They call from the car, carefully

You think it's risky to phone while you drive? Gilda A. Branch feels safer when she's driving with her phone - and using it when she needs it.

"I can't tell you the countless times that my cell phone has probably saved my life," said Branch, 57, a real estate broker who lives in North Raleigh. "Sometimes it really is my lifeline."

Stopping the car to take a call isn't always a smart choice, she says. She might be in heavy traffic, or on a dark street where she doesn't feel comfortable.

When she's about to meet a client at a home she never visited before, she'll phone folks at her office to let them know she got there OK. In an unfamiliar neighborhood, she might need to call her husband for navigation aid.

She would rather seek clear directions on her phone than be utterly confused as she drives down the street.

"It's less of a distraction to me than 'Oh my God, which way do I go at this intersection?'" Branch said.

She worries that highway safety crusaders will make her life harder with a ban on in-car phoning.

So does Susan Jancuski of Holly Springs, but for different reasons.

Like Branch, Jancuski contends that tuning a radio can distract a driver more than talking on the phone.

Both women offer insights into the appeal of phoning while driving and the challenge of doing it safely.

Shuttling between her demanding job as a network engineer and her hectic duties as a single mother, Jancuski uses the phone while she drives to keep in touch with friends and family.

"It's making use of my free time, basically," said Jancuski, 46.

"It might be the only time I get to say 'Hi' to my grandmother. I'm so busy at work. And once I get home, I'm cooking, I'm doing the dishes."

Jancuski says many drivers aren't careful when they juggle telephones and other potentially dangerous distractions. She makes it a point to stay focused on the road and the traffic around her, even when she's on the phone.

"I am watching my mirrors all the time, too," Jancuski said. "I'm very good at this. I'm a mom with two children. We are trained to do this."

She sends text messages only when stopped at a red light. (And now that texting is illegal, she says she does it only "rarely.")

She'll drop her phone in mid-conversation if traffic gets intense or an ambulance shows up in her rear-view mirror. She turns down the radio for a conversation with her children, and she stops the car if the talk gets heated.

She takes multitasking seriously. She learned her lesson at age 16, when she looked away from the road to wave to a friend - and sideswiped another car.

"That taught me to always pay attention. I know I can make that mistake," Jancuski said. "And so I'm very careful."