"Death By Cellphone" Campaign Kicked Off in Florida

Hopefully when you or your mobile employees are behind the wheel of a car, you refrain from using your cellphone. Drivers in 37 states will be reminded with a new billboard campaign that chatting while driving can be deadly.

Talking on a cellphone while driving is against the law in dozens of states. Texting while driving is against the law in more and more states. So is using a cellphone at all in some. Why? Reports show that using any handheld device is a distraction and can lead to accidents.

Several weeks ago, Car and Driver magazine performed extensive tests to prove the point. They had two different drivers use two different types of phone and had them perform a number of tasks while driving. These included talking, texting and emailing. Oh, Car and Driver had the two test subjects drive drunk, too. (Don't worry, on a closed course, not on public streets). The results were startling.

Both drivers reacted slower to red lights when texting than they did when driving drunk. Yes. That's right. Car and Driver proved that using a cell phone while driving is more dangerous than getting behind the wheel of a car when drunk.

It's evidence such as this being cited by National Safety Council in its new campaign to reduce cellphone-related accidents. The "Death By Cellphone" campaign will be public service announcements on billboards in 67 markets across 37 states that feature people who were killed in cellphone-related crashes.

According to the National Safety Council, those who drive and use their cellphones at the same time are responsible for some 636,000 accidents and 2,600 deaths per year.

Hopefully you—and your employees or colleagues—won't become a part of that statistic.