Hand Held Cell Phones Can Drive You To The Grave!
Cold Hard Fact or Myth? (excuse the pun there)
What the heck do you believe these days?
Beneath are some comments from Wikipedia on “Hands Free“. I have interlaced them with my own view. See if you agree!
“Driving while using a hands-free device is not safer than using a hand held mobile phone, as concluded by case-crossover studies”.
Yeah Right! If you agree with this then you possess at least four arms and you are bordering on being an octopus or octopussy depending on your sex.
“The amplified “cognitive workload” involved in holding a conversation, not the use of hands, causes the increased risk”.
At least I agree with half the statement. Kind of like seeing a ‘babe’ or ‘hunk’ on the footpath and trying not to be mentally side tracked.
“One notable omission to that conclusion is a report by headset producer Plantronics, which found 71 percent of the trial subjects steered more accurately, 100 percent had quicker brake pedal reaction times, and 92 percent maintained a more consistent speed when using a headset opposed to handheld”.
Clearly! How can you argue with facts from a study by the producer of a hands free device! If you are a conspiracy theorist, biased they might seem considering the source but actually I AGREE! (in general).
“The consistency of increased accident risk between hands-free and hand held cell phone use is at odds with legislation in lots of locations that prohibit hand held mobile phone use but allows hands-free”.
I assume I identify what they are saying!!!!
Do I genuinely care! What on earth happened to
good old commonsense? Here’s a thought! Get a Hands Free Car Kit!
“Dialing a mobile phone is more distracting than chatting
on a mobile phone, and hands-free devices that offer voice-dialing might
decrease or remove that
increased risk”.
Commonsense again I think but isn’t it astounding how millions of dollars
worldwide are sunk into commissioned studies where a immense percentage of findings turn out to be founded on common sense.
Have you lost your senses?”
The unfortunate reality is that, of all who have ventured without calamity in this realm, there will forever be a sizeable number who will declare that their ability to multi-task will always permit them to utilize and control a cell phone without any loss of cognitive or physical ability. What is more amusing is that of that number I reckon at least 50% will be male! Male’s multi-tasking? (Might require the Mythbusters here)
You of the feminine gender take notice. “We will govern the planet once again….. eventually! …..someday!”
Those of us who drive know that there are scores of distractions and sorry to say for some a simple distraction has lead to catastrophe. Was it a cell phone? Was it a visual interruption? Or was it a dropped CD into the passengers foot well that simply had to be retrieved and played ‘cos it had the badest song in the world on it’?
If you are barreling down the street in a ton of shimmering metal on your own, no cars in view, no lampposts, no girls in bikinis (this is mostly a male thing), then who really cares what you do?
The truth is straightforward. In a world where we actually still claim that we care about our fellow man (aka person cos we are required to be politically correct you know!) we need to draw on what is usually recognized as commonsense.
YES! at 5 km/hr perhaps even 10km/hr we can handle virtually anything (even us guys) but at regular speeds most of us are not uncommonly talented. However, We will still battle for our rights to make our own decisions. We will not let ‘BIG BROTHER’ person (whatever) govern our lives. But unfortunately in some cases we actually need to stand back and ask ourselves. Was I still in absolute control when that s.o.b. veered into my traffic lane at speed on a jam packed motorway? Did I truly see that youngster walking out from behind that automobile now that I see her in my rear vision mirror?
Some legislation is rational even if it does strip away a little of our invincible shell.
If you still think you are indestructible then have a thought for the rest of us. ‘GO HANDSFREE’ and save some one else’s woe!
Synopsis: Mobile Phones (aka cell phones) are a brilliant technological DISTRACTION when driving. BUT! Now that that’s sorted let’s target the nastiest culprit of all ‘THE DRIVING TEXTER’
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