Drive While Using a Mobile

Another thing I forgot to mention in yesterday's post was one of my pet hates.  People using mobile phones while driving.  I am reminded of this by our trip northbound where just near the Toronto exit, we came across a young green P-plate driver in the left lane obeying his speed limit.  Ah, very good, we thought.  Until we finally pulled alongside, and from my side (passenger) I could clearly see his mobile phone in his right hand, and he's watching the screen thumbing a text message into the phone.  He did occasionally look up at the road ahead, but he was travelling at least 95 km/h in moderately heavy traffic.  Need I point out the obvious danger of his practice?

A really crazy thing people do is to commence a phone call whilst on foot, then hop into the car, continue the conversation while driving off.  I saw a woman do this at the local shopping centre the other day.  This just compounds the error.  Fair enough, sit in the car, put the keys in the ingition and continue the call.  But you are ALREADY PARKED.  Why drive off before you've finished your conversation??

People really need to get things into perspective, don't they?  No phone call is that important is it necessary to take it whilst driving.  Surely the caller can be called back, or will call back if it's urgent.  Surely you can pull up?  And of course, surely you don't have to drive off if you are already parked!  I suppose some people actually INITIATE calls while driving too...  Sheesh!

The offence in NSW carries a $253 fine and 3 demerit points.  If you do it in a school zone, it's $338 and 4 demerit points.  But the enforcement of this one is rather hit and miss.

Mythbusters did a test of driving while using a mobile compared to driving whilst drunk and concluded that it was actually worse (safety wise) than driving while slightly over the limit.  It wasn't so bad if you were just chatting away meaninglessly, but once they started asking questions that required some thought (for instance mental arithmetical calculations) it got pretty hairy in the car, and a lot of witch's hats were knocked over in the process.
Again, it comes down to attitude.  I wouldn't dream of doing it.  Nor would I dream of drink driving.  I do care about my fellow road users out there, not to mention my own vehicle and safety.  However, a lot of us don't.  I think I've mentioned it before, but I am really quite surprised our road toll is actually not a lot higher than what it is.  We get there more by good fortune than anything.