Look, Ma. No Hands!

On July 1, 2008, California will join the handful of other states (plus Washington, DC and the Virgin Islands) that ban use of a cell phone while driving, unless you use a hands-free device like Bluetooth or a regular tethered headset.

Whether this new law (here) will make driving near other cell phone-using drivers safer remains to be seen, though some studies have suggested that it will. But the fact remains that if you live in California, have a cell phone, and don’t already own a headset that goes with it, you’ve got less than a month to comply.

Lucky for you (and for anyone outside of California who would like to drive hands-free, too), there’s Freeheadset.org, a non-profit organization created in 2003 after site creator Matt McAdams witnessed a fatal accident caused by a cell phone user...

Freeheadset.org ships free cell phone headsets all over the world (depending on the headset you choose, you may only have to pay the nominal shipping fee of less than $4.00) in an effort to encourage people to use them while driving. They offer headsets for cell phones from 20 different manufacturers, several headset styles to choose from, and they even have Bluetooth earpieces, though you do have to pay a bit more than shipping for those. All you have to do is find your phone on the site, select which available headset you would like and enter your name/address/credit card information. It’s that easy. Now there’s no financial reason not to drive and chat hands-free.

I’m still waiting for someone to start a non-profit site that ships free mute-your-kids devices so that I can really drive without any distractions, but I'll gladly take a free cell phone headset to replace the one I recently lost.

FYI: The California law also bans drivers under 18 years of age from using any electronic device while driving, whether hands-free or not.

Posted by

Bryn MacKinnon June 6, 2008, 6:00 AM

Permalink

Categories:

Car Safety