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Should drink driving be banned?
Believe me, a driver behind wheels, driving while talking on the cell phone, is as dangerous (if not more), as a crazed killer on the loose or a driver DUI.

Numerous reports and researches have proved that driving and talking on the cell phone simultaneously results in a 37% loss in what is known as the Brain-Response' time, in case of a hand-held device and around 20% brain-response time loss in case of a hands-free device being used to talk while driving.

In layman's terms this means that if you are talking on the phone while driving and have to stop suddenly, you will take 37% more time to react in case you are driving with one hand and 20% more time to avoid a mishap in-case you are using hands-free, as opposed to the time taken to react to a situation stop if you were not using a cell phone simultaneously while driving.

Next time, try to conduct this experiment.

Drive around your block either early morning or late at night (preferably early morning) when there is no or little traffic. Use a stopwatch to keep time taken to drive around the block and back home. Next morning, repeat the experiment. But this time, ask someone to call you on your cell phone while you are driving. Take the call and speak for at least 3 minutes. Measure the time taken this time around to drive the same distance as last day. You will notice that you took more time to cover the same distance when you drove talking on the phone.

One word of caution though Do not try this experiment when there is traffic or kids around. Do this in a safe and isolated place.

Accidents, last minute swerving, near misses, drastic reduction in speed, deaths and disability are a few consequences of simultaneous driving and cell phone usage.

So what are the alternatives?

There are times when you HAVE to use the cell phone while driving or your profession demands you to be on the roads most of the day. What do you do then? How do you avoid a mishap?

The simplest solution that I can think of is DO NOT USE THE CELL WHILE DRIVING!

But if you really need to, then I suggest you invest in a very good quality Bluetooth Hands-free HEADSET as opposed to an earpiece.
Affix the headset on both your ears firmly before you sit in the car.

Keep your phone in pocket. Activate the "Answer Automatically" option on your cell phone. If your phone does not have that option, worry not. Most headsets have a tap or soft touch button to answer or disconnect a call.

But if you really really cannot take a call while driving but still don't want to miss out, create and activate a personalized, specific Voice Mail informing your callers that you are driving and cannot come to the phone. Not only do you not miss any message but you have also managed to educate at least one more person on the dangers of using the cell phone while driving.

So go ahead, save some lives, including your own!

Learn more about this author, Amit Nagpal.
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