Multitasking behind the wheel with cellphone and laptop

Executives from chemical and fertilizer company Potash Corporation have been profiled in the New York Times in an article (with helpful video footage) which describes the way they multitask behind the wheel. Shocking though it seems to Europeans, using your cellphone and laptop, often both together, while driving is entirely legal in the US.

One Potash Corp regional salesman, gives this stomach-churning quote: "I'd be on my cellphone, writing notes in my planner, driving with my knee, and with a sandwich in my lap."

"He felt he could not ignore his phone, he said, because he never knew which call or e-mail message would be one he could not miss ... Tens of thousands of Americans have turned their cars, vans and trucks into mobile offices, wired with phones and computers to stay in close touch with bosses and customers."

"On Wednesday, the Transportation secretary, Ray LaHood, called the broader phenomenon of distracted driving a "deadly epidemic" at a meeting on the issue in Washington."

It's definitely something to bear in mind next time you pick up the hire car from Houston airport and launch onto the freeway into the city.