July 31st 2009
You ought to go Hands Free to keep out of harm’s way on our roads!
Hand Held Mobile Phones Can Drive You To The Grave!
Cold Hard Fact or Myth? (excuse the pun there)
What the heck do you believe these days?
Below are some comments from Wikipedia on “Hands Free“. I have interlaced them with my personal opinion. See if you concur!
“Driving while using a hands-free device is not safer than using a hand held cell phone, as concluded by case-crossover studies”.
Yeah Right! If you agree with this then you have at least four arms furthermore you are bordering on being an octopus or octopussy depending on your gender.
“The increased “cognitive workload” involved in holding a chat, not the use of hands, causes the amplified risk”.
At least I agree with half the proclamation. Sort of like seeing a ‘babe’ or ‘hunk’ on the sidewalk and trying not to be psychologically side tracked.
“One notable omission to that conclusion is a report by headset producer Plantronics, which found 71 percent of the test subjects steered more precisely, 100 percent had quicker brake reaction times, and 92 percent maintained a more steady speed when using a headset versus handheld”.
Clearly! How can you quarrel with evidence from a study by the manufacturer of a hands free device! If you are a conspiracy thinker, prejudiced they might sound taking into account the source but actually I AGREE! (in general).
“The consistency of increased crash danger between hands-free and hand held cell phone use is at odds with legislation in lots of locations that prohibit hand held cell phone use but allows hands-free”.
I presume I identify what they are saying!!!!
Do I really care! What on earth happened to
good old commonsense? Here’s a thought! Get a Hands Free Car Kit!
“Dialing a cell phone is more distracting than talking
on a mobile phone, and hands-free devices that offer voice-dialing may
diminish or do away with that
amplified risk”.
Commonsense again I feel but isn’t it astounding how millions of dollars
internationally are sunk into commissioned studies where a vast percentage of findings turn out to be founded on common sense.
Have you lost your marbles?”
The unfortunate reality is that, of all who have ventured without calamity in this domain, there will always be a sizeable number who will declare that their ability to multi-task will at all times permit them to utilize and control a mobile phone devoid of any loss of cognitive or physical ability. What is more entertaining is that of that number I imagine at least 50% will be male! Male’s multi-tasking? (Might want the Mythbusters here)
You of the feminine gender take heed. “We will rule the globe once again….. eventually! …..one day!”
Those of us who drive identify that there are countless distractions and regrettably for some a minimal distraction has lead to disaster. Was it a cell phone? Was it a visual interruption? Or was it a dropped Compact disk 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 highway in a ton of shimmering metal on your own, no cars in view, no lampposts, no girls in bikinis (this is typically a male thing), then who cares what you do?
The reality is uncomplicated. 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 ought to draw on what is usually known as commonsense.
YES! at 5 km/hr maybe even 10km/hr we can manage practically anything (even us guys) but at normal 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 truly 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 become aware of that youngster walking out from behind that car now that I see her in my rear vision mirror?
Some legislation is rational even if it does strip away a modicum of our invincible shell.
If you still think you are invincible then have a thought for the rest of us. ‘GO HANDSFREE’ and save some one else’s woe!
Summary: 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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