I get distracted all the time, with an alarming ease, in fact.
It doesn’t help that I have a glorious, second-floor window desk, with a balcony.
Our resident pigeons can be very entertaining and I’m often heard musing about their antics or “ooing” and “aahing” about the metallic pinks and greens around their necks.
Throw in the daily debacle that is the PriceSmart parking lot on Ackroyd Road that our office stares down onto and you can see why my attention routinely gets diverted while writing stories, such as this one.
However, the absolute worst thing that could happen — and it usually occurs most days — is that I suddenly realize it’s 3 p.m. and I have four articles still to file.
Not exactly the end of the world, is it?
Ponder then, for a moment, having a plethora of the aforementioned distractions flashing past your eyeline while being in sole charge of a potentially deadly weapon — namely, your vehicle.
If you’re having trouble picturing the scene, that’s OK. Just imagine you’re texting your wife or your buddy while doing 110 on Highway 99 about 20 feet behind the car in front.
Oh, what? You do that already? Really?
Don’t worry, though; you’re in good company in Richmond where, according to the RCMP, there was an astonishing spike in the number of violation tickets dished out for distracted driving last year — up more than 50 per cent, to 1,833 (see feature on page 11).
This is not the first, and probably not the last, time I’ve written on this subject.
But it still beggars belief how selfish and self-absorbed adults of all ages and social background can be when it comes to risking the lives of themselves and, more importantly, of others, be they unsuspecting pedestrians or innocent drivers who can follow rules.
As the psychology expert in today’s front page feature points out, we need “100 per cent of our cognitive resources” to make split-second, life or death decisions while driving.
Before we even get behind the wheel, that 100 per cent, he said, is eaten into by a variety of factors, including our experience (or the lack thereof), age, health and, of course, distractions of the natural kind.
So why oh why would you further deplete that proverbial bank of cognitive power by answering a call, replying to a text, checking an email or giving in to the life-altering urge to post on your Facebook timeline?
According to the psychology expert, the temptation to pick up the phone while driving is simply too seductive for mere mortals.
So I challenge you to resist the urge, let voicemail do its job, answer the text later, tweet to the twit when you’re safely home.
Test it out. See what happens. You may get a life and, potentially, save someone else’s.
Alan Campbell is a staff reporter at the Richmond News. He can be reached at [email protected]
