if the driving conditions get a little sketch, the passenger might refrain from talking during the difficult part. Having an extra pair of eyes looking around can be helpful, as well. I’ve always assumed that talking to a passenger in the car, holding a conversation, was different than talking to someone on a cel phone.

Well, it appears that I wasn’t entirely correct. Some recent reseach shows that talking to someone in the car does affect the driver’s ability to drive the car to a measurable extent. According to this essay there is a measurable change in a driver’s performance while talking to someone in the car.

Reply via email