Kill the call, not yourself

Do you make or accept mobile phone calls while driving? Worse, do you text while driving? Many people unfortunately engage in both these activities while at the wheel endangering the lives of others and of course, their own.

But then, there are those who will say that they do not use a handset per se to make or receive calls, but use a hands-free or Bluetooth kit instead, which may or may not be connected to the car audio system. Most of us tend to think that this is a 'safe' option as opposed to using a handset, where only one hand is available for steering.

Second

However, police here and abroad have come across a number of accidents caused by drivers who were using such devices instead of handsets while on the road. The irrefutable fact is that during a telephone conversation even on a hands-free system, one's attention can be drawn away from the road - even if it is for a split second, an accident with disastrous or fatal consequences can result. That is the inherent danger of using any device that can take your attention away from the road even briefly.

However, it is not only drivers who can get distracted this way. We have seen plenty of pedestrians who use this type of device on the road, quite oblivious to what is happening around them. Of late, police personnel are nabbing and advising pedestrians who use mobile phones especially on pedestrian crossings. After all, they may fail to hear or notice oncoming vehicles since they are engrossed in a telephone conversation.

In fact, the police say using a Bluetooth headset while driving could increase the chances of being in an accident by 75 percent, a senior officer at the Police Traffic Headquarters, Colombo, has said. According to international research, a driver is four times more likely to have a crash by using a phone, whether it is handheld or not. Ironically, police have observed that people were more vigilant when using handsets while driving or crossing roads, but a bit more careless when they use Bluetooth headsets. This, of course, does not mean that they condone the use of handsets, but rather that using hands-free devices gives users a misplaced sense of complacency that may invite danger.

Measures

A parliamentary sub-committee appointed last year to look into the measures to prevent road accidents had suggested that Bluetooth headsets and lack of backseat belt usage had caused more accidents, injuries and deaths during the past few years. However, since the police cannot ban the use of Bluetooth headsets straightaway unless a directive comes through Parliament, motorists must be aware of the danger of using any type of telephonic device while driving, which is probably one of the most dangerous tasks that we engage in every day, to begin with. In other words, it calls for more self-restraint. If you must take a call, pull over to a side if road space permits or you can ask a passenger to answer the call and explain that you are driving to the caller. No call can be worth your life.However, the mobile is not the only device that can distract drivers. We have seen vehicles with television sets where the driver enjoys a musical show or movie while steering. In many countries, it is mandatory to use dual view screens which actually go blank on the driver's side once the vehicle is in motion. However, the passenger(s) can still access the entertainment.

Even a navigation screen, which is now available on most cars, can occasionally distract a driver. As an alternative to on-dash screens, many top-end and even middle level cars are now equipped with Head Up Displays (HUD) which project driving, road and vehicle information to the driver's eye-level position so that his or her eyes are always on the road and the steering wheel. Most countries also ban the use of mobile smartphones as a GPS navigation device. Law enforcement will soon have to grapple with smart-watches, Google Glass and variations thereof.

Injured

In Sri Lanka, at least six persons are killed and many more are critically injured every day in motor accidents around the country. The latter puts a very heavy burden on the country's free healthcare system as well. Various causes could be attributed to this high rate of accidents including reckless/high speed driving, drunk driving, mechanically unsound vehicles, bad roads, a disregard for road rules, lack of road discipline, falling asleep at the wheel due to fatigue (called 'micro sleep') and of course, the use of various telephonic devices. For the latter, the best advice is "kill the call, not yourself".

The biggest cause of accidents is perhaps "not paying attention" to what goes on, on the road. In fact, some countries recognize this itself as a major offence. Despite the existence of very heavy fines and even the prospect of imprisonment for some of the major offences, people continue to take unnecessary risks while driving. Sometimes you get away but sometimes you cannot escape the ultimate 'punishment' of death.

Judgement

But as long as humans drive vehicles, there will be lapses of judgement which will lead to accidents. Hence the intensified research on autonomous vehicles and even intelligent roads, which engineers hope will be able to literally steer clear of trouble and accidents. In fact, the 11 collisions reported so far regarding autonomous vehicles developed by Google have all been caused by human operators and other drivers.

For a start, autonomous vehicles will not drink and drive. They will not feel exhausted regardless of the distance or duration of the drive. They will be able to communicate with road signs and other cars and avoid accidents in the first place. (Some cars can already apply the brakes automatically if the car in front slows down). These cars will be so intelligent that they will be able to pick up mechanical problems too without human intervention, which will also lead to greater safety. There is thus a very real prospect of having far safer roads in around two decades if current research efforts succeed.