Some states have made talking on cell phones while driving illegal. Some have just extended the law to include texting. Some states, such as Connecticut and Washington D.C. have made it illegal to do anything distracting while driving. You can be fined for applying make-up, answering a phone call, eating, reading or writing while driving a car. Some people think that these laws are extreme, but police and other emergency workers are thankful that something is being done. They see, all too often, the consequences of a teenager looking down for a second to read a text.

All of these laws have a lot of people looking into what they can do to be safer behind the wheel. If it has become a serious enough issue to be enforceable by the authorities, then maybe we should be proactive about adjusting our habits to fit what will soon become expected safe behavior. Luckily, there are already technical advances that make these safety tips possible and even easy. We just have to make a point of turning them into our everyday habits.

Find the speakerphone button on your cell phone and learn how to use voice recognition for dialing. Having a conversation while driving is distracting in itself, but holding the phone to your ear, dialing and checking text messages is simply asking for an accident to happen. Voice recognition for dialing keeps your hands on the wheel and your eyes on the road.

If your phone rings while you are driving, simply push the speakerphone button and inform the caller that you are driving. If it is an emergency, they can let you know and you can pull over to speak with them. If not, simply say that you’ll have to call them back when you get to where you are going.

If you need to use a GPS or the internet to get directions, then you simply have to pull over. Using these systems while driving is extremely dangerous. They require hands, eyes, ears, and cognitive thought, taking all of your senses away from driving for several seconds, plenty of time to have a serious accident.

People use the internet, texting, maps and GPS units to get information about where they are going and what they will be doing.

An alternative to using all of these systems is to subscribe to mobile concierge services. These services are less than $10/month and provide you instant access to a live person 24/7. Parents can subscribe their children and know that they won’t be using a GPS or the internet to get information while they are driving. Simply program the number into the voice recognition section of your phone, and you’ll be speaking to a live person in seconds. Get turn by turn directions to your destination, directory assistance, movie times, sports scores, weather reports, and more, without taking your hands off the wheel or eyes off the road.

About the Author: Joe Smith is a Marketing Associate of OnCall, a leading online source of mobile concierge services that goes above and beyond traditional directory assistance. Get international personalized assistance with phone direcory information, turn by turn directions, movie times, stock quotes, sports scores, and more at http://www.askoncall.com.