Effects of Using Cellular Phones While Driving

It's Monday morning and you've been on a jolly good ride over the weekend. The clock's ticking with just an hour to go before you get to your office. There are countless things to be done. Your kid needs to be dropped to school, the appointment with the dentist has to be rescheduled and you can't forget to call your boss to inform him that you're getting late! At such a crunch of time, the cell phone becomes your angel in disguise. Dial 'D' for 'driving and talking' and you can get all the work done! But what, if it becomes dial 'D' for 'danger'?

Using cellular phones while driving has become as controversial as common. The hectic lifestyles leave us with no choice. Often we find ourselves asking others not to do the same but how many times do we follow it ourselves? Of course we have justifications, it was an emergency, it was my boss calling, it was an unknown number, so on and so forth. Cell phones have become a necessity for people throughout the world. The technically advanced phones not only perform the work of making and receiving calls but also store important data, images and contacts. The GPS-enabled phones become our navigators, while we are on the move. As the popular line of cell phone manufacturer goes, 'it's not just a phone, it's who we are!'

Take a moment and think, at what cost are we using these devices while driving? At the risk of our lives, we are multi-tasking, outsourcing work or catching up with friends. Honestly, life is too precious to be risked for such silly reasons. A study conducted in America and Australia shows that a driver is four times at a higher risk of colliding with other vehicles, when he is talking and driving. 'Hands free' is an excuse for talking and driving, but it is not safe either.

Listening to a fellow passenger, radio, cds or cassettes is much easier and less taxing for the brain as it does not ask the brain to respond. Talking and driving has a greater risk as it demands the brain to think more than what it is already busy doing. This obviously diverts the attention exposing the driver to the likelihood of accidents. The police records too show that a majority of accidents have been as a result of cell phone usage while driving.

The law which proposed to ban cell phone usage in New York and Connecticut has proved to be futile. The rule was broken more than it was observed, since its implementation. For long term compliance with such safety regulations, vigorous enforcement is necessary. Despite the failure, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Taiwan, Ireland and UAE are among the nations to have banned talking on cell phones while driving.

Inattentive driving not only puts your life at risk, but also that of the passengers and the person you may collide with. The bargain is unreasonable if you are thinking of multitasking and saving your time while driving. It doesn't matter if you reach someplace a little late. What matters is that you've made it safely there!