Why Peeking Into the Phone While Driving is Dangerous?

• Published On: 28 June 2019
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Use of cell-phones while driving on busy roads can be very harmful.

You have seen a number of PSAs, the hoardings on your way to work all say the same, there are multiple signs for the same on nearly all major traffic stops, but there still are people out there who use their mobile phones while driving their cars. We are not even talking about elevating driving to the level of art. We are only talking about simple and sane driving. This includes keeping basic knowledge of the kind of traffic on the road, following the traffic rules, following the common courtesies on the road, avoiding rash driving, driving in a lane, avoiding over-speeding, and observing the manners generally associated with safe and sound driving.

In the connected lifestyle that we lead today, a major threat to safe driving on the road is the constant updates about various activities that we receive on our phones. To keep abreast of the information, people often tend to use their phones while driving in the busiest of the situations. This negligent act not only endangers the driver of the car using their phone, it also endangers the lives of other people on the road. Even a distraction as minor as 2 seconds can lead to very dangerous  results, and to let you know a normal phone check usually warrants a distraction longer than the aforementioned 2 second window.

A cursory glance at your phone may also prove dangerous as the glance may very well hold your attention. There are numerous ways a phone notification can lead to you being distracted and losing grip of the events on the road in front of you. Not to say that phone usage while driving is growing rampant by the day, it surely has come down. However, the intermingling of phones in our lives has gone so deep, many people consider a notification check on the phone to not be active usage of the device. In a country with traffic as chaotic as India, taking your eyes off the road even for a few seconds can prove to be very dangerous.

Hence, driving instructors and manuals always urge you to stop using your phone while driving. While there can be emergency situations where answering the phone during driving may be very important. In such cases one can always take a pause, pull over to the side of the road and then answer the call. Similarly, the updates on the phone can be glanced through once in a traffic jam, and there are a lot of jams in India. However, even then one must not totally be engrossed in the phone and always be mindful of the surroundings as traffic jams are often dynamic.

With the advancements in technology, carmakers have begun offering voice call functions to answer your phone on the go, this eliminates the need to take a look at the phone in case of a call. While this feature too is recommended to be used only occasionally, it is always better to stop the car at the side of the road to take a call. Always remember, using phone while driving may not only be fatal for you, but for the people around you as well.