Put the phones down, please

OK, I’ve had enough!

Why do you continue to use cellphones while you drive? Talking or texting, it doesn’t matter. And no, using speaker-phone and holding the phone six inches from your face is not hands-free. It even seems like it is getting worse. I just walked home from the garage and it only took 22 minutes, but in that time I saw three people talking on their cellphones while driving.

First a taxi driver with no passengers, then a mother in a minivan with two children in car seats going through a school zone and then a man in a car going through the same school zone. A mother with her children! A school zone! In the last week I have seen, three times, where someone has pulled out of a parking lot while talking on a cellphone.

You were already stopped. Why would you start driving while on the phone?

I also saw a young man driving a front-end loader going through a busy intersection on Topsail Road while using his cellphone.

People complain about the senseless killing that goes on around the world all the time — Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Canada. Yes, Canada.

What about the senseless killing that happens on our own streets?

Do you still not get it that distracted driving has caused death and will continue to cause death as long as you do it.

Do you think that the other people you might kill do not matter? They matter to someone. They matter to me.

Can you imagine kneeling by the side of the road looking into a child’s frightened eyes as they draw their last breathe? Because you were distracted?!

Can you imagine having to look into their parent’s eyes?

Can you imagine that parent is your spouse?

I guess you can not imagine these things because if you could you would stop! Ted Hillier Paradise