Temptation is all in the mind

Don’t use your mobile phone while driving, don’t even think about it. No, CoverGirl hasn’t suddenly come over all school-mistressy, we’re just hazarding a guess at what the tagline for the next road safety campaign might be.

This comes after the release of a study detailing the effects of mobile phones on car crashes. Before you start telling us that you’ve heard it all before, that you know that speaking on a mobile causes car accidents and a potential increase in your woman driver car insurance premium, we urge you to bear with us.

The study in question looked not at the effects of phoning and driving but on the effect of anticipating a call or a text.

It seems that this mere mental act of anticipation can actually distract drivers to the point of becoming a hazard on the road.

The researchers presented their findings at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) meeting in Boston.

"This study suggests that thinking about future cell phone calls and messages may be an additional source of distraction that could contribute to crashes,” commented one researcher.

This, of course, leads us into very tricky territory. It is very difficult to not think about something and no amount of injunction is likely to be able to stop a person being preoccupied with a potential phone call or text. In fact, it is possible that such injunctions may only lead a person to become even more preoccupied. After all, we all know what happens if children are told to not do something.

Naturally, actually turning off a phone may help, but it is unlikely to eradicate all thoughts of the phone. Even when it is off, it is still possible to think about turning it on again…

Labels: car accident, mobile phone, premium, woman driver car insurance