Distracted while driving
It was on CNN, about a month ago, that the reality of the phenomenon known as ‘Distracted While Driving’ (DWD) finally hit home. Watching a news report/documentary by Kelly Wallace, I felt immediately that this was a crime I was already guilty of, and barring any concrete interventions from me, might continue to be guilty of.
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About five years ago, I was on the telephone when a driver rammed into my side in Accra. Perhaps, had I not been on the telephone, I might have anticipated better, judged better and reacted better. Six months ago, I started reading my text messages after the traffic light turned red.
Incidentally, I happened to be the first car in line. The light turned green, the policeman started beckoning me to drive across, but lo and behold, my head was buried in my phone. As it turned out, I saw neither the green light nor the beckoning officer. Being the first car, I held the entire traffic to a standstill. But of course, after one impatient honk from the driver behind me, I had no option than to keep it moving.
That day, I was the not so proud recipient of a stern warning from the police officer for holding up traffic due to mobile telephone shenanigans. Since then, I have personally encountered numerous drivers texting, looking at their phones, reading newspapers or simply driving with both hands off the steering wheel as the car gradually veered off the lane.
And the statistics from Wallace’s CNN report were particularly astounding: “Text messaging causes drivers to take their eyes off the road for 4.6 seconds over a six-second interval. That means at 55 miles per hour, a texting driver would travel the length of a football field without looking at the road!”
DWD
In Ghana, the statistics is woefully lacking on the causes, contributory factors, associated dangers, technological and non-technological solutions, etc. Watching the documentary, and reading a little further about DWD, I am particularly struck by how much research Americans seem to have poured into the subject and the various efforts underway to address the menace.
There are those such as the National Safety Council (NSC) studying the prevalence of DWD who tell us that 1.6 million crashes result from cell phone usage while driving, with 330, 000 injuries occurring each year from accidents caused by texting while driving. Most astonishingly, the NSC points out that “1 out of every 4 car accidents in the United States is caused by texting and driving.” But this is not the only research pouring out.
There are those studying changes in brain activity that occur with these distractions, relative to periods without distractions, companies that have been established with the sole aim of seeking technological solutions to this menace, and there are people such as David Webber, Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, who has founded a Centre for Technology and Internet Addiction!
How appropriate - our use of mobile telephones follows an addiction pattern after all. Simply put, impulsively, and instinctively, reaching out for a beeping telephone is not a chance occurrence. We have become addicted to our mobile telephones and there is a scientific basis! Cold comfort!
Addictive smartphones
Greenfield explains the addictive nature of smartphones, providing insights into how our brains respond ‘instinctively to those pings, which signal an incoming text or social media update’.
“Our smartphones are affecting our brains without us even being aware of it. When we hear the ping of an incoming text, social media update or email, our brains get a hit of dopamine, a chemical that leads to an increase in arousal, energising the reward circuitry in our brains. And that expectation of a reward - Who's texting me? Who tagged me on social media? - leads to a higher burst of dopamine than the reward itself.
The dopamine reward centres are the same ones that have to do with pleasure from eating, pleasure from sex and procreation, pleasure from drugs and alcohol," Greenfield said.
So I suppose now when my children accuse Papa of playing with his phone too much, I can find respite in the dopamine explanation.
Cold comfort, again! Especially given that these acts of distractions while driving are actually leading to deaths all over the world. Stories abound of drivers filled with deep regret after knocking down mothers, grandfathers and teenagers.
Two broad categories of solutions are proposed; technological and non-technological. Among the non-technological solutions are increased public education, including creative television shows in the US that simulate real life crashes, creating a stigma around text driving (one entrepreneur, Tibbits, suggests ‘you are an idiot if you text and drive’ tag), promulgation of new laws and regulations, practical advice such as delegating telephone and other distracting duties to a passenger, placing your device in the trunk of the vehicle, not continuing telephone conversations when you know people are driving, especially given that cell phone usage comprises all of visual, manual and cognitive dimensions of driving-related distractions.
Of the technological solutions, devices are being tested that will result in mobile devices and cars coming out with preset technology that blocks some incoming and outgoing communication during driving. Secondly, in our dream world, we are gunning for autonomous vehicles. In the words of Greenfield, "If you have an autonomous vehicle that doesn't require you to attend, then you could talk on the phone all you want, do whatever you want, but we're a little ways away from that."
And to be sure, I have somewhat unfairly targeted mobile telephones as the only culprit for driving-related distractions. Yes, there are other culprits, given the definition of DWD – “the act of driving while engaged in other activities—such as looking after children, texting, talking on the phone or to a passenger, watching videos, eating, smoking, necking or reading.”
I know I am not the only guilty party here. My greatest joy would be if after reading this piece you could make one small practical adjustment to your driving-related distractions that will save you a crash, an injury or death!