Most of the time anxiety is foreign to me unless I'm driving in heavy traffic or in rain that reduces my vision.

I've already shared with readers my driving anxiety that was the aftermath of a car accident that happened when I was making a left turn onto a busy highway.After almost two years, I could still hear that crash in my head whenever I had to make a left turn. It got to the point where I didn't want to get behind the wheel of a car unless I had to.It took a lot of prayer on my part and that of my friends, but I now feel comfortable again while driving. I still pray when I drive, of course. I never take my safety for granted when I'm on the road.When I bought a new car with new safety features a few months ago, it added to my comfort level behind the wheel. But it also changed my driving habits.I love the car, but every control is touch screen, even playing the radio. Touch the screen for audio, touch the screen for FM radio, touch the screen for the station. Buttons on the steering wheel can handle some functions, but I would have to glance down.I absolutely refuse to do that when the car is in motion.I set the radio, preferred seating position and climate control before I start to drive. When I'm using the navigation system, I set that ahead of time, too.Sometimes when I'm driving I want to change the radio station or set a different destination for the GPS. Again, I pull over instead of fidgeting with it on the road.When I drive, I want to do nothing except pay attention to the road. People do dumb things behind the wheel, and drivers have to stay alert.The other day a driver pulled out of a one-way street (going the wrong way) directly into the path of my car. I was alert enough to see it coming so we got by without an accident.The unexpected happens a lot to drivers. That's why we need to focus and pay attention ALL the time, not just some of the time.Too many people insist they drive safely all the time, even though they are using a cellphone and texting.When you are stopped at a light or an intersection, watch the other cars drive by. You'll see how many have cellphones up to their ears and how many are fiddling with the phone.If they were pulled over, I'm sure they would insist they are paying attention.Here are a few recent stories about how much attention a cellphone steals.A woman driving in the town next to me veered a little to the side of the road where a mother was walking her child to school. The mother walked her young son to school because she was concerned about recent stories in our paper on drivers who hit kids because they are not paying attention.Last week a motorist ran over a kid and his bike, claiming he didn't see him.To keep that from happening to her son, the mother walked with him. But she could do nothing about the car that came up from behind and plowed into them.Both the mother and her son died.Police determined the driver was answering a text on her cellphone that came a minute before the accident.There was no report in the paper about what will happen to the texting driver.Please tell me why many are slaves to their cellphone. Some claim they don't talk on the phone. They just check to see who is calling or texting.Taking your eyes off the road long enough to do that can turn you into a death machine.Please, for those of you who think it's OK "just to see who is calling," tell me what waiting a few minutes will harm.If you don't have Bluetooth connection with your cellphone, pull over or wait for a light. Waiting a few minutes won't kill you or anyone else.How engrossed are we in our cellphones? Here are two incidents from this week.A 27-year-old woman texting on her cellphone walked around railroad crossing gates into the path of a passing freight train. She was so engrossed with her phone that she didn't hear the train or realize the crossing gate was down.She was lucky, suffering only a broken arm and leg.In another incident, a man was hurrying through an airport while texting. "He was headed straight at me so I just stopped," said the jitney driver.The man hit the cart head-on then flew head over heels until he landed hard on the cart."We see things like that all the time," said the airline employee.One long-distance truck driver said his high seat allows him to observe driving behavior. "You wouldn't believe all the texting and cellphone use I see," he said. "Or people are eating or putting on makeup. It's scary on the road."One recent study revealed 81 percent of drivers acknowledge using a cellphone while driving is dangerous.But they still do it.Can anyone tell me why?