How often do you avoid car wrecks almost caused by drivers on cell phones? Or perhaps you’ve been injured already by such distracted drivers. In either case, the phone industry doesn’t care. Wireless service providers made $148 billion last year, and the thousands of Americans killed and hurt by distracted drivers using their product are treated as collateral damage.

Indeed, a recent study by the New York Times shows that cell providers have known for decades about the obvious risks of distracted drivers, but were reluctant to do anything about it other than giving token warnings about their product — while paying heavily in ads to pitch them to drivers.

In experimental stages as early as the 1940s, through costly status-symbol models of the 1980s, through the cell phone explosion of the 1990s, cell phones were pointedly marketed as portable, use-them-anywhere “car phones” — and that hasn’t changed. The cell industry has been determined to reap huge profits by turning drivers into callers, even if that meant many people would die or be injured in cell phone car accidents.

How many? Harvard researchers have found that as many as 2,600 Americans die and 570,000 are injured annually in car accidents caused by distracted drivers on cell phones — and those numbers only can get worse. In fact, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says they have, with up to 6,000 Americans killed annually.

Also, studies show that drivers on cell phones are four times more likely to cause a crash than drivers not using cell phones. In effect, they’re as bad as drunk drivers.

In one recent change, the cell industry has begun taking seriously the dangers of texting while driving, and has made more effort to urge customers not to do so. But while it’s accepted studies’ findings on that problem, it’s rejected studies showing that talking on cell phones–even hands-free devices–can be just as distracting and deadly. Instead the industry pays lip service to the growing problem of cell phone drivers and keeps raking in enormous profits.

Even so, many states and municipalities are passing cell phone laws regulating the use of cell phones by drivers. Already, 19 states ban texting while driving, and some cities have done so, including Austin, Texas. But talking by cell while driving is a tougher legal nut to crack, perhaps because the cell phone industry’s political action committees pay millions of dollars to various candidates and incumbents to keep the status quo. Yet seven states — California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Utah and Washington — have banned hand-held cell phones for drivers in cars.

Thus, the momentum for driving safety — and sanity — is growing. Increasingly, safety groups, victims’ survivors and researchers are urging the cell industry and lawmakers to take the dangers of distracted driving seriously — dangers which the industry creates by manufacturing, marketing and selling these potentially dangerous devices.

If you or a loved one is harmed by a distracted driver who was using a cell phone or other electronic device behind the wheel, you can fight back, even if your state or city has no laws against such behavior. If a driver causes an accident and is cited for it, that, in itself, is enough cause to pursue justice. And a Houston, Dallas or San Antonio, Texas car accident lawyer can fight for such justice for you via a car accident lawsuit.

In time, the message will become clearer to all drivers that cell phone distractions are slaughtering Americans, and in time, more laws will be changed to address the crisis. Then, perhaps, we all can heed a much needed life lesson to, as they say, “hang up and drive.”

Jim S. Adler & Associates supports safe driving campaigns and Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD).

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