Preparation for Policy Proposal - Essay Example

PREPARATION FOR POLICY PROPOSAL Introduction Irrespective of frequent government interventions on the safety needed while driving;the complexity involved in the driving task still persists. The preoccupations of the drivers with electronic and non-electronic devices are major reasons and causes of accidents in various parts of the world. All activities that cause distraction to the driver while driving may have serious consequences on roads. The use of mobile phone is one major reason for road accidents; it has other related factors such as smoking, listening to music, feeding children etc, which cause various distraction to the driver.

Eslande, P. V., & Fouquet, K. (2007). Analyzing the Human Functional Failures in Road Accidents. Traffic Causation in Europe, 1-39.According to Eslande & Fouquet (2007) accidents are mostly caused by varied human errors; also known as human functional errors. These failures are not necessarily the reasons of road accidents, but the aftermaths of the final malfunctions of the driving systems which are the road, user, and the vehicle. There are accidents that can occur as a result of the interaction process that stage from detection, diagnosis, prognosis, decision, and actions of the drivers.

The detection process involves a failure to detect any visual constraints that are caused by the drivers switch to other actions such as mobile phones or roadside conversations. These can also cause interruption of the information in the information that is acquired. While using devices such as mobile phones one may have wrong diagnosis of the road requirements, for instance, incorrect evaluation of the gaps (Eslande & Fouquet, 2007). There are situations that mobile phone users neglect the need of such information such as speed limits.N.S.C. (2010).

Why Driving Using Hands free Cell Phones is Risky Behaviour. Understanding the Distracted Brain, 1-20.The vision is regarded one of the most important sense for driving safely; using hands free phones or handheld phones makes the driver to ‘look at’ and fail; to ‘see’ objects; these are referred to as inattention blindness. Here, the driver looks at the windshield, but they fail to process the roadway environment, monitor their surroundings, and respond to situations that are unexpected, and identify and seek potential hazards.

The use of handsets whether making calls or texting has been found to be a cause of accidents because of two obvious risks; visual, which is staring away from the road, and the manual entailing the removal of ones hands from the steering wheel. However, multi-tasking the brain is the crucial part of accident cause. The response and reaction time is slower; just like alcohol users they will have problems in staying in the lane and braking or accelerating where unnecessary. This is because listening and comprehension of language will draw cognitive resources away from driving.

Toshiro, I., & Tsuneo, M. (2000). The Effect of Cellular Phone use on Transport. Mobile Communication in Transport, 1-5.Toshiro & Tsuneo (2000) in their writing indicates that the various road accidents caused by road accidents are due to delay of visual information that is processed by the driver. Driving performance can also be reduced by listening to car radio, which diverts the driver’s attention; reaction delay in braking and even glance direction other than to the front. Apart from dividing the drivers attention, the content of the conversation can be complicated, that might need calculations, acquiring information and negative reactions that cause accidents.

The reaction time on turning on radio and operating phones might bring the subject to a misjudgment between the distance of vehicles in front and the speed.Strayer, D. L., & Drews, F. A. (2004). Profiles in Driver Distraction: Effects of Mobile Distraction on Young and Old Drivers. Human Factors, 640-649.The driving performances of both older and younger individuals are influenced by mobile conversations. Given that driving is an activity that requires complex combination of relevant activities it is not surprising that the older drivers will exhibit a number of deficiencies while driving.

According to Strayer & Drews (2004), a mobile phone user may miss important road signals, respond slowly to signs, or get involved in the rear end collisions while talking on their phones. Older divers do not suffer significant penalties for using mobile phones while driving compared to young drivers. Older adults will have a longer recovery time in case of braking and will drive slower than the younger ones; these reduce their risk of getting involved in accidents.Young, K., Reagan, M., & Hammer, M. (2003). Driver Distraction: A Review of the Literature.

Accident Research Center, 3-18.The causes of various driver distractions here are categorized into visual, auditory, biomechanical or physical, and cognitive destructions. Mobile phones cause visual physical and visual distractions by removing both hands and the eyes from the road and wheel regardless of whether it is a hands-free or a handless phone. It also causes auditory distraction by startling the driving while the phone is ringing or while conversing. Dialing numbers in the hand-held phones are the most distracting thing just like writing texts.

Apart from these, radio use places a significant demand for drivers to tune on their radios. This may cause visual, auditory, and biomechanical distractions. For individuals smoking, eating or even attending to children; their chances of taking their hands off the staring wheel, as well as not focusing on the road just like mobile phone users is high. Young, Reagan, & Hammer (2003) also asserts that some drivers will converse with other passengers causing heated arguments or consoling them not to take concern of the road safety, and these causes crash risks.

ReferencesEslande, P. V., & Fouquet, K. (2007). Analyzing the Human Functional Failures in Road Accidents. Traffic Causation in Europe, 1-39.N.S.C. (2010). Why Driving Using Hands free Cell Phones is Risky Behaviour. Understanding the Distracted Brain, 1-20.Strayer, D. L., & Drews, F. A. (2004). Profiles in Driver Distraction: Effects of Mobile Distraction on Young and Old Drivers. Human Factors, 640-649.Toshiro, I., & Tsuneo, M. (2000). The Effect of Cellular Phone use on Transport. Mobile Communication in Transport, 1-5.Young, K., Reagan, M.

, & Hammer, M. (2003). Driver Distraction: A Review of the Literature. Accident Research Center, 3-18.