...wait. How was she supposed to know what the phone call was about before she answered it?

...WTF. *sarcasm* Yes, she was supposed to pick up the call AFTER she knew what it was about. Because that's totally possible. Did it not occur to you that maybe the reason she picked up the phone was to FIND OUT what the call was about?

It's actually the cause of a lot of accidents and the news she received while talking on the phone made her hysterical while driving on the freeway.

@ 49 IAWTC I talk on my cell all the time while driving, and I have yet to kill everyone in some horrible accident. It's not much different from talking to someone in the passenger seat, except you don't feel the need to make eye contact and so are free to watch the road. Or maybe these people are incapable of driving one-handed?

I live every day, and have so far never died. I am clearly immortal. Your logic sucks. Cell phones are, however, proven worse than a passenger in terms of distraction. It's more difficult to hear, so you have to concentrate more on the call, and the person on the other end of the phone can't see the road so they don't know to shut up when there's a semi headed straight for you. Plus, if you don't use a hands-free set, you have to deal with handling the phone, too. Which isn't to say that a passenger in the front seat isn't extremely distracting, either, but good luck trying to regulate *that* one.

118, ignoring the statistics that prove it is a distraction and danger, I think the OP makes a pretty good example of why it's more dangerous than talking to a passenger. An passenger isn't suddenly going to deliver shocking news to you that will make you hysterical.

:/ daw, zargon, i thought we were becoming fml friends. so maybe it is distracting for some people. eating in the car is distracting. listening to loud music is distracting. having those stupid tv's in your car is distracting. my point is, there are a lot of things you could be doing that could distract you from the road, and i'm sure it's a lot more dangerous to some people than it is to others. all i'm saying is i think it's kind of dumb to pick some things to outlaw while allowing others. what happens if they decide to outlaw eating in the car? listening to loud music? singing in the car? it's just a slippery slope is all - and maybe i'm just freak awesome at driving. ;)

Nothing's preventing us from becoming FML friends. Friends are allowed to disagree sometimes ^__^ I do apologize for some of my harsher wording, though >.> I will admit, though, I do agree that a lot of such things should be illegal. I mean, I'm all for "it's my own life in my hands" type arguments, but they don't apply on the road. it's everyone's life on the line. The big thing mostly comes down to how difficult is it to regulate. That's why they drew the line on cell phones at "it's okay if you have a headset" even though the headsets are proven to be almost as dangerous as using the actual phone. Also, I'm sure you are an excellent driver, but I suggest you look up the Lake Wobegone effect. It's the primary reason I don't trust anyone when they insist "Oh, it's okay, I'm a good driver!" (I still wish FML had the ability to PM, though >.>)

I'm familiar with the Lake Wobegone Effect, though I usually hear it referred to as the "above average" effect - I guess that's its equivalent in layman's terms. Anyway, I was just kind of kidding with the "freak awesome" comment. I'm just an extremely defensive driver - the kind you feel like shooting in the face because they take entirely too long to make a turn, look both ways two or three times, check before going through a green light, etc. But a lot of shit is dangerous. I realize talking on a cell is more dangerous than driving alone in a silent car staring straight at the road with your hands at 10 and 2, but people are people. I wouldn't be too harsh on the OP for answering the phone while driving.

Like I said, I'm sure you're a good driver :P My reference to the Lake Wobegon effect was more to the large number of people who insist they're such great drivers, so it's okay if they do something dangerous. It's funny how almost every driver I know insists they're better than the rest. And, yes, a lot of stuff is dangerous. But just because we can't regulate it all doesn't mean we shouldn't do what we can, especially the particularly dangerous stuff. In fact, some of the big news of the past couple days is that the US Department of Transportation was withholding data that showed cell-phone use, even with a hands-free set, to be nearly as dangerous as drunk driving. I'm certainly not comfortable with people driving drunk around me!

a lot of the studies done on cell phone use while driving is questionable at best. there are a lot of contradictory findings. for example, one study found that talking on the cell while driving to be significantly more dangerous than talking to a passenger. however, another study found talking to a passenger to be significantly more distracting. one study found that talking was more distracting than listening. another the exact opposite. less than 2% of all accidents have been attributed to cell phone use, while 11% have been attributed to passengers. it's all relative, i suppose.

Actually, a passenger could suddenly get a text message or a phone call themselves... Since that's not illegal. You can get the same bad news from a passenger as you can answering the phone. And hey, she could have been on a hands-free device. It may not have been first priority to type that in her FML but how do you know she didn't put it on speaker or answer with a hands-free device???

I know she wasn't using a hands-free device because they are explicitly legal by California law.