Driving and talking Accidents on the road are quite common. Despite the fact that we have clear laws and rules for road users, there are always unpredictable situations happening, people who intention

Kasia

Driving and talking Accidents on the road are quite common. Despite the fact that we have clear laws and rules for road users, there are always unpredictable situations happening, people who intentionally skip to follow the rules, and people who are just having a bad day. It is certain that one of the biggest distractions for a driver is talking on a phone. Experiments show that hands-free phones are not in any way safer to use while driving than handphones. Even though producers try to convince us about the advantages of hand-free phones over the handphones, the fact is that there's actually a lot of evidence against their claims. The problem with talking on the phone in a car is not the fact that we need to hold a phone close to our ear, which leaves us with only one hand on a steering wheal. The key issue here is our attention. We believe that we can easily devide our concentration between multiple tasks at the same time. As experienced drivers we know that when we talk on the phone we are still able to operate our vehicle, see and follow the signs on the road and so on. And this is true for many people. The problem arises when something unexpected happens. Most accidents happen because sudden events occur and we don't have enough time to react. Sometimes it's a matter of just one, two seconds. So the problem is with our limitations on motor control while we are distracted. Interestingly, it's a little diffrent whith conversations with our passengers. Different studies show that it is not as disturbing as talking on the phone. The clue here is that people who are with us in the car are aware of our environment. They can see what we see, they can warn us if they spot something worth our attention, like children playing a ball on a pavement, a motorcyclist, an animal crossing the road. They are not surprised when we suddenly stop talking and concentrate on the road. It's also important that we can hear and understand them better than people who we talk on the phone with, so we don't need to put so much effort into keeping up with the conversation. In summing up it can be said that driving while talking can be safe as long as we have an additional pair of eyes next to us. Being on the phone and carrying on with the conversation for social demand is something we should avoid for our own and other road users sake.

Aug 24, 2014 12:09 PM

Corrections · 1

Driving and Talking On the Phone

Accidents on the road are quite common. Despite the fact that we have clear laws and rules for road users, there are always unpredictable situations happening, people who intentionally skip fail/refuse to follow the rules, and people who are just having a bad day.

It is certain that One of the biggest distractions for a driver is talking on a phone. Experiments shown that hands-free phones are not in any way safer to use while driving than handphones. Even though producers manufacturers try to convince us about of the advantages of hands-free phones over the handphones hand-held use, the fact is that there's actually a lot of evidence against their claims.

The problem with talking on the phone in a car is not the fact that we need to hold a the phone close to our ear, which leaves us with only one hand on a steering wheal. Instead, the key issue here is our attention span. We believe that we can easily divide our concentration concentrate on between multiple tasks at the same time and as experienced drivers we know that when we talk on the phone we are still able to operate our vehicle, see and follow the signs on the road and so on. And this is true for many people. The problem arises when something unexpected happens.

Most accidents happen because sudden events occur and we don't have enough time to react. Sometimes it's a matter of just one, two a split seconds. So the problem is with our the limitations on of our motor control while we are distracted. Interestingly, it's a little diffrent whith when we have conversations with our passengers.

Different studies show that it is not as disturbing distracting as talking on the phone. The clue here is that people who are with us in the car are aware of our environment. They can see what we see, they can warn us if they spot something worthy of our attention, like children playing with a ball on a the pavement, a motorcyclist, or an animal crossing the road. They are not surprised when we suddenly stop talking and concentrate on the road. It's also important to understand that we can hear and understand them better than people who we are talking on the phone with, so we don't need to put so as much effort into keeping up with the conversation.

In summing up, it can be said that driving while talking can be safe as long as we have an additional pair of eyes next to us. Being on Using the phone and carrying on with the a conversation for social demand reasons is something we should avoid for our own and other road users' sake.

September 21, 2014

Want to progress faster?

Join this learning community and try out free exercises!