No community that values safety, its citizens, and especially its children can allow the use of cell phones by drivers. With the arrival of spring, however, more drivers are on the road for more hours throughout the day. And, more drivers engage in risky and downright foolish behavior.
Speaking on a cell phone while driving, regardless of the type of equipment in use (even phone communication through your dashboard), represents the paramount danger of multitasking.
Your Poor, Overworked Brain
Current research shows that your brain can only give sharp attention in one direction at a time. Talking on a cell phone and driving both require your sharp attention. Cell phone vendors and the powerful lobbies who represent them have obscured this issue. They will tell you that driving and talking on the phone is no more dangerous than talking to a passenger, listening to the radio, or humming your favorite tune. This is blatant misinformation. None of the above activities pose the level of hazard that speaking on a cell phone does.
The rights that cell phone vendors and lobbyists push for make them merchants of death. Sadly, a preponderance of our population drive along highways while surfing the web, reading email, and text messaging all through their increasingly powerful hand-held phones.
Amazingly, I have seen mothers in SUVs, with three children on board, with their left hands on the steering wheel, and their right hands holding a cell phone slapped to their ear as they roll through a busy intersection. What could they be thinking? How important could that conversation be compared to the lives and well-being of their children? This is madness. It needs to stop. Now.
What is Important in your World?
Are you among those addicted to gabbing on the phone while driving? If so, it’s time to ask yourself some pointed questions:
- What has led you to arrange your life so as to not be able to handle your phone calls before or after sitting behind the wheel of a 2,000 to 4,000 pound moving vehicle?
- Are routine cell phone conversations more important than you, your passengers, other motorists, their passengers, or pedestrians?
- What will it take before you wake up to the reality that you are engaging in foolish, even reckless behavior?
All communities need to do something about this recklessness before they have to hang their heads in sorrow because of some tragic accident that could have been avoided, and the solution starts with you!
