The other day some drivers actually noticed with horror a woman driving past them on the Sitra highway, holding a baby in her lap with one hand and a mobile phone in another with the steering being controlled virtually with the tip her little finger. We already know of a widely-reported case some years ago when a woman driver in similar circumstances caused possibly the most expensive accident in the Kingdom’s history when her callous disregard for the basics of good driving resulted in serious damage to a large number of racing cars heading from the port to the F1 grounds.
The point is that whether with a baby in the lap or without one, never ever drive with the mobile phone glued to your ear. Driving and talking or SMS-ing on the phone just don’t mix. Those rash enough to continue to attend to phone calls while driving or making phone calls or texting or using Whatsapp etc. must remember that by their rash action they are not only jeopardizing their own lives but also those of their passengers, family or friends in case they are with them and putting the lives of innocent road users – whether fellow drivers on the road or pedestrians and cyclists – at risk.
Indeed with the advent of mobile phones the accident statistics and the number of fatalities there have gone up dramatically compared to the pre-mobile era. Some figures speak for themselves. In the UK, 67 people were killed in accidents in three years because the driver was using a mobile phone. In fact a UK Press report claimed that the use of the cell phone while driving was at least a contributing factor to more than one-in-four car accidents across the country. A study by the UK’s National Safety Council found that 26 per cent of all car accidents were caused by the driver using a cell phone.
The truth is that no phone call is worth attending to at the risk of causing an accident which can be fatal or may incapacitate you for life or at the very least put you in hospital for long, leaving your families and loved once traumatized in either scenario.
Even the use of hands-free mobile phones should be avoided because it is not risk free but merely reduces the risk of an accident a little. When you are making or taking a call even on a hand-free phone you are still mentally engaged with the person at the other end and your attention is thus diverted – and remains diverted for the duration of the call – which is a recipe for a road disaster. Your eyes may be on the road but not your mind and therefore you are prone to ignore the most obvious hazards and signals on the road, including inadvertently bumping into the vehicle ahead or jumping the red light.
So drive safe. Switch off that gadget when you hit the road. And bring it back to life only when you have switched off your engine.