A friend told me he believes that women are more likely than men to multi-task while they drive—fix their hair, put on make-up, that sort of thing. I told him that is entirely possible since woman are also more likely to fix their hair and put on make-up when they aren’t driving.

And it was a woman who tried one of the most unusual tasks I’ve ever heard of at the wheel: nurse a baby. I didn’t know her personally, but she made the news because she was caught in the act…by the road ditch.

Still, I think my friend’s judgment is colored by the fact that he spends so much time gawking at female drivers when he should be watching the road.

Distracted driving is an equal opportunity temptation. Members of both genders are guilty of driving while drinking their morning coffee and carrying on lengthy, animated conversations on cell phones—all at the same time.

Who has never adjusted their lumbar support, played with the gadgets on their dashboard, or changed all six CDs in their CD player while driving down the interstate 10 miles an hour over the speed limit?

Who but a vegetarian has never eaten a cheeseburger while driving? Eating at the wheel is a leading cause of shirt stains—at least on my shirts.

Anyway, whether he’s shaving when he hits the light pole or she’s picking up the litter on the floorboards when she hits the light pole, it’s all the same to the ambulance driver…and to the light pole.

Distracted driving is not a gender issue; it’s an epidemic. When I learned to drive, the rule was both hands on the wheel at 10 and 2. These days, we can only hope the driver heading our way has a knee guiding the wheel down around 4 o’clock. I’m sure that’s what everyone in the vicinity hoped when they saw the young woman I heard about recently. She was dining while driving—a bowl in one hand and a spoon in the other. That’s what you call getting it to go!

It used to be that the only activities we engaged in while driving were fiddling with the radio dial and dozing off, not that I mean to downplay the danger of those. But today, we do so many things besides drive while we drive that our commute can be a very productive part of our day—if we survive it.

I once saw a young man doing what I swear looked like homework on his dashboard while he drove toward the high school. Of course, I could be judging him too harshly; he might have been filling out scholarship applications.

My car was nearly struck by a van because the driver was holding his cell phone in one hand, and the steering wheel and a cigarette in the other. He was driving remarkably well—until he had to take a drag.

I was sitting at a stoplight one day when a car rolled up behind me. And kept on rolling. My bumper was clearly not as interesting to the driver as what he was reading. A love letter maybe? The directions to his destination? The traffic ticket he’d received moments before for not watching where he was going?

What makes us take such risks on the great highway of life? Are we all supremely confident in our driving skills? Are we just busy? Or are we all a few gallons short of a full tank. Be careful out there! Whatever the reason we do it, it makes no difference to the light pole.

(Dorothy Rosby is the author of the humor book, I Used to Think I Was Not That Bad and Then I Got to Know Me Better. Contact drosby@rushmroe.com.)