Mobile phones are a key part of our lives. It’s estimated there are more than 20 million mobile phone users in Australia. We use them to text, talk, schedule our lives and navigate us from A to B. We all see people walking around in supermarkets and the streets glued to their screens, and it’s become a major problem on the roads.
The NRMA say that distracted driving is fast becoming a severe threat to road safety. If you use a mobile phone while driving, it increases your risk of a crash. Using a mobile phone while driving is dangerous because it may lead to:
- Slower reaction times
- Wandering out of your lane
- Slower and less controlled braking
- Riskier decision making
We would all think it was stupid if we saw someone reading a book whilst driving, so why are we culprits of using our mobile phones? We may think that taking an important call or checking that text message was urgent. Some of us may drive with our phone in our lap while justifying to ourselves that we need to check our navigation to get us to where we need to go. Did you know? When, you’re driving at 60km/h, it means your vehicle is travelling more than 16 metres each second. If you take your eyes off the road to check your phone that short, simple distraction could cause an accident.
A recent study was conducted by Akshay Vij, a research fellow senior at the University of South Australia. It was found that the use of mobile phones while driving increased the accident risk by up to 400%. In 2016 police charged over 39,000 drivers and now we are seeing at least 100 caught every day in NSW
“Receiving incoming phone calls while driving was the most commonly reported behaviour: 61 per cent reported having received at least one call while driving in the past two weeks.” And how many of them do you think told the 100% truth?
It’s always our aim to keep you safe on the roads. At Express Lube our team are dedicated to you, your vehicle, and your family. So please, keep your hand off your phone while driving and stay safe on the roads.
Follow our next blog where we break down the NSW Rules for using a mobile phone whilst driving.
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