You know cell phones are a menace to society when they even start steering TV plots — sometimes twice in the same episode. That was the case with this week’s Desperate Housewives on ABC, when two major events were badly derailed simply because a person unwisely if not recklessly used a cell phone.

One such cell phone accident occurred at episode’s end when Edie (Nicollette Sheridan) was fleeing her maniacal husband. She’d escaped his clutches and was in her car, which she frantically raced down Wisteria Lane while — perhaps by force of habit — she looked down to dial a number on her cell phone.

Now, as smart drivers know, taking your eyes off the road even momentarily can be dangerous, if not deadly. Edie learned this lesson — too late. When a pedestrian appeared whom she belatedly noticed, she swerved her rushing car into a light pole, and at episode’s end it was suggested she was dead.

Now, how important was it to make a phone call while driving? Important enough to kill someone, including yourself?

Another cell phone distraction occurred when Edie’s crazed husband, Dave (Neal McDonough), carried out a carefully plotted plan to commit murder while on a camping trip, hoping to place the blame on rogue hunters. For some reason (perhaps bad screenwriting?), an otherwise stealthy Dave took his cell phone with him — turned on — while he furtively and quietly hid and waited for a shot with his rifle.

Naturally, the phone buzzed him with a text message just before he fired, diverting his aim to a tree. What are the odds? Well, they’re higher when you act like a doctor on call and have your cell phone  turned on, operating and attached to yourself 24-7, while open to its interruptions at any time.

While it’s a good thing Dave missed, the kind of cell phone distraction he suffered can just as easily prove fatal in other circumstances. As they say, the best-laid plans are doomed by a texting accident.

Of course, these are arbitrary, scripted, fictional events which occur simply to advance a plot. Yet  in each case, the wrenching way in which a simple cell phone drastically changed things rings horribly true. Too many Americans are becoming zombie-like beings who stumble through life while fixating on their cell phone, Blackberry or other personal digital device as the world whips by them.

And why? Not because they truly need to do so, but because they’re addicted to these devices, as  much as if they were drugs. After all, they might find a Twitter notice from a semi-friend about what he had for lunch that day. Or an email about an event weeks away. Or a voice mail adding one more jar of jelly to a grocery list. Must — know — immediately!

But let’s get real. In an era when some teens text-message thousands of times per month, seldom is such communication the kind of need-to-know-now info which should interfere with walking, driving or simply having dinner in a restaurant uninterrupted. That’s not to mention those  folks who spend big bucks on box seats to a ball game, then spend the innings idly talking by phone to a friend miles away. You know the ones. You see them in the background on TV routinely — just as you see people fiddling with their phones when you angrily pass by them in traffic after they’ve drifted into your lane.

It almost would be funny if this addictive behavior didn’t cause so much pain, misery and loss, or if all such suffering was fictional, as with Edie’s on Desperate Housewives. But facts are facts: In vehicles, cell phone distractions are killing and maiming thousands of Americans on our streets and highways,  and even pedestrians are endangered when they tune out their surroundings and step off a curb while eying emails on their PDA.

Though such persons are their own worst enemies, their behavior can impact others. If you or a loved one has been victimized in a car accident or has suffered any personal injury due to another’s cell phone distractions, you have a legal right to hold them accountable for your losses. Alert an experienced car accident lawyer or personal injury attorney with Jim S. Adler & Associates for help. If others won’t hang up and drive, at least an Adler cell phone accident lawyer can make them listen in a court of law.

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