Skip to player
Skip to main content
Skip to footer
Search
Connect
Watch fullscreen
Like
Comments
Bookmark
Share
Add to Playlist
Report
Driving distractions
Gulf News
Follow
2/11/2025
Gulf News explores the dangers of using a mobile phone while driving. See more at: http://gulfnews.com/gntv
Category
🗞
News
Transcript
Display full video transcript
00:00
There are a whole bunch of distractions when you're driving, and modern cars have lots
00:09
of gizmos in them, sat-nav and so on, and TV and whatever, but the rising distraction
00:16
at the moment is the mobile phone.
00:19
Because the mobile phone is now no longer just a telephone, it's whatever you want it
00:23
to be, it's a keypad, it's a television, it's your email, it's a computer, it's any number
00:29
of things.
00:30
So, in fact, it's a major distraction now, because you can't just use it, you can't just
00:35
listen to it, you have to look at it.
00:38
People tend not to use Bluetooth connections, people tend to not use earpieces, they drive
00:43
along holding them, looking at them.
00:45
It's really a major distraction, and it's been statistically proven to be the source,
00:50
or the reason, if you like, for many, many accidents in countries around the world.
00:56
Even if you're using a phone hands-free, you're at greater accident risk by a factor
01:00
of four times, because your mind is thinking about the phone call.
01:04
If you're hand-holding something, or putting it to your ear, there's a greater risk.
01:08
If you're texting, it's an even greater risk.
01:10
In other words, you're becoming detached from the driving process.
01:15
You're just in the car, and the world's going on around you.
01:18
Your mind, because you've told it to do so, is concentrating on the phone, and not on
01:23
the outside world.
01:25
It's only when you decide to look up from the phone, your brain kicks in again, and
01:29
brings in all the peripheral vision, and starts looking at what's going on.
01:33
It might be too late then.
01:35
One of the simplest ways to describe it is, it takes the edge off your observation for
01:41
a start.
01:42
When you're following in traffic, cars go faster, cars go slower.
01:45
All that judgment, that depth and spatial perception, goes when using a phone.
01:51
If you're just in a car, using a phone, you're almost as much of a passenger, as a person
01:56
sitting beside you, which I find quite frightening.
02:05
I think simulators offer quite a real perspective of driving.
02:14
Your body, physiologically, doesn't pick up on the movement that you'd have in a car,
02:20
which you feel through your body, which you feel through your ear canals, and so on, the
02:24
accelerative forces.
02:25
But your mind deduces the streetscape in a very similar way.
02:30
I guess it's probably, with the simulators that we use here, you're probably getting
02:35
something like a 70% to 80% representation of driving.
02:41
But in terms of how a phone or a smartphone will affect your ability to drive, they do
02:46
provide a very accurate representation, because if you're going to go off the road in a real
02:49
car, you'll go off the road in a simulator in just the same way.
02:57
I just wish people were as interested in road safety and keeping themselves, families and
03:03
pedestrians safe, as they are about the radios fitted in the car, or whether it's got leather
03:08
seats or whatever.
03:10
Safety surely must come first and foremost.
Recommended
0:26
|
Up next
Distracted UAE driver causes multi-vehicle crash; police issue fresh warning
Khaleej Times
2/10/2023
0:15
Driver distraction video
The Standard
7/3/2023
0:57
Abu Dhabi accidents: Using phone while driving
Khaleej Times
4/16/2025
1:09
CAR_190718_What Does the Law Say About Using Your Mobile Phone Whilst Driving
National World - Archive
7/18/2019
1:09
Driving Offences - What Does the Law Say About Using Your Mobile Phone Whilst Driving
National World - Archive
7/16/2019
2:31
Campaign urges drivers to stop using phones at the wheel
KentOnline / KMTV
11/20/2021
2:07
Phones at the wheel: What are the new driving laws?
ODN
3/25/2022
0:49
Dangerous crash on Oklahoma highway highlights dangers of driving while distracted
Newsflare
9/25/2019
6:05
Dangers of not buckling up
Gulf News
2/11/2025
2:27
Hands off the smartphone while driving!
InsideSports
2/16/2017
1:13
Brazen lorry driver caught barely clasping steering wheel while taking a picture on phone
The Star, Sheffield
3/22/2023
1:01
Van ramming cars
Mansfield Chad
5/9/2025
0:19
Police campaign to catch drivers on mobile phones
Peterborough Telegraph
2/20/2023
1:53
Phone cameras reveal thousands of ACT drivers caught using their phones while behind the wheel
ABC NEWS (Australia)
1/17/2024
0:50
Lorry makes a dangerous U-turn and cuts up a car at a busy Portsmouth junction
The News, Portsmouth
3/10/2023
0:35
Dh800 traffic fine: How Dubai Police cameras, radars catch phone use while driving
Khaleej Times
10/9/2023
6:32
Dangerous Driving
Beasley Digital
4/17/2025
2:28
Reckless drivers caught on camera
Gulf News
2/11/2025
0:41
Watch: Distracted UAE drivers crash into vehicles, cause pile-up in horrifying traffic accidents
Khaleej Times
9/6/2024
0:14
Sheikh Hamdan feeding horse
Khaleej Times
3 days ago
0:28
Sheikh Mohammed seen in mall of the Emirates
Khaleej Times
4 days ago
0:45
Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum
Gulf News
yesterday
1:40
Heavy rains lash several states in India
Gulf News
yesterday
1:01
Over 30 dead as northern China hit by heavy rain, landslides
Gulf News
yesterday
0:44
Trump says will 'reduce' 50 days he gave Putin to end Ukraine war
Gulf News
yesterday