Thread: Phone use overtakes not wearing seatbelts as cause of fatal car accidents

Always amazes me that talking on a mobile is distracting but talking on a uhf is not!Also talking to your passenger is ok.Have you ever followed the wally who can't talk to his passenger without looking at them?BAN THAT

Not wearing a seatbelt doesn't 'CAUSE' a crash... It merely improves your chances of survival.

M

Originally Posted by rangietragic

Always amazes me that talking on a mobile is distracting but talking on a uhf is not!Also talking to your passenger is ok.Have you ever followed the wally who can't talk to his passenger without looking at them?BAN THAT

Phone calls arnt really the issue as you have your eyes on the road at least. The problem these days is with the smartphones with texting and social media where people are trying to respond to facebook post etc while driving. I see it all the time while commuting on a motorcycle in Sydney. A couple of weeks ago I watched a guy entering a roundabout while entering text into his phone, he would look up every few seconds and correct the steering wheel like he was driving a boat!
I honestly think that people get so mesmerised by the phone they forget they are driving sometimes.

You might have your eyes on the road, but is your brain connected to them?

Have you seen the video where a room full of people were asked to watch a film of two teams dressed in contrasting clothing (say, red and white) passing a basketball around. The people were asked to count the number of times a red team member caught the ball. That's all they were asked to do. The video ran for about 3-4 minutes. At the end they were asked to report the number of times a red team member handled the ball. They gave various answers, most correct, but none off by more than 2 or 3 catches. Then they were asked: "Did you see anything unusual?" No-one reported anything unusual. Then they were asked to watch the video again, but without counting. Halfway through the video a person dressed in a gorilla suit walks through the two teams as they pass the ball around. Some people claimed it wasn't there the first time- it was, as reported by others who were not counting.
The point? If you are concentrating on one thing you can be blind to other things that are right in your face. Even looking out the front of a car you can be blind to what's happening (until it's too late) if you are concentrating on a phone call.
Holding a conversation with the person alongside you can do the same thing. But that's harder to ban...
Texting, of course, is much worse... don't really need an experiment to demonstrate that. You see it on the road every day.

Coop

texting should be instant loss of licence.One of my daughters used to do it,threatened to chuck the stupid phone out the window

Originally Posted by C00P

You might have your eyes on the road, but is your brain connected to them?
..................The point? If you are concentrating on one thing you can be blind to other things that are right in your face.........you can be blind to what's happening (until it's too late) if you are concentrating on a phone call.
................Texting, of course, is much worse... don't really need an experiment to demonstrate that. You see it on the road every day.

Coop

This is the one (and others) that you're referring to.
The Invisible Gorilla: And Other Ways Our Intuitions Deceive Us

naturally, you'll be looking for the gorilla...and you will see it.

I'd suggest you go straight to the third video and listen very carefully to the instructions, to get the full effect.

The other thing regarding using a two-way radio compared to a phone conversation, is differant parts of the brain are being utilised with differant expectations and work-load. The phone is a live & interactive concurrent activity, whereas the two-way (UHF) is a sequential proceedure, which lends itself to interruptions whereas the live conversation 'demands' continuation of the responses. The fact that a telephone allows both parties to speak at the same time encourages this behaviour. A Two-way does not, and so patience is enforced on both parties.

Or put it another way, conversation overloads the brain and slows down the 'decision centre' which is vital for the everyday task of driving...

As a bus & coach driver, I love driving the ones with Nice Big Fat Loud AIR-HORNS...

I have driven behind many a driver doing 100kph on multi laned freeways and have observed the wandering of the vehicle ahead almost as if the driver is very drunk, swing from lane to lane, it's scarey that these morons are on the road with other innocent road users.
Pulling up next to them see them playing with the phone texting or chatting away.
No one one can tell me it is not a distraction I see it too many times, at traffic lights, waiting for the texter to finish when the light is green ,when they wake up they get through and you behind have to wait another ligt cycle. GRRRR!
Or give them a toot on the horn to wake them up and experience road rage.
I's getting beyond a joke, no it's not revenue raising, no it's not nanny state, how about the rights of all other road users to travel in safety without those morons texting and using the car as a relaxation pit or an extension of their lounge room.
end of rant

And sometimes it is'nt texting that's distracting them ....