Cell and Driving - Curse or Boon?

 You are driving at break-neck speed on the highway. The hand of the speedometer on the control panel has already crossed 90 miles. You're perspiring on your forehead. You've to get to your office on the dot and the decision you'll make in the board of directors meeting is going to bring hundreds of thousands of dollars of profits if it clicks or heavy losses if it doesn't. Hence you're tense while driving. Suddenly the cell phone in your coat pocket hums your favourite caller tune. It's an impatient call from your directors. They're worried that you are getting late to the meeting. When you pick up the instrument to assure them that you're on way, the traffic signal turns red. A long line of cars were there before yours and your car came to a screeching halt. you heave a sigh of relief.

 One moment! Think back and forth. You realize that your presence of mind saved you from a fatal accident. But all days are not yours and an error in judgment of traffic around you while blurting out something in your cell phone may involve you in an accident. That it is bad manners if you don't pick up the receiver within four or five rings, may not apply to the cell phone. As soon as the cell phone starts ringing, you can pull your car to the side of the road and answer the call.

 It is alarming to note that road accidents due to cell phone talk while driving are on the increase.

 Recently, about a thousand cases of motor vehicle collisions in the States, wherein the drivers were engaged in cell phone talk have been studied. Each person's cellular telephone calls on the day of the collision and during the previous week were analyzed through the use of detailed billing records. The risk of a collision when using a cell phone was four times higher than the risk when a cell phone was not being used.

 Calls close to the time of the collision were particularly considered hazardous. Thirty nine percent of the drivers called for emergency services after the collision, suggesting that having a cell phone may have had advantages of the aftermath of an accident. Hence decisions about regulations of such telephones need to take into account the benefits the technology and the role of individual responsibility.

 The driving performance of fifteen subjects in a simulated road environment has been studied both with and without a hands-free telephone conversation. The performance indicators used were choice reactions time, braking profile, lateral position, speed, and situation awareness. Significant differences were, however found specially in the beginning stages of the telephone conversation and, in situation awareness. The subjects reacted considerably slower to an unexpected event in the first two minutes of the cell phone conversation and were, for a large part of the conversation on cell phone, unaware of traffic movement around them.

 Major cities in India also impose heavy fines, if caught cell talking while driving. But the corrupt traffic police are yet to be strict. In many cases a deal is struck with the traffic cop and the offender is let off with a mild warning.

 The protagonists of cell phones round the globe argue that if this instrument causes driving distraction then a naughty or whimpering child in the back seat of the car also is equally a potential source of distraction. They also point out that about a hundred years ago when cars were making their virgin appearance on the roads, the windshield wiper and fifty years back the car radio were fiercely resisted by the authorities who thought that they would make the driver sleepy and cause accidents.

 But - whether cell talking while driving should be forbidden or not, one should bear in mind that every day millions of emergency calls are made throughout the world on cell phones only!