Oprah Winfrey and General Motors are adding their voices to the growing chorus against cell-phone use while driving. The queen of daytime talk was to host on Friday a Fort Wayne, Texas, activist, Diveeta Johnson, who lost her 18-year-old son, Rodney, after he lost control of a car while texting. Johnson has since persuaded 7,000 students to take a pledge not to text behind the wheel.
Winfrey called for a national No Phone Zone day, and GM CEO Ed Whitacre and employees of the Lansing Delta Township Chevrolet plant in Michigan taped a video for Friday’s show supporting the the no-phone pledge.
“My biggest hope for the No Phone Zone campaign is that it becomes mandatory that no one uses their phone in the car or texts while driving — just as seat belts are mandatory, just as driving while drunk is considered absolutely taboo. I’m hoping that this becomes not just law, but second nature for all of us,” Winfrey said.
Jim Campbell, a spokesperson for Chevrolet, said the company is “proud to help Oprah raise awareness of the risks of distracted driving. The No Phone Zone campaign fits our own mission to keep Chevrolet drivers and their loved ones as safe as possible while on the road.”
Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia have banned cell-phone use by drivers.
“It’s the most dangerous element of driving, and it seems to be growing in spite of the bans,” said Robert Sinclair, a spokesperson for the New York chapter of the American Automobile Association.
Sinclair said that in many states, laws are not strict enough because they allow police to ticket drivers for texting only if they are pulled over for another offense.
In addition, he noted that many state laws don’t include devices other than phones. On Thursday,…