Free Hands!!!

Heard about the new ban on using cellphones while driving? Someone means business and it’s not even at the cost of filling the coffers of the RTO. A Rajya Sabha commission has instructed all state road transport agencies to revoke the license of anyone caught using a mobile phone while driving, permanently. It does not matter if you are using it to talk, message, listen to music, shoot pictures or even GPS or playing games. No handsfree devices, not even Bluetooth; you are just not permitted to use your cellphone in any manner possible. Perhaps the previous warnings lacked severity and failed to get the desired response. I for one have still seen several people using the phone while driving, and to be completely honest count myself amongst that lot. This piece though is not intended to complain and vent my ire against the system that prevents me from using my phone. Even though in most parts of the world with far more advanced transportation systems, with larger traffic woes than ours, handsfree devices or Bluetooth headsets

are permissible.

No! I wholly agree that using the cellphone is every bit as dangerous as talking to your girlfriend, friend, colleague, boss or even wife sitting next to you. At no point are you entirely focused on driving. You’re either discussing which nightclub to go to with your GF or defending yourself from your overtly suspicious wife. You could also be discussing the merits of short skirts in the office with your colleague, working on your boss to get you that raise or comparing cell phones with your equally technophile friend. Either way your attention is never on the road for too long, so the chances that you will not notice the car behind you that just moved into your blind spot or the jaywalker ahead who decided to run across the highway at the most inappropriate moment are just as high as they would be if you were on the phone. Of all the times that I have got myself into a bad driving encounter it’s never been while on the phone, but for more lame reasons. For instance there was this time I was arguing with my wife over why we spent as much money as we did on our annual holiday, six months after the fact. Next thing you know I’ve ploughed into the taxi ahead which had rolled to a stop.

But that’s not to say talking on the cellphone isn’t dangerous. It is, but it’s not the actual talking that causes anxiety, it’s holding a cellphone in one hand with just one hand on the steering wheel that is the problem. If you had to execute an emergency lane change, you’re unlikely to go through the move cleanly using just one hand on the steering wheel. Neither are you going to be able to look into all three mirrors instantly with one hand resting on an ear and decide which way to swerve.

The harmful effects of using cell phones are demonstrated by the number of accidents they cause and the fatalities that they rack up. The system would like to regulate the fact that you can’t go out and snuff out someone’s life. But if you do anything that may harm your own, so be it Drive without using your seatbelts and ride without using a helmet, who cares.

Of course laws exist but are they enforced as strongly? And just how strongly is this new cell phone rule going to be implemented. If you are caught hanging up the phone you could face a three-month suspension. If you are still on the phone you could invite a permanent suspension. But who’s going to keep a check on whether you are driving during the temporary suspension or not? And scores of people still drive without a license saying they left it at home or work and get away with a small fine. When was the last time a traffic warden hauled you over and checked your license? If you manage to drive cautiously, obey all traffic rules diligently and avoid getting caught for any misdemeanour, who’s to know if you have a license or don’t? And if you do get caught, the customary 100-rupee note or two is going to let you walk free. That’s just how our system is, I don’t condone it, but it’s the way it works...