Mike Waters' Blog: 3 October 2008 - Keeping your thumbs away from the mobile

Date: 03 October 2008

Mike Waters is head of market analysis at Arval

In the week that Members of the Commission for Global Road Safety, led by former NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson, converged on Russia to focus on tackling the global road death epidemic, it seems worth taking a closer look at road safety.

The commission met under the grey cloud that road fatalities are expected to double over the next twenty years, overtaking Malaria and Tuberculosis as a leading cause of death around the world. The figures are shocking with 1.3 million people already killed each year, a figure likely to increase to 2.1 million by 2030 according to World Health Organization.

This increase can largely be attributed to the growth in car usage around the world, but even so, such large figures do provide food for thought. While our road safety performance in the UK is improving as technology becomes better and punishments for offences become harsher, new research from the RAC Foundation shows that there is a new evil. driver's texting whilst behind the wheel.

The research shows that texting while driving impairs motorists more than being under the influence of drink or drugs, both of which are categorically regarded as unacceptable by the public as well as the law. The reaction time of drivers tested slowed by 35% when they were writing or reading text messages while driving, and this test was carried out on young people whose reaction times should be among the best. The research also showed that steering control got worse as you would expect.

The point is that we should not do anything to distract us while driving. The odds of being in an accident are high enough already without increasing them and changes to the Road Safety Act, which provide much harsher penalties, will hopefully act as a significant deterrent.

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