PHONE FEAR
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How stupid can people be? It doesn't take a genius to work Out that anything which is distracting is also extremely dangerous when you're driving particularly when you're driving an HGV.
I've been involved with haulage for sometime, but in a previous life I had small children and one thing I learned is that when you're driving you have to be a driver first and mummy second. You cannot concentrate on the needs of small children or allow them to distract you when you should be concentrating on the road ahead.
My children learned that they had to wait, if only until there was a safe place to pull in, and as such they weren't allowed to eat in the car. I know one woman who crashed because her daughter choked, and her instinct as a mother overcame her common sense as a driver.
The problem is many drivers don't seem to apply this kind of logic. Witness the driver who went over the edge of a French ravine last year while trying to feed his tamogotchi electronic toy. Not a professional, you might think. No. But how professional is it to drive a 40tonner while you're talking on your mobile? Even if it's handsfree , it's still a distraction.
No-one would want a surgeon cutting into them while chatting on a hands-free phone to his wife, yet he could do far less damage than you could in your truck. The message is simple: concentrate on one thing at a time, for all our sakes. Sandra Bernard, Cambridge.