According to statistics, mobile phones will be the number one cause of fatal collisions in the UK by 2015. Although similar statistics are not available locally, probably the same can be said in Malta. The UK are going for doubling the number of penalty points on a driver’s licence if caught. This can’t work here because such a system is not in place, and enforcing it would be a nightmare.

The solution to curb the “craving” to text behind the wheel cannot simply stop at harsher penalties and fines. Does a prison sentence deter people from committing murder?

Expert Albert Bezzina recently gave some staggering statistics. A survey by the UK’s Transport Research Laboratory showed that a driver’s reaction times slowed by 46 per cent when making a call on a hand-held mobile, by 37 per cent when texting while driving and by 27 per cent during hands-free calls. In comparison, reaction times of those who had used cannabis slowed by 21 per cent and, for those on the drink-drive limit, 13 per cent.

Although I find it strange that reaction times when texting and driving slowed down at a lesser rate than when making a call, this data is indeed worrying.

Former court traffic expert Joe Micallef Stafrace said that the driver’s focus on the road needs to be 100 per cent. I cannot not agree but, realistically speaking, how possible is that?

The use of a mobile phone is not simply a craving, as Mr Bezzina described it. Nomophobia is something many people suffer from. The need to be continuously connected is a reality, and spending just a few minutes without mobile connectivity has become a tragic affair.

In the same way we cannot stop ourselves from looking at the lingerie adverts on billboards, singing along to our favourite music (headphones in ears), smoking, eating or even cat-calling, we cannot stop ourselves from checking our mobile phones for any breaking news update. It’s like telling a child to sit down next to a favourite toy but not to play with it.

We need to find ways of making the use of mobile phones as safe as possible, through a combination of deterrents and technology.

The use of a mobile phone is a contravention in Malta. By that I understand that even simply holding a mobile phone in your hand, in the way you would hold an apple for that matter, constitutes a contravention. This also applies if the phone is on speaker mode and not in your hands and if texting using voice recognition.

So, since the use of mobile phones is ‘illegal’ and statistics show that mobile phones are the cause of many accidents, some fatal, then the solution is not to allow mobile phones to function at all while driving. A system has to be found that makes it imposs-ible for a mobile phone to connect when a car is moving. Can technology provide?

Otherwise, I feel that mobile phones will still be used while driving, and the damning statistics will remain.

motoring@timesofmalta.com