Hands-on cell phone use forbidden while driving

A week ago, I was flipping screens on my Nuvi on a major highway. I was doing about 60MPH (100KPH) in the express lane. I wasn't more than 5 seconds looking for an MP3 I wanted to listen to, I look up and I was about 2 seconds from ramming a slow-moving car in my lane, a quick swerve onto the median and I was safe...no harm no foul...but I wonder how many people were not so lucky? After that, my heart was going 60MPH and I was drivin alot more carefully.

Any other stories out there?

long list of distractions, drivers falling asleep, cell phones, gps, make up, shaving, i saw a guy flossing, reading newspapers, texting, looking for childs toys in back seat, arguing, looking at an old map(not gps), just a plain old blind spot.

As long as your cell phone is blue tooth you should have no problem. It's as easy as 1,2,3.

I don't have a particular story, but I have on occassion found myself looking at the GPS instead of the road, and heading for the berm, or not entirely confident that I have been paying FULL attention to the road, whether changing channels on my car radio, or working with the Garmin.

I set some rules for myself.

1. Don't answer the cell phone while driving, just let it go into voice mail.

2. Any conversations I initiate on the cell phone must be less than 30 seconds. Any longer I need to pull over to talk.

3. With the Garmin, I only push two buttons on the screen, and then I stop whatever I'm doing ( like setting a new waypoint) for 15 seconds while I look at the road. When I feel it's safe to continue, I will do another two steps, and pause again.

Five seconds is longer than you think to have your eye's off the road, however if you must I would recommend before you do take your eyes off the road that you look a little farther down the road before doing so.

It's a real good law, will save a lot of accidents.
Nothing worse than being on a freeway and one lane is backed up, when you finally pass the bottle neck it is almost always a cell phone stuck to the drivers ear and the car only going 40 mph.

check this link to see if your phone is compataible with your Garmin GPSr's Blue tooth.

http://www8.garmin.com/bluetooth/phones.jsp

Thanks to all. Yes, my LG cell phone is on the list.

Not sure why people want to use bluetooth on their GPSr when you could just as well use your built-in speakerphone, or a headset with one button touch on your ear to answer or initiate a call (if you program your phone list for voice recognition).

Chicago outlawed hands-on cell phone use some time ago, so I just use a Bluetooth headset I bought earlier for use with Skype on my PC (when North America landline calls were free).

We have the same thing already in California, and while searching around, I discovered bluetooth car kits. ( I'm interested in being 'assimilated' with one of those things in my ear.) Do a search on it. I think being mostly gadget-minded people here, you'll love them. You can either have them installed or do it yourself, if you're mechanically inclined, and your car will be bluetooth-enabled like the new-fangled cars. I'd get one myself if I weren't planning on replacing my car so soon.

We should driving more carefully and dont tail gate the car up front.
Mine I was looking to the other side of freeway that had an accident and didn't see the front car slow down, the driver behind mine also almost hit my car but we both pull to the emergency lane to avoid the fender bender. So lucky that day.

I tried Bluetooth on Tomtom gps 630 which a sales person sold me by telling me that 630 comes with built-in FM traffic receiver. WHen I called Tomtom they told me that I have to buy it. So I had to return the unit. But I tried Bluetooth feature on that unit, it is quite good. Once you pair your phone, it transfers your phone book to GPS and you can set your GPS unit to auto answer calls which is very cool. I think it should be same way on Garmin units too. It is good to have lesser things to carry with you if you all in one kind of device. I am thinking of buying Garmin Nuvi 760 or 765T. Both units come with bluethooth.

It just comes under the old heading of 'different strokes for different folks.' Some people (me) don't care for having a gizmo stuck to their ear. Speakerphone on the cell is a good idea but some of us (me again) leave the phone in a briefcase or purse so it isn't really handy.

Using Bluetooth via the GPS just simplifies things. Answering/making calls is very easy and if you're running GPS audio through your car speakers it's much easier to hear the caller in a noisy environment.

It's nice to have choices.

Cheers

I've had nothing but troubles with my Bluetooth connection (265wt > Palm Treo 700p). Works trouble free maybe 10% of the time. 265 freezes, looses sound, connection fails at boot, treo reboots, I've turned bluetooth off on both devices.

Ultimatly it's for the better since ignoring the cell phone in the car is 100% safer - regardless if the setup is hands free or speaker or a bluetooth device.