It seems that hardly a week goes by without another awful media headline, a tragedy unfolds and the cause reveals itself to simply be lack of attention.
An infant left in the back seat of a car by accident.
A fall from a multi-storey car-park.
A house-fire from leaving a pot on the stove unattended.
If you drink and drive, “you are a bloody idiot”.
But what if you text and drive? We keep being told distracted drivers are dangerous, but the reality is many of us continue to distract ourselves with our mobile phones while driving: sending and receiving messages while hurrying to our next destination.
Texting while driving is more lethal than drink driving.
A friend recently shared a story of a car she saw one morning that appeared to be driving somewhat erratically. The car mounted the kerb, knocked over three rubbish bins waiting to be emptied and carried on down the road. Worried, my friend followed the vehicle and when it finally stopped she confronted the driver. The driver was on her mobile phone. She denied any knowledge of knocking over the bins and said she was in a hurry to get her kids to school.
She had three young children strapped in the back seat.
The statistics reveal that in the U.S. teenagers who text and drive cause more fatalities relating to car accidents, than drink driving.
One message has gradually gotten through although it took almost thirty years for society to recognise the dangers of alcohol and driving.
When you are driving, you can make the choice between staying safe and focusing on just driving or potentially killing yourself or someone else.
Werner Herzog recently made a short documentary relating the stories of some those affected by texting and driving.
It makes for confronting viewing. But for anyone with a teenager, a young driver in their family and for adults who regularly drive, it is essential viewing.
Another life might just depend on it.
We all busy.
We all lead busy lives.
But when it comes to evaluating what we are doing at any one given moment, remember your brain is not designed to focus on more than one thing at a time.
For greater cognitive performance whether at work or in life in general, we need to remember to use our brain and use it appropriately.
And in regard to texting: IT CAN WAIT.
