Why are cell phones still being used?
When I’m teaching students how to drive for Young Drivers of Canada, I give them the information one day and test their understanding the next time I see them. It helps me determine if they understood what was taught previously. Life is like that. Our parents and school teachers taught us things and over time, we would be challenged to remember them and follow those rules. I guess the same can be said with new driving laws. We’re taught them and then the police have to reinforce them.
A lot of jurisdictions have built into their driving laws a law that prohibits the use of hand held devices while driving. This would include cell phones, wireless e-mail devices and mp3’s. Ontario has such a law and it came into full effect February 1st 2010. After one year of the law, over 46,000 people have been charged with driving while texting or talking on the phone. With the ticket came the fine. What a total waste of money on their part. What was so important that couldn’t wait until they were safely parked?
I would be curious to find out how many of those 46,000 were teens, how many were over the age of 25, how many had passengers and how many had young kids in the vehicle when they were stopped by police. I saw a driver yesterday who was holding their phone up to their ear while driving on snowy roads. They had an adult passenger in the front seat with them. Why couldn’t the passenger make/answer the call? Did this driver take driving for granted and think the call was more important?
Prioritizing what we do while driving can help us drive safely. Place your phone on silent so you’re not distracted from it if it rings. Ensure you have voicemail if you’re concerned about missing calls. If you feel you have built the habit of always wanting to check your phone while driving, place it in the backseat where you can’t get to it; such as a backpack, purse, briefcase, coat pocket, etc. Perhaps even put it in the trunk. Out of sight means out of mind.
If you’re driving with passengers, have them send the text, receive the text or make the call. My son has a cell phone, so when we’re out together and I think of something that needs to be communicated with his mom, he sends the text message to her. She does the same thing if he’s in the vehicle with her. Before he had his phone, he used mine. It allowed me to keep my focus on driving.
I know many people think laws are silly, but distracted driving has become so huge in our society that we really need these laws and stiff penalties to go along with them. This hands free law is there to save people from themselves. It seems that it doesn’t matter for many people what their abilities are, even if I can prove to them that they can’t drive and text at the same time. They just want to use their cell phone while driving. Why? Is it because ‘everyone else does it’? Time to grow up and take responsibilities seriously.
This isn’t just about getting a ticket. It’s about saving someone from serious injury or death. How would you feel if you ran a stop sign or red light because you were texting and hit a vehicle, cyclist or pedestrian? What if you looked down to send or receive a text only to look up late and rear end another driver; causing them injury or injury to your passengers? Those examples are real and they’ve happened to people across our society. Why should they happen to you?
The driver has just one job; get from point A to point B safely. So, let’s do that and put the cell phone away.
I’m not sure the young people are the worst offenders!
I agree…there are so many drivers who have built up the bad habit over the years and have a hard time with stopping.
I am 20 and can say with 100% confidence that I have never touched my phone while driving, other than to say to my passenger, “answer this for me”. I can see young people being the worst offenders and I can see them not being the worst. On one hand we have basically grown up with cell phones in our hands, and everyday when I’m at school I see people walk into each other because they are too busy texting. But on the other hand we are new drivers and this law has been in effect or has been talked about for most of our driving careers and we haven’t gotten use to driving and texting/talking like our parents.
Thanks for your wise comments Rob. Good comparison with walk and texting versus driving and texting.
TY, SafeDriver, 4 the Reminder 2 Turn Off Cell B/4 Driving! I M happy 2 learn Ontario has had this law on hand-held devices 4 a year!! I M saddened, tho not surprised, 2 hear about the number of drivers CAUGHT ignoring it!!! MANY more, I M sure, just didn’t get caught… Hands-free devices R dangerous, 2, as it isn’t the HANDS that R important in driving: The MIND must B focused on the road & circumstances surrounding the moving vehicle. Studies prove the brain can’t choose which is more important: What the eyes C or the ears hear 🙁 U can refer Ur clesses 2:
http://www.nsc.ogr/safety_road/Distracted_Driving/Pages/CognitiveDistraction.aspx
specifically page7
Pls don’t hesitate 2 use Free Turn off Cell B/4 Driving safety reminder stickers w/ Ur students! Just Print 720 +30 site directions w/ 1 pkg of Avery 5260 labels @
http://myplace.frontier.com/~DriveSafely
STAY SAFE!!
As always, thanks for your insight Diana!
You are very welcome, Scott! All of us working together ARE making a difference: A much larger one that any of us working alone…
Great article, as always, Scott! You know as well as I that the biggest issue is the “well, I am better than that, it won’t happen to me” the attitudes that go along with the action. I had a student in a classroom not long ago chewing a pen, I told him “man, you better be carefull… You will end up with a mouth full of blue…” The response “I do it all the time, not going to happen!” Then my buddy Mr. Murphy and his wonderful laws stepped in… 20 minutes after the conversation came the expected sound of… “Awwww grosss!” Just because nothing happened the first time, doesn’t mean it WON’T!
Stay Safe!
Sean
Thanks for the great story Sean. It helps to hear things like that to reinforce safety…in all forms.
Sean, Thank you for Sharing an example of how REAL life “happens”! We must be AWARE & THINKING at all times to END 100% preventable mishaps of all kinds!! Glad to see someone else using STAY SAFE consistently!!!
I agree, that the use of cell phones and texting machines are very dangerous while driving, and the provinial governments were smart in banning there use while behind the wheel of a moving vehicle. BUT,… the Government of Ontario went way too far by including our usage of 2-way amateur radio hand-mikes in Bill 118. To date, there has never been a recorded traffic accident, in the history of amateur mobile 2-way radio hand-mike usage, in either Canada, or the USA. That means, the use of these mobile hand-mikes has had a skeaky clean traffic slate ever since being introduced, approx 60, or more yrs. ago. Amateur radio is a very vital part of emergency radio cummunications in locations where you live, and around the world. When government cummunications get cut off in times of disaster, our transmitters are still up and running perfectly, non-stop. Mobile 2-way radio stations (as they are called)are just as vital in time of emergencies, or disaster, as a base or field station setup. The Ontario Government is now about to completely ban the use of our hand-mikes in 2013, while driving on Ontario’s roadways, while those in government agencies, such as police, fire, ambulance, are exempted, and will continue using the very same hand-mikes we now use on our 2-way transmitters. The Canadian vehicle insurance companies across Canada, have had no problems with mobile hand-mikes being used on 2-way transmitters, and have never sot to have any restrctions placed upon their usage anywhere in Canada. Come on, legal for government vehicles, but not for amateur radio use, who’s pulling one’s leg here, specially when there has been no recorded accidents throughout the complete history of 2-way mobile radio’s and their hand-mikes. Amateur operators had 2-way radios installed in their vehicles long before government agencies did, because we founded the 2-way radio transceiver in the first place, many yrs. ago. You folks are about to loose a very vital, free, volunteer resource of emergency mobile radio cummunications in time of emergencies, or disaster, all because of the Ontario Government’s stupid way of thinking, and what they introduced into Bill 118, banning the use of our present day hand-mikes. It’s all because they “THINK” the use of these mikes are dangerous while driving, where the facts from the past on their usage, proves to be the complete opposite, they’re safe to use. Amateur radio operators using mobile 2-way radio tranceivers, with present day hand-mikes, should be completely exempted in Bill 118. You folks normally don’t hear about us often enough, as we don’t seek recognition for any emergency aid we supply both to you (the public), and all government agencies that need us, and it’s all done absolutly free, at no cost what-so-ever to anyone, but ourselves. Bill 118 has to be amended, to allow the continued use of our present day hand-held mikes on our mobile 2-way radios, like it has always been for so many years gone by.
Since TEXTING while driving is the same as having 8 alcoholic beverages B/4 driving & just TALKING on a cell, even hands-free, = 4 drinks B/4 driving, I’d “Like” 2 Share this info w/ U:
Turn Off Cell B/4 Driving! 750 FREE safety reminder stickers 4 cells &/or drivers’ visors &/or 2 WEAR &/or Share 2 Print on Avery 5260 labels @
http://myplace.frontier.com/~DriveSafely/
2nd pdf @ site yields 30 site directions/ 8.5×11 sheet of paper; others can get their own 750! IF each site visitor Printed 750 stickers, THEN 915,000 stickers R already in use around the world!!
Multi-tasking while using a cell phone – even hands-free – is dangerous 4 1 simple reason: R brain uses the SAME area 2 make decisions on what the eyes SEE & what the ear HEARS! If U R driving – or even walking – while listening 2 sum1 on a cell, U hav NO CONTROL over what the brain is processing 1st: What U HEAR or what U SEE!! U THINK U R making the rite choices, but it is NOT up 2 U, as the BRAIN will decide, by reflex only, which 2 ALLOW U 2 B processing in that area of the brain L A study of this was done with a driver on a cell while “driving” in a simulator w/ a video showing a street scene. Testing proved that MANY did NOT even SEE (i.e. RECOGNIZE or REALIZE) that a clown riding a unicycle crossed in front of them as they were LISTENING & “driving”!! This was DIRECTLY in front of them!!! The peripheral vision is GRRRRRRRRR8LY narrowed (“Like” seeing thru a tunnel) & has been called inattention BLINDNESS, the brain NOT ALLOWING U 2 SEE, as it is busy LISTENING. PLEASE view page 7 @
http://www.nsc.org/safety_road/Distracted_Driving/Pages/CognitiveDistraction.aspx
4 WHY Drivers can’t SAFELY use cells while driving! STAY SAFE!!!
This is going to be an uphill task as more and more people are using mobiles and their use is on the increase.
http://www.afzalschoolofmotoring.com
http://www.afzal-driving-lessons.co.uk/
Scott, I echo your query about a breakdown of the 46,000. I hear people complaining about teen drivers, but I see just as many more mature drivers trying to use their devices while driving. I think that they consider their maturity as a compensatory factor.
We also need to get people to understand that holding their phone in the palm of their hands and speaking into it is not “hands-free”. I encountered such a driver at an intersection, once. She seemed genuinely perplexed when I suggested it wasn’t “hands-free” if she was holding the phone in *her hand*.