I told you so:

Drivers using cellphones have four times the risk of being involved in car accidents that result in hospital visits, according to a new study in the British Medical Journal. And those hands-free devices? They won’t lower your risk of a crash.

Of course there’s nothing that can be done to stop people using hands free devices, or else we’d have to stop every person singing along with the radio or talking to a small child in the back seat to make sure they weren’t using a hands free device.

And of course I can’t understand why anyone would WANT to talk on the phone while driving. I don’t even want to talk on the phone at home, at least when I’m driving I have an good excuse not to talk to the caller. Oh, wait. That’s right. No one ever calls me because I hate to talk on the phone.

But still, what on earth could possibly be so important that you want to divide your attention from the ton (or more) of metal hurtling down the road at upwards of 25mph? Basic physics here folks. Force equals mass times acceleration, means if you lose your control, nothing good can come of it.

I would think that anyone who has ever been in a car accident–for any reason–would have reason to be careful. Watching the scenery go past as you do a 180, wondering whether you’ll stay on the road or go hurtling into a ravine was enough to make me pay attention to my driving. Why would I want to do something that would make me more likely to go through such an experience again? (And then there were the deer. Despite paying attention and being on the lookout for them, I’ve managed to hit two deer. Distraction would have made it even worse.)

If you talk and drive, you’re putting yourself at risk. That’s the bottom line.

Though perhaps I should look at this as a good thing. At the rate people talk on their phones while driving, maybe we’ll get more stupid people out of the gene pool.