My teen-aged son and I were moving from Maryland to Iowa a few years back when it happened. All our worldly goods were with us in the rental truck I was driving, and my car was strapped to a tow dolly hitched to the back of the truck. We had settled in for the roughly 1,200 miles ahead, and my son was lulled to sleep by the *white noise* of the truck. We were barely an hour outside of Baltimore on I-70 when a car passed me with everyone in the car frantically waving their arms at me and shouting something that sounded shockingly like “Your truck is on fire!” In about a ½ second three things happened. First, I looked in the rear view mirror mounted on the side of the truck and saw that, yes indeed, flames were shooting out of one of the tires on the tow dolly. Of course, immediately I pulled the truck over to the side of the road and screamed at my son “The tires are on fire!” In his groggy state he looked at me as if I had just gone completely crazy, but I certainly had succeeded in getting his attention. At the same time all of this was happening, almost magically my cell phone appeared in my hands and I was dialing 911. By the time the fire truck arrived just a couple of minutes later, the flaming tire was mostly just a puddle of very hot black goo. But my car had not been damaged and neither the truck nor the grass just beyond the highway shoulder had caught fire.

I was so glad I had a cell phone. With that one very bizarre event, I used my cell phone to call 911, to call the truck rental company, and to arrange for hotel accommodations for the night.

Apparently I am not alone in having a story to tell about an emergency when having a cell phone was a help. Pew Internet and American Life Project teamed up with AOL and Associated Press to study the way Americans use their cell phones. Their findings show that 77 percent of women and 71 percent of men reported using their cell phone in an emergency and found it very helpful.

The study showed, too, that 28 percent of respondents admitted they sometimes do not drive as safely as they ought to while using their cell phones. The findings further state, “Among cell phone users, men (32 percent) are more likely than women (25 percent) to admit they sometimes do not drive as safely as they should.”

Those are scary statistics. So as we all prepare for the upcoming New Year festivities, Woman-Centric Matters encourages you to stay safe, drive carefully, and come join us here again in 2007. Happy New Year everyone!