A phone can turn out to be a killer even when you are ensconced in your car in the driver’s seat. This could happen when you drive on a highway, happily chatting away with the person at the other end, making that small talk, and suddenly the talk takes away all your attention from the road until you are rudely brought back to the present.
And what do you notice after that rude shock? Either of the following multiple scenarios: You have hit or run over a pedestrian, you have jumped the red light, you have hit the vehicle ahead, a vehicle behind has hit you, you have hit the road divider or a tree, you are lying in a hospital.
All these scenarios, with the time-consuming running around by your or your relatives as a consequence and the attendant expense can be avoided if you just do not use the mobile phone while driving. Indeed a mobile phone today is not merely a mode of communication with other people by the spoken word. It has a variety of other gadgetry incorporated into it or embedded through downloads – WhatsApp, YouTube, SMS facility, Dubsmash, Pokemon . . . . the list is endless.
The tragedy is that most drivers are not only eager to take and continue with, in most cases unimportant if not frivolous phone calls, they find it essential or amusing to go for the rest of the aforesaid systems as well where the use of both fingers and eyes is involved. As if the primary act of driving was but a mere diversion!
It is best to put the phone away while you are in the driving seat. If you notice a call that you must take, let the phone ring until you find a proper parking space or a lay-by and only then take the call or ring back. By doing so you will also be setting an example for your children who would grow up understanding the value of this rule.
And you will also not be the target of any road rage since it has been noticed that those who drive while talking on the phone tend to drive slowly as a natural instinct, thereby impeding and slowing the traffic.