THERE is mounting concern in the United States about drivers using cell phones and even texting while driving because of the accidents this can cause.

The Associated Press in a report earlier this month said the National Safety Council in the U.S. is advocating a total ban on cell phone use while driving, saying the practice is clearly dangerous and leads to fatalities.

States should ban drivers from using hand-held and hands-free cell phones, and businesses should prohibit employees from using cell phones while driving on the job, the congressionally chartered NSC said, taking those positions for the first time.

According to AP, the group’s president and chief executive, Janet Froetscher, likened talking on cell phones to drunken driving, saying cell phone use increases the risk of a crash fourfold.

“When our friends have been drinking, we take the car keys away. It’s time to take the cell phone away,” Froetscher said in interview.

No U.S. state currently bans all cell phone use while driving. Six states — California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Utah and Washington — and the District of Columbia ban the use of hand-held cell phones behind the wheel, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Also, 17 states and the district restrict or ban cell phone use by novice drivers.

“Public awareness and the laws haven’t caught up with what the scientists are telling us,” Froetscher said. “There is no dispute that driving while talking on your cell phone, or texting while driving, is dangerous.”

Froetscher said the council examined more than 50 scientific studies before reaching its decision. Hands-free cell phones are just as risky as hand held phones, she added.

Traffic conditions in Guyana are not on the scale as in the U.S., a much, much larger and far more developed country, but the concerns about driving and being on the phone at the same time are relevant here.

Guyana already has a law against using the cell phone while driving, but like the drunken driving law, it has to be more rigidly enforced.

There have been cases of drivers charged with drunken driving after some fatal or serious accidents, but reports about drivers caught driving while under the influence are about as rare as confirmed sightings of beings from Mars on earth.

Messages by the Police Force about how the breathalyser is administered by cops are fine, but there has not yet been a sustained nationwide crackdown on drunken driving by the police.

It’s the same with the use of cell phones by drivers. The law is in place, but drivers openly and brazenly use cell phones while driving even on the busy streets in commercial Georgetown.

Cell phones are an acceptable and by now almost indispensable asset of modern life. They have even helped to save lives as was seen in the horrendous recent earthquake in Haiti.

They are widely used by people here driving donkey and horse carts, by pedal cyclists and by pedestrians, even while dodging traffic on busy streets.

It will be hard to imagine life in today’s world without cell phones.

But the use of the devices by drivers has to be clearly controlled. The evidence is out and the news is not good.

Drivers here have to be made acutely aware of the dangers of being on the phone while driving through sustained public service programmes. If they have to answer or use the phone while driving, they should pull off the road when convenient, park and then do their thing.

Common sense could help save lives and avoid a lot of pain.