Your daughter  has a flat. She  calls you to come  help her. It's dark  and you're lost  somewhere not  too pleasant. You  call for directions. You want to  wish your son a happy birthday, but  he's gone camping with friends.  You can't reach him because he  turned off his phone so he could  have a bit of peace and quiet. Well,  two out of three isn't bad.

Cellular phones are perfect for  emergencies and for staying in  touch whenever and wherever we  need to be in touch. But there is  growing evidence that phones and  driving don't mix. With roads more  crowded than ever and drivers  seemingly more aggressive by the  day, any distraction can lead to an  accident, and cellular phones definitely are a distraction.

Consider also that young drivers (16-18) are among the least safe  drivers on our roads. The crash rate  for 16-year-old drivers is 5 times  higher than for over-25 drivers!  Parents naturally want their youngsters to have cellular phones to use  in case of emergencies, but using  cellular phones while driving is an  added danger for these inexperienced drivers—and for the rest of  us who are out on the roads with  them.

Americans will continue to use  phones in cars, just as we play our  stereos, drink our breakfast coffee,  adjust our appearance, dictate into  recorders, shout at the kids in the  back seat, and daydream about vacations and winning the lottery. We  spend a lot of time in our cars, and  we have begun to treat them as the  second homes they have become.  We will continue to use our phones,  but a few common-sense safety  rules maybe can save our lives.

• If traffic is heavy, turn off your phone.
• Pull off the road before phoning.
• Try to use a hands-free type of phone.
• Save stressful, intense calls for home or office.
• Monitor phone use by your young driver.
• If you must phone while driving, do so only when you can easily respond to traffic conditions.

The best advice about phoning  and driving probably is the simplest: USE YOUR HEAD before  you use your phone.