WCHL Commentary
3-3-2010
How much can a cell phone call cost? Well if you’re driving, it could cost you your life. My question to you is “Is it worth it?” Using a cell phone while driving delays a driver’s reaction as much as having a blood alcohol level at the legal limit of .08%. Nearly 6000 people died in 2008 due to distracted driving, mostly cell phone use. 515,000 crashes, ½ million people seriously injured. Studies show that driving while talking on a cell phone puts the driver at a 4x greater risk of a crash. Knowing this, some people still do it. But why?
When you drive and talk you get a kind of tunnel vision. You don’t see what is going on in the periphery, so if there is a car, a pedestrian, a bike, scooter or anything else, you just don’t see it. You cannot hold a cell phone, drive and look into your mirrors at the same time. When you talk and drive you may also experience something called inattention blindness. This means that about half the things that are going on in front of you are removed from your vision. The problem is that you don’t get to choose what you can and cannot see because you are involved in a conversation and your focus is not on the road. You could miss a stop sign, a red light, a stopped bus, an oncoming car or worse a pedestrian.
I think you have to ask yourself the question “Is this phone call worth your life or killing someone else?” You can tell when someone is one the phone while driving. They swerve and make wide turns, drive slowly and pay no attention to their surroundings. The next time you get into your car turn off the phone ring and let the call go to voicemail. Pick up the message when you safely arrive at your destination. Be a good role model. Statistics show that teens and young adolescences are more likely to get into a crash than adults while driving and talking or texting on a cell phone. Maybe if they see you taking a stand by making your car a no cell phone car, they will do the same. Humans are not wired to multitask – driving and talking. We think we can do it, but the truth is we cannot and we are deceiving ourselves and risking the lives of others. Please. Don’t use a cell phone while driving. Don’t become a statistic.
This entry was posted on Thursday, March 4th, 2010 at 6:08 pm and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
