News from: Alliance Against Urban 4x4s cites research published in the British Medical Journal studying 41,781 vehicles in London. Identifying a shocking trend in illegal mobile phone use while driving. Quote:
What is already known on this topic:
Using a hand held mobile telephone while driving is associated with a fourfold increase in the risk of having a road crash.
It is now illegal to use a hand held mobile telephone while driving in the UK
What this study adds:
Drivers of four wheel drive vehicles in London were four times more likely than drivers of other cars to use hand held mobile phones and slightly more likely not to comply with the law on seat belts
Levels of non-compliance with both laws were slightly higher in the second phase of observation, when the law on mobile telephones was fully enforced.
What is already known on this topic:
Using a hand held mobile telephone while driving is associated with a fourfold increase in the risk of having a road crash.
It is now illegal to use a hand held mobile telephone while driving in the UK
What this study adds:
Drivers of four wheel drive vehicles in London were four times more likely than drivers of other cars to use hand held mobile phones and slightly more likely not to comply with the law on seat belts
Levels of non-compliance with both laws were slightly higher in the second phase of observation, when the law on mobile telephones was fully enforced.
An Under-Rated Problem
What's daunting for me on my bike, is the idea that anyone might not be paying 100% attention, while trying to control a tonnage of rolling metal.
Using a mobile phone while driving - hands free or illegally hand held, does steal the brain's attention. In the same way running many programs on a PC simultaneously, slows the computer's performance for any additional tasks.
Driving is a full-time demanding task, and each phone call received usually has a motive attached. So not only is the driver thinking up answers and formulating sentences, the motive of the phone call also has to be dealt with.
This motive could be a question, important decision to be made, complex advice being requested, recalling details from the person's memory, absolutely anything! All of that takes brain resource, and it steals that resource away from the 100% concentration needed to drive safely.
Jimmy Savile*
I don't care about 4x4 drivers not wearing seatbelts. That's their choice, and I have no issue with them going flying through their windscreen at 70mph.
But I do care about 2.1% of normal car drivers using a handheld mobile phone, and an intolerable 8.1% of 4x4 drivers using a handheld mobile phone.
It has been established that:
Using a hand held mobile telephone while driving is associated with a fourfold increase in the risk of having a road crash.
So not only are 4x4's more polluting, more deadly to pedestrians in a collision, less fuel efficient, over-sized space wasting, and dent-prone in car parks, but they breed driver arrogance resulting in increased use of handheld mobile phones (which is illegal anyway).
Or perhaps the drivers were always arrogant tossers originally, hence the reason they bought a 4x4 in the first place!
Technorati Tags: 4x4s / SUVs / Mobile Phones / Driving
4 comments:
You hit the nail on the head with this paragraph
"Or perhaps the drivers were always arrogant tossers originally, hence the reason they bought a 4x4 in the first place!"
2.1% of car drivers using hand-held mobile phones... well that's bollocks too. I guess it means 2.1% at any given instant, with about 95% in total in the course of a month.
Im sorry but you are an a-grade bollock writing tosser. Im a kid and see that you're stupid. Its a disgrace. People like you are in practice ruining the world. Peace out
this morning on the way to work I had to do three emergency stops due to cyclists going through red lights and not observing other road users - one of which was trying to use his mobile phone?! I drive a 4x4 for several reasons 1) I have a young family and this is far the safest car 2) four cars have piled into the back of me this year alone by driving to close, if this was a different model my car would have been totalled 3) this is my life and I will would like to drive what I want to. I work bloody hard like other people and dont believe I should have to do something because other people dont like it. I recycle on a daily basis, pay higher petrol costs and taxation than other people - but thats my choice! At what point will this stop? the next thing I will be told is that I can only have a certain size house as I have an two extra bedrooms and that isnt economical as there are homeless people and I am wasting energy by heating these rooms in the winter - some people need to get a life and stop interferring with other people!
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