Even before the law was changed in Britain regarding the use of mobile phones while driving it struck me that using your mobile while driving was somewhat mad. Let’s look at dangerous driver dialing.
Sane people wouldn’t read a book or write in their diaries while driving but people do send and receive texts while behind the wheel, an activity which now comes under the provision of driving without due care and attention. The law was changed before the explosion of mobile internet handsets, I can just imagine the chaos that’d be caused by people tweeting and updating their Facebook status to “Driving on the motorway at 90MPH; Good times LOL!”
But people do still talk on the phone while driving. It is illegal, destroys your concentration and impairs your driving ability as much as being drunk, and with only one hand.
As a pedestrian you’re no safer from these dialing drivers, crossing the road can put your life at risk if the oncoming traffic includes someone chatting away not paying their full attention.
There are plenty of solutions to the problem of taking a call while you’re driving; most models have hands free or speakerphone capability and various providers are introducing functions whereby calls are automatically diverted to your voicemail if it is placed while you are driving. So there’s no need for dangerous driver dialing. The US branch of T-Mobile has service called DriveSmart which, for less than five dollars per month automatically disables ringing and alerts and diverts calls to your mailbox while your car is moving. Other operators are also looking into how they can exploit this technology.
The technology has to fit in with the fact that you may be using your phone’s GPS if you’re using it for directions and route planning so you don’t want to simply switch it off and it can’t currently distinguish between the drivers handset and those of any passengers. T-Mobile say it’s only a question of time before they have that hiccup sorted.
If you’ve kept up with the current Youtube trends you’ll have seen the woman falling into a pond as she walks out of a store while texting; apparently she’s thinking of suing the mall owners, what for one can only imagine since it’s her own lack of attention which led to her dunking. I believe she’s not a stranger to court though, she’s currently on a charge of shoplifting.
But I digress, there are deep seated psychological and neurological reasons why we can’t ignore a ringing phone. People fear missing an important call or getting exciting news, if it could wait then whoever it is would wait until they saw your, right? So you pick it up and become four hundred percent more likely to have an accident than those who don’t speak while driving.
Dan Cash Drives a Citroen Ber-lingo with his hands on the wheel at all times.
Dangerous Driver Dialing Could Soon Be A Thing Of The Past by Steve