A “killer” in our roads!

A “killer” in our roads!
This article has been written for Albanian Free Press newspaper and www.afp.al

“A pitiless killer wonders our roads. It is everywhere. At this very moment, it could be in your pocket. It is called a mobile phone!” This is how an awareness ad of the US Department of Transport in 2009 starts. This ad showed a terrible scene of accident, where someone sends an SMS while driving and as a result, dies in the most tragic of ways. The US Transport Department broadcasted this ad following a study carried out by Virginia Tech University, which concluded that the risk for an accident to happen increases by 2.8-23.2 times when the conductor of the vehicle uses his mobile phone to communicate or exchange written messages on it.

In fact, the results of this study encouraged almost all local parliaments of the US to outlaw the use of mobile phones by car drivers and incorporate this measure in their legislation. So, here we have an awareness campaign combined with penalty measures with the aim of preventing a “killer” which was claiming the lives of many people in the roads of America.

In Albania, the prohibition of the use of mobile phones by car drivers has been incorporated in the Road Code for a while now, but the penalty for it is relatively soft (1 thousand lek) and the priority of Traffic Police is not to stop the offenders of this particular article of the code.

Meanwhile, in the roads of Albania, one can often see people using their mobile phone while being on the wheel.

We don’t know yet to what extent this increases the risk for accident in our roads, because no studies have been made in this domain. But, the data of the study carried out by Virginia Tech University in roads which are far better than those of Albania, could act as a very good point of referral.

The study was carried out by installing cameras and instruments that worked non-stop in real vehicles, real driving, covering around 9.7 million kilometers of roads. The data received from the cameras and other instruments were analyzed only when there were sudden changes of speed or in the way of driving, which meant that an accident had happened or almost happened.

The analysis showed that the dialing of a telephone number on a mobile or answering a phone call increased the risk of accident or near accident by 2.8 times. Meanwhile, while exchanging an SMS, car drivers kept their eyes on the mobile phone on average 4.6 seconds, the time in which a car could cross the length of a football field while moving with a speed of 100 km an hour. For this reason, communication by SMS increased the risk of accident or near-accident by 23.2 times. Meanwhile, drink driving increases this risk by 7 times. These results of the study carried out by Virginia Tech University and the awareness campaign along with the measures that followed the publication of the results in the USA, could serve as a model which could be applied in Albania, where the situation with accidents is very serious. Here, there are 36 accidents a year per 10 thousand vehicles or 3.6 times more than in the former communist countries and 11.5 times more than in the USA.

It’s true that Albania could not have the necessary conditions to carry out studies like this one, but the Ministry of Interior could instruct Traffic Police to be rigorous in preventing the use of mobile phones in cars. Also, this ministry could also broadcast an awareness ad to raise awareness among the public about the big threat that “killer” mobile phones pose. Let’s hope that something will be done and prevent mobile phones from being the cause of many deaths in Albania, because many other things are killing them already on a daily basis.

Note: The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Albanian Free Press’ editorial policy

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