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Sharing an article from Reader's digest here.. Hope you find it useful..!!
Promote safety by following these five rules:
Pull over. Never use a cellphone while driving, or while crossing or walking along a road. Always stop your vehicle carefully before you answer the phone. If you’re a pedestrian, stop at a safe place to answer a call or respond to an SMS. In 2004, medical student Vahed Lokhandwalla, 23, of Mumbai was keying in an SMS message on the road when he walked into the open back door of a parked SUV. He hurt his head and bled badly.
Let it ring. If you’re on a busy road where you can’t stop, and your phone rings, it is best to miss that call.
Remember, people coped perfectly well before cellphones arrived a few years ago. Use voicemail. If you get calls constantly, ask your service provider to activate voicemail—which will say that you’ll return the call later.
Get passenger help. If you have a passenger, place the phone where he or she can answer it for you.
Many motorists believe that a hands-free cellphone is safe. That isn’t true, as yet another study by Sweden’s National Road Administration (SNRA) proved. They tested 48 people in driving simulators. Half of them had hand-held mobiles, while the other half had hands-free instruments. Both groups when compared showed almost no differences in their slowed-down reaction times. “It is the distraction of the phone conversation that is the problem,” said Ingemar Skogö, SNRA’s director-general.
And most common of all: people getting knocked down by all kinds of vehicles.
Why the Danger?
Your sense of hearing is almost completely consumed by the phone you’re using, and your brain tends to filter out ambient sounds. Unlike a car’s radio, for instance, the phone requires a two-way conversation. So your brain has to absorb the information and work simultaneously to provide responses, making it hard for it to process information that’s not related to your phone conversation.
When it comes to safety, never settle for less.