I never thought I would be the cause of an accident while driving and talking on my cell phone at the same time. Never say never. I feel that driving and talking on your cell phone is not a smart thing to do. Multitasking while driving is very unsafe. If I could reverse my phone-and-drive incident, I would.Recently, I was on my cell phone and driving after a nine-hour day at work. I absolutely love my job at The Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising. I work in the marketing office in Encino, but once it hits 5 p.m., I jet out of the office. It was around 5:10 p.m. and I was driving down White Oak, less than ten minutes from work. I decided to call my sister, who lives in Texas. I don’t have much of a chance to talk to her when I get home because she is busy with her baby and there is a two-hour time difference. My mind was elsewhere on this particular day. I could see that there was traffic ahead of me. I made a bad judgment call, as I had to slam on my brakes to try to avoid colliding with another car.It was too late. As soon as I knew it, I just rear-ended the Lincoln town car in front of me. I didn’t panic, but I lied to my sister when I told her I would have to call her back – because I almost hit the car in front of me. If I was honest with her, she would have felt horrible and would have blamed herself for my mistake and stupidity. I got out of the car and exchanged information with the middle-aged man who, thank goodness, was really calm about the fact that I just damaged his bumper. His 25-year-old daughter and two dogs were in the car, but everyone turned out to be just fine. I’m not sure the other driver even realized I was on my phone. He didn’t make mention of it, so that leads me to believe that he may have been in la-la land as well. My car suffered no damage whatsoever, but his bumper had some work. Of course I was shaken up, but knew what I had to do next.I called my parents to let them know what happened. The first thing my mom asked was, “Were you on your phone?” There was no getting out of this one. The truth is what I told her and to my surprise, she wasn’t mad! I knew we were going to have a little talk once I got home because just last year, after making an unsafe lane change, a car plowed right into me. The accident was my fault and the bumper to my ’99 Chevrolet Cavalier still needs to be replaced by a trusted car service professional. For me, talking to anyone on the phone while driving is very common. I get bored and lonely in the car. The radio just doesn’t always cut it. It’s nice to have someone to talk to. It is very rare to see both of my hands on the steering wheel, as it seems my phone is attached to the other hand. What I did was very stupid. I see people on their phones while driving all the time. I am no exception. I thank God that I didn’t hurt anyone, but I don’t believe that I have learned my lesson. Though the cell phone is still attached to my hand, I am more cautious. Bluetooth is something I have been opting not to purchase, but I realize in July that a new law will be passed requiring everyone to use their phone hands free. Maybe with the new law and the wonderful world of technology, this incident could have been avoided.Next time I need to make a phone call while in my car, I may just pull over to the side. Better yet, I could just wait until I got home.