This is true, but people can also judge ahead of time when problems are more likely to occur, letting them put down the cellphone and pay attention to the road

This is true, but people can also judge ahead of time when problems are more likely to occur, letting them put down the cellphone and pay attention to the road when it is more likely they'll need to react quicker. I'd also guess most people are not constantly on their phones as they are checking notifications/texts and that kind of thing, so you get more of an on-and-off effect rather than just being consistently drunk for the entire duration. Not that it makes the practice any better, but it does seem like a complicating factor when trying to frame the problem in terms of drunk driving.