National "No Phone Zone" Day

Tweet My husband works for a company that provides him with a cell phone. Because of this, he is basically on-call 24/7/365 and is expected to answer that phone whenever it rings. Sometimes, these calls could be life-or-death situations so his cell phone is extremely important.

However, he's often driving when his phone rings. When he answers it, it's a scary thing. I've seen other drivers talking on cell phones, weaving all over the road. So far, my husband has not had a problem, but that doesn't mean something couldn't happen. There have been hundreds of deaths caused by the use of cell phones while driving.

That's why Oprah Winfrey has promoted today as National "No Phone Zone" Day. It is a national day of awareness to end distracted driving. On her website, you can sign a pledge, watch videos, tell your own story, and get information about the hazards of distracted driving.

I would encourage everyone to consider making a pledge to not use cell phones while driving. I would especially encourage parents and teachers to have their students and children watch the videos and sign the pledge.

I would also encourage companies who require their employees to use cell phones to consider setting up some guidelines for those employees. Some of these might include pulling to the side of the road to answer and if that's not possible, allow it to go to voicemail and then answer when it's safe.

If I knew in advance, on any particular day, that my cell phone use was going to cause an accident and that someone was going to die, I would not use my cell phone that day. Well, the simple fact of the matter is that day could be any day. We need to start realizing that everything we do has consequences and some of them can change lives forever...or take them away.