When did the car become a mobile telephone box?
The media is reporting on the call for a total ban on all mobile phone calls by motorists when driving including using hands-free. I’m so happy to hear that this crucial issue is being addressed - finally! One of the joys of a mobile free lifestyle choice is that you get enjoy the experience of driving when you’re in my car, where you can be fully present and be in the moment. For me, I’ve found these drive times, especially the school runs, to be a little oasis of calm in my day where I can enjoy the volume on my mind chatter turned down and let my stresses fall away as the miles pass by. Focusing on what’s ahead of me, quite literally, is a joy nowadays.
Extract from my book ‘Off The Hook’ written in 2018:
When did it become acceptable for a car to become a telephone box?
I watched a woman, pink in the face, shouting and screaming behind the wheel of her black Range Rover as she negotiated a narrow two-way road with cars parked nose-to-tail along one side. It was more a case of road etiquette than straight-forward highway code and letting common sense guide exactly who to let pass first. That particular pinch point of the road, outside a tucked-away nail bar, is a rat run for locals and is always a case of a somewhat 'chicken run' affair. I'd watched many a road rage incidence through the salon window as I sat having a pedicure. 4x4's regularly coming up against Lamborghini's, ego clashing with ego and someone has to back down. These fractious encounters always proved interesting to watch, far juicier than the distractions of music videos playing on television screens on the salon’s wall.
I was rather bemused to see this lady in full-on row mode with her invisible passenger who was obviously pressing her buttons via the Bluetooth speaker. Hands-free driving she may be, yet it wasn't mind-free driving – more like mind-less and proving a provocative habit in a known danger zone where heads need to remain clear and manners applied.
I'd only observed her as she crossed my bow while I waited for my turn at the T junction to join the melee. Thank the Lord we weren't at opposite ends of this back road otherwise it would have been like high noon at the 'OK Corral' and we'd have stepped out like they do in Westerns for a showdown. She'd have drawn her gun way before the sheriff's handkerchief hit the dry ground, I mused.
Our full attention is required to drive safely which makes me politely suggest you leave your raging until you get home or wait for a face-to-face – odds are it will have blown over given some breathing space or at least the full strength of the 'red mist' that we can find ourselves in, when really pushed to the wall, will have dispersed and be more manageable. There used to be a slogan, 'Think before you drink and drive', I believe another should be bought to people's awareness, 'Think…are you fully present when driving? 'And there was another, back in the day before seat belts became law, 'Clunk, click every trip'. So why not now keep abreast of new technology, 'Your car is for driving, it's not a phone box!' I know this doesn't rhyme, but I’d love it to kick start a campaign of awareness.
Add in the facts about texting when driving, deaths and even a woman I heard of today, who killed someone while texting an emoji of a monkey face while driving in the dark. This beggars belief! A beautiful young girl, someone's beloved daughter, was slain by utter stupidity, carelessness by a mobile phone that should not have been on. I can't even bring myself to end this paragraph with a broken heart emoji as it would be disrespectful to the girl’s family and all those victims murdered mindlessly by screen addicts. My heart goes out to all these souls who have lost their loved ones so tragically.
I'd like to read more car stickers that read: GIVE YOUR MOBILE THE BOOT! Or echoing a slogan from the past, CLUNK, CLICK PUT IT IN THE TRUNK! Many of us remember these slogans that helped people form new life-saving habits. If mobiles were put in the boot of the cars before you got in, the same way we now automatically put on our seat belts, the temptation would quite literally be taken out of people’s reach. New laws need to be made and enforced to get this message through to people. It's a car not a phone box. I now realise the irony when I hear the youngsters dream of their fantasy first cars, '…yer, it'll have 18' inch alloys and come fully loaded!' Well, if it has Bluetooth for a mobile, it certainly will, sadly.
