It's not the phone, it's the idiot on it

I got a call from one of the drivers in the accident I saw last week-would I appear as a witness in a civil case against the other driver? No.
(I wonder if it's illegal for him to give me money? I might change my mind).
It was clearly the other guy's fault, I told that to the police at the scene. There were several other witnesses who all back that up. It seems the offending driver was talking on his phone when he ran the light-I was too far away to see that, but from what I've seen on the road it sounds plausible.

I think most of my Luddite misgivings about cell-phones stem from watching yakkers blithely sail through intersections , turn without warning, weave between lanes and generally drive worse than a fleet of grandmothers leaving a B.Y.O.B. bridge tournament.
It's not just yakker
drivers who are rude, but they are the most dangerous. Usually, anyway. The last time I went out to eat, I saw some very high-risk behavior. This jerk was sitting a couple tables over, and he kept explaining, to the whole restaurant, his side of his pending divorce. Jerk came very close to being a prop, along with my cutlery, in an impromptu demonstration of a physical pun based on the phrase 'forked tongue'.

Of course, there's a good side to these ubiquitous electronic pests. They can get you out of a tight spot. For example, having a good phone plan decreases the odds that you'll have to saw your arm off with a dull knife in order to escape from underneath a boulder. It could still happen, but it's less likely. One of those phones with built-in GPS would be quite useful if a tsunami left you stranded on a remote Pacific island.
They are also ideally suited for persons who cannot make a decision on what brand of toothpaste to buy without calling in a 'life-line.' Apparently, that's about 75% of the population.

On consideration, anything that helps 3/4 of the citizenry can't really be all that bad. The phony cops on TV are always catching the crooks by tracking cell phones. The real drug dealers ,who work a few blocks away, use cells to help them increase profits. Everyone wins!

(Next: Examining the etiquette of supermarket discount cards).