In the last fifteen years, thousands of car accidents have happened because drivers were distracted. Surely we have all used a mobile phone while driving without being fully aware of the danger.

This is how a mobile phone can influence our driving behaviour:

 

Multitasking and the human brain

 

According to extensive research, the human brain is not capable of handling multiple tasks in parallel. We often think of multitasking as simply doing two or more things at the same time. In fact, concentration jumps back and forth between these different tasks. At no point is the brain capable of performing two processes at the same time with one hundred percent concentration.

This phenomenon is the basis of pain therapy; the brain's attention is distracted so that the brain does not focus on the pain signal at that moment. Likewise, pickpockets and magicians exploit this inability of the human brain for their own purposes.

Statistically, the risk of an accident increases fourfold if a driver is talking on the phone and even eightfold if he or she is texting while driving.

 

While using a mobile phone, the driver loses part of his external field of vision, so that pedestrians, other cars or objects located in this field of vision are not perceived. The driver's inattention literally makes him partially blind. He cannot see up to half of what is happening in front of him on the road.

 

Even a distraction for just a second or two can make the difference between life and death. A driver travelling at 50km/h covers about 14m in one second. If the driver loses his concentration for even one second, he misses 14 metres, in which there may be many people, animals or objects.