With all the discussion about cell phones and texting while driving, we should also talk about the new phenomenon of “selfies.” Selfies are the act of taking self-portraits with cell phones and they are cropping up everywhere. One has only to look at a young person’s Facebook page to see a selfie or two. Selfies of celebrities and politicians are also showing up on Twitter and in newspapers.

Taking a selfie while driving though can be extremely dangerous. Taking a selfie requires that you look at the camera (and not the road) and wait while the camera focuses and snaps the picture. Just the act of setting up the camera on a smart phone to take the picture can take time and distract a driver long enough to lead to a collision.

It’s important to remember how much distance is covered while posing for a selfie. At 45 mph, a car will travel more than 66 feet per second. For a driver looking at the camera and taking a picture, those two to three seconds mean that the vehicle has traveled from 132 to 198 feet. That’s two-thirds the distance of a football field. A lot can happen in that distance and a driver’s attention needs to be on the road ahead.

Along with selfies, taking videos of passengers or objects outside the window can be just as distracting. In a video making the rounds on social media, a mother videoing the actions of her kids in the back seat almost turned a precious moment with her children into a tragedy. The video can be seen at: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=60d_1392830284

Warning! There’s a little bit of foul language in the video.