A Car, a Call and a Crash

In the wee hours of Sunday, April 29, Chad Renegar (1) _______________ (to drive) supermodel Niki Taylor and another friend home from an overnight party when his cell phone (2) _______________ (to ring). Reflexively, Renegar (3) _____________ (to lung) for it, (4) _______________ (to take) his eyes off the road, he says, for just a few seconds. That’s all it took for his Nissan Maxima to jump the curb and plow straight into a pole. (5) _______________ (to shake) the three got out of the car and Renegar dialed for help. “You (6) _______________ (to injure)?” asked the 911 operator. “Yeah, all three of us (7) _______________ (to injure),’ answered Renegar, but he (8) _______________ (to play) it safe. They (9) _______________ (to wear) seat belts and aside from a few minor cuts, it seemed as if they (10) _______________ (to escape) serious injury. Taylor’s world-famous visage, once on the cover of six magazines in a single month, didn’t have a scratch. By the time police (11) _______________ (to arrive) though, the blonde model (12) _______________ (to be) in a terrible pain. Emergency-room doctors quickly determined she (13) _______________ (to suffer) from massive internal injuries.

A few days later, a penitent Renegar spoke to a morning news show (14) _______________ (to say), he (15) _______________ (to learn) a lesson about driving while (16) _______________ (to distract). “Nothing on the phone … can be nearly as important as what (17) _______________ (to go on) in front of you,” he said.

Taylor’s near-fatal accident (18) _______________ (to focus) national attention on a serious and growing problem – people who talk on the phone while (19) _______________ (to drive). Police, state legislators and local activists say that something must be done. A handful of countries and municipalities already (20) ______________ (to enact) ordinances (21) _______________ (to limit) the use of cell phones for drivers and at least 40 states (22) _______________ (to consider) similar bills. Automobile insurers say they, too, recognize the danger and quietly (23) _______________ (to discuss) whether to add a surcharge on insurance premiums for drivers who use cell phones. Meanwhile, mobile-phone companies (24) _______________ (to promote) so-called hands-free devices (25) _______________ (to aim) at (26) _______________ (to make) cell-phone users safer drivers. This technology already (27) _______________ (to require) by law in Italy, Brazil and Denmark. Portugal, Israel and Japan (28) _______________ (to ban) cell phones for drivers outright.

How dangerous are cell phones? The most damning statistics come from the medical community. A 1997 study (29) _______________ (to publish) in the New England Journal of Medicine found that the collision rates for drivers (30) _______________ (to use) handheld cell phones were roughly the same as for drivers who were legally drunk.

Elementary-school teacher Patti Pena knows about the danger firsthand. Two years ago she (31) _______________ (to drive) her toddler, Morgan Lee, to a farm near their home when she (32) _______________ (to broadside) by another vehicle. Morgan Lee was fatally injured. Pena says her grief turned to rage when she learned the driver (33) _______________ (to talk) on his handheld cell phone. She began doing research. She says: “I found that cell-phone-related car accidents affected hundreds and hundreds of people.” Pena began lobbying for a statewide ban on handheld phones. Though the bill died last year, her fight called the attention of lawmakers. “Our constituents want something (34) _______________ (to do),” says Richard Roy, Connecticut, whose sister was seriously injured in a cell-phone-related car accident. He (35) _______________ (to sponsor) a bill that requires Connecticut drivers to use the hands-free devices.

Late last week Taylor remained in critical condition. Her family and fans agree that for Taylor, the cost of (36) _______________ (to ride) with a (37) _______________ (to distract) driver was simply too high.

(From ‘Newsweek’, abridged)

Role play. You are taking part in a TV panel show devoted to the problem of drivers using cell phones. At present a campaign for banning cell phones for drivers is going on in the country and soon a bill will be debated in Parliament. Say what you think about the problem and try to convince the other participants to change their views.

Role 1. You are the leader of the panel. You must outline the problem to TV-viewers and present the participants.

Role 2. You are Patti Pena. You’ve started an activist groups (Advocates for Cell Phone Safety) and now you are carrying on a statewide campaign for banning the use of cell phones for drivers. You are in favour of a complete ban of cell phones and believe that it isn’t handling a cell phone but talking that distracts drivers and leads to car accidents. (“It’s not where your hands are, it’s where your head is.”)

Role 3. You are Niki Taylor. You have recovered but you have a spinal cord injury that can lead to you becoming an invalid if you have another accident. Tell the viewers what you think of drivers using cell phones.

Role 4. You are Richard Roy. Next week you are taking part in the Parliamentary debate on the problem. You are in favour of a bill that would require drivers to use hands-free devices.

Role 5. You are Don (Donna) Evans, a member of the board of directors of Verizon Wireless producing mobile phones. Now your company is developing car devices like headphones, earpieces, voice-activated dialers and ports that turn cell phones into speakerphones. Your company is going to support the bill requiring drivers to use hands-free devices. However, if cell phones are banned outright your sales will go down and you might even face bankruptcy.

Role 6. You are Chad Renegar. Tell the viewers what you think of using a cell phone while driving.

(NB. While speaking try to use grammar structures with different forms of the Participle).