Driver distraction is one of the most difficult factors to determine in any crash, yet is increasingly looking to be a major reason for injury and death on our roads. For whatever reason people are concentrating less and less on the vital task of driving and more on carrying on with the rest of their lives - even if the rest of their life might suddenly become a very short period indeed.
Some people are almost treating the driver’s seat as though it was simply another passenger seat. Unbelievable, but true!
Car makers are boasting they will soon offer fax machines and multi-purpose display screens that can take phone messages, pull up information such as airline timetables, stock exchange figures, news on the latest movies, how many spots are available in a particular car park and much, much more.
Naturally the car’s owner’s handbook will come with safety warnings, carefully composed by the makers’ legal departments, not to look at these screens while you are driving - but you and I both know that human nature will dictate otherwise.
It’s illegal to use a hand-held phone while driving, but you see it happening numerous times every day. Because it’s very obvious that a driver is holding a phone more and more people (usually young and female) are sending SMS messages while they drive. That involves taking their eyes off the road dozens of times to compose a single message. Then they get a reply, read it, and start on the next part of their killer electronic chat. And I don't use the word killer lightly…
Interestingly it’s not just the fact that at least one of the driver’s hands are off on the steering wheel which increases the chances of trouble. Recent research seems to suggest that the proportion of crashes when drivers were using a hands-free set was about the same as for those with their hands off the wheel, suggesting that the root of the problem is as much in an absence of concentration as in a lack of steering control.
It’s not only in-car distractions. Roadside advertising is becoming more and more intrusive. No longer does it consist only of standard-size billboards with simple messages we can easily ignore. We are now seeing monstrous structures with moving pictures, flashing words, three-dimensional products and all sorts of cunningly crafted designs aimed at capturing the attention of even the most blase of drivers.
Even local councils are getting into the act, sometimes selling advertising signs in locations they would previously have banned to private advertising agencies on the grounds of road safety…
If the awful carnage on the road is to be reduced it’s essential that we all drive with two eyes on the road, two hands on the steering wheel and 100 per cent concentration on driving. Anything else is simply asking for horrific events that will alter lives forever.
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