Grrr!!!!!! A message rolls in while your hands are firmly on the wheel, meandering your way probably on the highway. You are immediately caught in between the urge to for a split second or many seconds divert your attention from the wheels to check that message. You are at the same time trying to give full attention to the road. This happens a lot all the time. It might at times just be a call, or maybe you just got bored of staring too much at what is ahead of you that brings your phone to mind. Abstinence from this act is strongly emphasized even in pretests lessons in Dublin if you happen at all to be a resident of Ireland. It is essential to abhor such actions.
A genius by the name of Albert Einstein once said: “A young man kissing a girl and driving at the same time is simply not giving the kissing enough attention.” This simple quote shows that the human brain is not wired to multitask and give full attention to two things at the same time. If at all it was a bit wired this way, the combination of driving and staring at your phone at the same time is definitely not one of the acceptable combinations. There are gigantic dangers to it. You would agree driving on the road alone requires a lot of attention, and if you are very confident in your ability to even safely maneuver your way, you cannot always be sure that other road users are in their proper state of mind and ideal senses.
You might be wondering or thinking that starring at your phone is not much of a big deal, these reasons will reveal the secret big deals behind it. It takes a millisecond for accidents to occur and it takes only a minute, seemingly irrelevant trigger most times. Here are some reasons why you should never stare at your phone screen while driving.
But wait! Before we dive into that, let’s rev our engine with these research findings.
A lot of research has been conducted, showings have revealed that typing on the phone especially increases the chance four times more of experiencing an accident. Research by Michigan medical association adds to this number, claiming that it increases six times more the risk of accidents. Another study shows that drivers starring at the screen of their phones drive 91% more poorly than those not starring at their phones. A lot of accidents that have occurred today are plain because of this reason; staring at the phone while driving. Any accident that occurs wasn’t mostly wired by some malevolent spirits; logical reasons account for the majority of accidents that happen on the road most of the times. While staring at your phone, two things happen
- Your attention is divided and
- Physiologically, You lose partial visual control of what is happening on the road. It is quite impossible to “kiss a lady and drive” at the same time, giving both full attention.
In case you have always felt staring at your phone while driving isn’t much of a big deal. These reasons will most likely convince you.
YOU RISK YOUR LIFE AND THE LIVES OF OTHERS
The effect of an accident can be thoroughly damaging, not to the injured or physically affected alone but to everyone connected to that person. If it by chance happens through you, you are causing pain to a network of people. Going farther a bit, if the person dies, that’s some messy situation. How easy will it be to forgive yourself? Those that have caused this through a glance at their phone are way much more than you think based on statistics. The truth is, they never planned to kill anybody and all that, It just happened. Some legal, psychological and twisty scenarios will follow, which might go on and on…it’s not always as simple as causing an accident “accidentally” and going scot free. Some really weird complications always follow.
LEGAL IMPLICATIONS
Isn’t the day just filed enough with its share of trouble? Why bother to add new by merely checking a message you could check later. Why endanger your life an others because of a little impatience and negligence. Scratch that “endangering” part, without even any occurrences, starring at your phone’s screen while driving has its legal implication in most places. It differs from place to place in the world, countries to countries and states to states. Common legal consequences are
- The temporal ceasing of privileges and revocation
- Monetary Fines
- Criminal charges
- Jail term etc.
INSURANCE RATE
Having been convicted or charged for texting while driving, that ticket at times automatically increases your insurance rates. This depends on the law of that particular place where you are and the pricing policy and pattern of your insurance company. The insurance company automatically sees you as a liability.
DESTRUCTION OF PROPERTY
You probably spent a lot of money acquiring your car. If you didn’t, remember some folks out there cannot afford to ride in your self-acclaimed “low class” ride. Starring at your phone while driving has limitless disadvantages. A lot of research shows several figures of vulnerability to accidents while driving. While it might be hard to arrive at an accurate number, you would agree accidents are awful things. Anything that exposes you to it by a tiny percentile at all should be avoided. Whether it exposes you by 77 percent or 88 percent, it is clearly to be avoided; staring at your phone.
IT IS THE SAME AS DRIVING UNDER THE INFLUENCE
As we have established earlier, several sources claim several percentages of harm that can be caused by staring at the phone while driving. Bio.org is of the opinion that it increases the possibility of a crash by 23 percent which is the same as when smoking. Starring at your phone, maybe texting while driving and being drunk both affect your perception, visually and mentally so they can both be compared. It is a general belief that as a drunk person, you are more prone to accidents, well both of these road habits are comparable. Your reaction time to the happenings on the road greatly slows down. Your ability to reflexively pull up some danger averting stunts and respond to ill driving by other road users also dwindles and is at a dangerous minimal.
CONCLUSION
Why put yourself at the arm’s length of fatal consequences you could avoid. Why not pause that message, exercise a little message and check later. It’s better to assume your phone’s battery was dead while driving than to be the cause a death causing accident. This is one of the critical things that will be hammered on when taking your driving lessons in Dublin if at all you are in a place like Ireland. Better to drive home safely than to drive to the mechanic for repairs.
A professional writer with over a decade of incessant writing skills. Her topics of interest and expertise range from health, nutrition and psychology.