A handful of states have passed laws banning cell phone use without a headsets while driving. But commentator Clarence Page says that no matter how many hands grip the wheel, talking on a cell phone while driving is dangerous. Page is a Washington-based syndicated columnist for the Chicago Tribune.
ED GORDON, host: You might think that you're good at multitasking, but keeping that cell      phone to your ear while driving isn't such a good idea as commentator      Clarence Page tells us.</s>CLARENCE PAGE: If you're driving while using a cell phone while listening to this      broadcast, put down the cell phone or pull over right now.  A new study      by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found drivers who use cell      phones are four times--Four times!--more likely to get into serious      collisions even if they use hands-free headsets.  A friend of mine told      me about it while I was driving to work this morning.  Seriously, we all      know that yacking on cell phones can be as dangerous as any other      distraction behind the wheel.  That's why Chicago, New York, Washington,      DC, and New Jersey have all passed laws to ban cell phone use while      driving unless you've got a headset, but I'm both frightened and      fascinated by the possibility that it's the cell phone itself. No matter      how many hands grip the steering wheel and no matter whether you've got a      headset or not, it's so much more distracting than, say, your car radio      or your iPod or your CD player.</s>CLARENCE PAGE: That's not news to communications professors like Paul Levinson at      Fordham University.  He's been writing for years about the telephone as a      medium. Unlike radio or TV, Professor Levinson says, the phone engages us      differently because it is a two-way medium, interactive.  Our eyes watch      one thing at a time.  Our ears are built for multitasking.  Our brains      respond differently to a real conversation than they do to a one-way      presentation.  That's what makes the telephone more demanding of our      attention.</s>CLARENCE PAGE: Professor Levinson told me all of this on his cell phone.  At the time,      he was not driving.  Neither was I.  The conversation got me to thinking.      If radio is theater of the mind, the cell phone must be a "Star Trek"      transporter, bringing people to us, taking us to other places, making us      forget about the place we really are.  So that's why you hear people      shouting their personal business into their cell phones on trains and      planes and on the street, secrets loud enough for the rest of us to hear      even if we'd rather not.  Don't forget where you are, dear listener, and      drive carefully.</s>ED GORDON, host: Clarence Page is a Washington-based syndicated columnist for the      Chicago Tribune.</s>ED GORDON, host: This is NPR News.