Road Accidents and Mobile Phone Usage

That mobile phones usage while driving are responsible for many road accidents is not a new fact. It also not lost to all that many governments are playing catch up with technology in terms of legislation. The laws that existed before the era of cell phones are simply archaic and cannot be used to criminalize or outlaw cell phone usage behind the wheel. Good news is that looking through the list of Countries that have outlawed cell phone usage while driving, it might as well be the whole World. This is good, in intention, but not in practice since enforcement seems to be a tall order.

Some statistics:

10 most common causes of road accidents are:

1. Distraction due to the driver doing something else that diverts his/her attention on driving; these include, talking on the phone, texting, eating, putting make-up, etc
2. Speeding
3. Drunk driving
4. Reckless Driving
5. Weather conditions
6. Failure to obey traffic rules
7. Teenage Drivers
8. Night Driving
9. Poorly maintained vehicles and design defects

10. Unsafe Lane changes

Driver distraction counts for 68% of road crashes, and this is a global average, North, South, East and West. Breaking it down further, cell phone usage counts for 80% of the distraction. This, then brings us to our focus point.

Issues facing a driver arising from mobile device usage include, but are not limited to, the following:

•  Restriction of sight; limiting the driver's ability to survey the road, potential obstacles or changes in traffic flow, since their line of vision is focused on the handset (Nasar and Troyer, 2013).
•  Reduction of concentration levels and situational awareness (Nasar and Troyer, 2013).
•  Slower reactions times during adverse events (The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, 2012), which could result in as much as a 50% reduction in response rates (Think!, 2014).
• Failure to maintain a high standard of driving etiquette, resulting in acts such as tailgating or improper road position (The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, 2012). *

 Recently, our Government, in UAE, outlawed, drive - eating, make-up, or cell phone usage and many people thought this was a crazy legislation that is difficult to police. Maybe it is difficult as they think but, not impossible, in the long-run.

I wish to bring a new angle to this debate.

Mobile phones have become such an integral part of our lives that we "think" we cannot do without them, but we can. The first thing we do when we wake up is check for messages, tweets, et al, on the phone. It is our daily devotion, as it were. If we receive no messages/calls within a set period of time in the day, we get into a panic and imagine the line has some issues.

Due to the size of these devices it is likely that many cases remain unreported due to successful concealment of usage of the device whilst driving. The challenge surrounding mobile phone-related vehicle accident investigations lies with proving a device was used leading up to or during an accident, thereby ultimately becoming a causal factor and an element with which to potentially help establish blame. To achieve this requires the forensic analysis of the mobile handset and its residual data. ** And this is now available and in use in many countries.

Mobile phone equipments have become more than phones, they are computers that we rely on for many things including directions to wherever we want to go. This, to me, is the main problem with technology. The more we rely on technology, the more we become zombies, non-thinking and carefree since we know the phone will save us from each situation. We use cell phone equipments as library, direction-finder, contacts' reference, etc. Singapore is, so far, the only 'Country' that has outlawed the use of cell phones as GPS equipments on-the-go.

So what....?

Our over-reliance on cell phones for menial tasks as finding directions is a problem. I am personally guilty of this as I often rely on my cell phone to find my way around UAE. This becomes a major distraction since UAE is one Country where road networks change by the week, if not by the day. Google maps cannot keep pace with the speed of road changes/expansions in UAE. The Google guide is simple incapable of giving proper guidance, as I often find myself at a dead end: "in 800 meters turn right" and just before you are barely 100 meters into the 800 meters, "turn right".... a real circus here in Dubai.

What should be done to mitigate this?

Remove the GPS capability from cell phone equipments?

Outlaw use of cell phones as GPS tracking equipments while driving?

Come up with legislation that makes it MANDATORY for ALL vehicles to be fitted with GSP tracking capability as standard basic equipment much like the odometer?

Ban use of cell phones in vehicles moving on the road, irrespective of who is using them? Simply put: when a vehicle is on the road, there should be no cell phone on inside, PERIOD. If you want to make a call, stop the car, make the call and put off the phone before you get into traffic. There should be radars that do nothing else but detect vehicles that have cell phone on.

*/** Investigating evidence of mobile phone usage by drivers in road traffic accidents by: Graeme Horsman*, Lynne R. Conniss