Cell Phone Distraction
Yesterday, I dropped by Home Despot at Wilson and Dufferin. I arrived at a three-way stop.
This woman in a SUV came barreling through without stopping! I could clearly see she was talking on her cell phone.
Had I not exercised caution, she probably would have rammed into me as I made my left-hand turn. I’m pretty sure she didn’t even notice me at the intersection. I am 100% absolutely certain that she was distracted by her cell phone conversation.
People like her believe that they can multitask on the road and suffer no significant distraction on the cell phone. This belief is based on nothing more than their own ignorance and the fact that they’ve never before caused an accident due to negligence. We have a word for this state of mind: delusion.
I’ll bet there are people on this rant line who have used their cell phones while driving (that includes me, BTW). I try very hard not to, but I’m sure some of you folks don’t try that hard.
So the next time somebody says that cell phones are not a serious distraction on the road, I want you to say, “Baloney!!”
Repeat after me: Ba-lo-ney!
Baloney!
Baloney!
And the next time you hear your cell phone ring, or you feel like making a call, while you’re driving, THINK about what I’ve just told you.
Think real hard...
This woman in a SUV came barreling through without stopping! I could clearly see she was talking on her cell phone.
Had I not exercised caution, she probably would have rammed into me as I made my left-hand turn. I’m pretty sure she didn’t even notice me at the intersection. I am 100% absolutely certain that she was distracted by her cell phone conversation.
People like her believe that they can multitask on the road and suffer no significant distraction on the cell phone. This belief is based on nothing more than their own ignorance and the fact that they’ve never before caused an accident due to negligence. We have a word for this state of mind: delusion.
I’ll bet there are people on this rant line who have used their cell phones while driving (that includes me, BTW). I try very hard not to, but I’m sure some of you folks don’t try that hard.
So the next time somebody says that cell phones are not a serious distraction on the road, I want you to say, “Baloney!!”
Repeat after me: Ba-lo-ney!
Baloney!
Baloney!
And the next time you hear your cell phone ring, or you feel like making a call, while you’re driving, THINK about what I’ve just told you.
Think real hard...
posted by Darkest Knight | 6:57 AM
1 Comments:
A friend of mine told me something interesting:
"I've heard it before.
No music, 100% attention
Music, 90% attention
Someone talking, 80% attention
You talking, 40% attention
Talking absorbs a lot of cognitive attention.
Whether it is on a cell phone or with a passenger does not matter. Smart passengers know when to shut up because they see trouble or are aware of the navigational issues. The virtual passenger on a cell phone has none of those cue's and so it becomes a worst case of you listening while preparing your response to their query."
A cell phone conversation can be a severe and dangerous distraction while driving.
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