Global Killer No.1 - Road Accident - Part II

In my last article on Global Killer No.1 - Road Accident - Part I, i came up with the story of two years old Chinese Kid was hit by a van. The driver confessed that he was talking on the phone while he hit that little girl. Thus, the main cause of the accident is distraction from usage of phone by the van's driver itself. As we know talking on the phone while driving is illegal and might cause an accident. It’s not safe, yet people still do it.

"Preparing your umbrella before the rain falling" , is like the infamous an oldage Malay saying which means prevention is better than cure . Why the term is so important especially on the road safety? Let me give you the details.

I don't know to put it into words but I try but giving you an example. Let say, Mr X wants to arrive as soon as possible to his office because he has a significant meeting to attend. Thus, he drive his car fast on the road while talking on the phone to tell his boss to wait for him. Unluckily, he got into an accident. Not only he can't attend the meeting but also he lost his both legs and consequently, he can't work anymore. So in this example, where the term prevention come? Prevention is drive safety. Cure is to treat his injury and lost of job (got into an accident). So to put into long statment. Drive safety is better than losing job or got into an injury. You got it?

So, in order to prevent the accident, drive safety is very important. Those who use mobiles while driving are four times more likely to be involved in an accident. There are several studies on road safety says that using a hands free kit while driving is not any safer than a hand held mobile. Using a hands free kit with the phone is not illegal, but it will stop us from concentrating for a short time when we use our mobile phone and this puts other people using the road at risk.

Ways to prevention...

• Turn off mobile phone or put it on the 'silent' or 'meeting' option setting before starting journey.
• Use the voice mail on the phone so people can leave messages for us while we are travelling.
• Stop Regularly on our journey so we can check for messages and return any calls.
• Make sure the place we stop is a legal and safe place to park. It is illegal to stop on a motorway unless its an emergency.

REMEMBER!!

Missing a call wont kill you

Never use a hands free kit or bluetooth system when you are driving. It will distract you and so it is not safe

If you need to use your mobile, stop your car, keep your calls short and avoid emotional or stressful calls

I’ll be honest, the closest I’ve ever come to getting into an accident with another vehicle happened while I was talking on my cell phone. That was enough for me to realize that the only time I should be holding a phone and talking in a car is when I am a passenger.

We all have a part to play as responsible road users and I'll be doing my part to promote direct in road safety such as blogging, government should putting more police on our roads and better outcomes for all road users in the community. Media also have a part to play in promoting road safety.I found these two very interesting ads about road safety. Check them out...

Remember to always drive safely focusing only on the road, without distractions. Lets make 2011 and this upcoming years free of traffic accidents ( ZERO traffic accidents).

Ok, i'm getting sleepy. hehehe... doing this blog thingy really makes me sleepy.

Anyway, till then.. Stay tune.. xD

Ruzaini Haron