Thursday 22 March 2012

Using Mobile Phones while Driving

By Betty Everly


If you use the cell phone while driving it is bound to lead to distraction and this could pose serious threats to safety. This was taken up as a serious issue by the congress where a law was passed to reduce the extent of accidents. Automotive travel has seen a lot of innovations but such telephone talks seem to be the biggest one of them rather than any other innovations regarding vehicles, drivers or the roads they are driven in.

From the year 1984 when cellular phones first became operational on a large scale the number of users has grown to an astounding number and their impact on safety especially while driving is open to a lot of doubts. Especially elderly people may not be able to control a vehicle while carrying on a conversation at the same time. There are various situations on the road when one is required to manipulate the vehicles controls to avoid an accident. Tests have been carried out on various subjects and they were asked to perform various difficult driving maneuvers under normal conditions and along with distractions such as a phone conversation. The results indicated that the drivers responses and reflexes were significantly slower in cases of distraction. Complex phone calls create a worse effect whereas simple conversations may not have that disastrous an effect.

There is no doubt that talking on the cell phone while driving leads to distracted driving. This could also happen if you indulge in regular conversation with other passengers in the car. Cell phones, however, increase the chances of such conversations. Moreover, the type of conversation is also important as the cell phone usually involves business situations with intense thinking and talking causing more distraction in the bargain.

Though there is no specific link between cell phone usage and accidents, it must be agreed that it definitely lowers the perception and thinking skills to the extent that your reactions become slower. This could cause problems of wavering attention and improper lookout for dangers which are the usual causes of accidents.

Hence, if you have to talk very urgently while driving try to use methods such as speed dialing. Also try to keep your conversations when the traffic has thinned down to an extent. The type of conversation has a bearing on the distraction level too. Some discussions naturally cause mental tension.




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