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Blanket Ban on Mobile Phone’s In Vehicles Should Be Imposed


The use of mobile phones whilst driving, even when hands free, is extremely dangerous and should be completely banned.

A momentary loss of concentration leading to a 1 second delay in reaction time could be the difference between life and death. When travelling at 50 mph, that 1 second equals 75 extra feet of stopping distance or approximately 2 bus lengths – and that could quite easily be someone’s life.

Those who argue in favour tend to focus on the fact that speaking on the mobile is the same as speaking to a passenger. But it is not. A passenger can see what is happening on the road and will react accordingly, by stopping talking to allow the driver to concentrate. Evidence also shows that a significant amount of focus is channelled into having a telephone conversation and the brain cannot concentrate on the 2 activities.

In our online driver training programme, we prove this by asking drivers to listen to a mobile phone conversation whilst driving a vehicle (on screen).

We then ask them a series of questions - not just about what they observed whilst driving, but also about the conversation that’s just taken place.

In almost every scenario, the driver cannot recall key facts about the road scenes, but neither can they remember basic information about the conversation that’s just taken place.

Even if you are in favour of allowing hands free conversations in vehicles, be very concerned that staff are having discussions that they find hard to recollect, as this could cost you money. Having the conversation in the first place could cost lives. So why allow it when its proven to be both dangerous and when only a fraction of the content can be remembered anyway.

Source: By: Graham Hurdle, Managing Director, E-Training World