The Impact of Mobile Phone Use on Road Safety: A Detailed Report

This report examines the critical issue of mobile phone use while driving and its impact on road safety. It highlights the prevalence of this dangerous behavior, citing statistics on accidents and fatalities. The report discusses the problem of distracted driving, exploring both conventional approaches such as legislation, traffic fines, and license suspensions, and innovative solutions like social innovation, technological advancements, and public awareness campaigns. It analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of each approach, considering cost-benefit analyses and the impact of government policies. The report also emphasizes the importance of targeting physiological, safety, esteem, and love needs to change driver behavior. The report advocates for a multi-faceted approach to road safety, combining strict regulations with technological innovations and public awareness campaigns to reduce accidents and save lives.

Mobile Phones MUST not be used while
driving

Introduction
• Use of Cell Phones while driving is common & controversial topic
• There are laws in place that makes its use illegal
• Still there are large number of people who use mobile phones while driving
• Results: Accidents & People have to die
• A report suggests that one-third of Australians use mobile phone while
driving (https://www.smh.com.au/technology/one-third-of-australians-use-
phones-while-driving-20151029-gklq3n.html)

Issue of Road Safety & Use of Mobile Phones
Use of Mobile Phones leads to increase the risk of crash and its after effects. There are
many ways to prevent these accidents:
 Drive according to speed limit, Avoid rash driving & Wear seat belts.
 Wear helmets & Maintain vehicle in proper condition always & Don’t drink and Drive
 Don’t use mobile phones and don’t listen to songs on earphones
 Install GPS trackers and Monitors & Don’t text while driving or walking.
 Strict rules and regulations should be in place with appropriate road design
Road safety refers to the measures and methods used to prevent road users
injured or being killed. It includes motorist, cyclist, pedestrians, vehicle
passengers ,passengers who opt for public transport.

• Maintain vehicle in proper condition always
• Don’t drink and Drive
• Don’t use mobile phones and don’t listen to songs on earphones
• Install GPS trackers and Monitors
• Don’t text while driving or walking.
Issue of Road Safety & Use of Mobile Phones
Road safety refers to the measures and methods used to prevent road users injured or
being killed. It includes motorist, cyclist, pedestrians, vehicle passengers ,passengers
who opt for public transport.

Societal concerns for Road
Safety
• Mostly fatalities involved in road accident inside vehicles whereas rest are
cyclist, pedestrians or motorcyclists.
• The road fatalities lead to economy and social cost to the countries.
• Young people face more risk of road accidents
• Human error is mostly the cause of road accident while human error can be
reduced but can’t be eliminated so it is necessary to take those approaches
which minimizes the human error. One of them is “Follow public transport”

Conventional Approach
• These are the ways which government and people follow to limit the accidents.
These ways are written in books and are old and outdated. They are not strategically
enhanced.
• Conventional ways which influence people to follow public mode includes
regulations, laws, environment protection guidelines, increasing the price of fuels .
• But these measures do not motivate people to change their habits of using public
mode over private mode.
• So, citizens all across the world need intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to
understand the importance of using public mode and thus limit road accidents

Examples of Conventional ways
There are multiple conventional ways for handling usage of mobile phone while
driving
• Legislation : The road transport sector in every country is covered by various
directives and regulations on banning the use of mobile phones while driving
• Traffic Fines : Imposing huge traffic fines for any violation or use of mobile phone
while driving attracts huge fine
• License : Authority can seize the license in case of repeat violations

of Conventional
Approach
Strengths Weaknesses
The conventional approaches are
traditional approaches that are
easy to understand
The implementation of
conventional approach is a
challenge
People in the society can easily
relate to conventional
approaches
People does not have any
accountability and hence lack of
responsibility
The use of conventional
approaches does not need any
major investment
The investment is less but the
Return on Investment is also
slow

Social Innovation Approach: Changing
Motivation Function Ways
Target physiological Needs: Low cost of travelling with public transportation
Target Safety Needs :Accident rates in the country can be decreased if people do
not use mobile phones while driving (Jain, et al., 2014)
Target Esteem Needs and Love Needs : Reduce Pollution ,Reduce Jam and be a
responsible citizens, Public transport user takes more steps per day than people in
car which can help the people to stay healthy and developing social network on
public transport (Petroulias, 2014)
(Medium : Paper media, T.V commercials , hoardings, social media ,Radio )

Strategy for targeting beliefs
Targeting lifestyle and values:
• Let Celebrities promote the endorsement for no mobile phone while driving .
• Ads descripting accident free country .
Targeting Knowledge
 Use of Influential ads is recommended to
show the impact of mobile phone usage
while driving
 Informational ads describing statistics of
fatalities by accidents

Social Innovation Approach:
Make people aware
• Present the facts to people that every second is important while driving
Source: https://www.techly.com.au/2017/06/07/apples-next-
move-destroy-text-and-drive-culture/

Social Innovation Approach: Use
technology innovation & small steps
Announcements in car: Every time, car engine is switched
on, there should be provision of automatic announcements
that ‘use of mobile phone is dangerous while driving ’
Sensor on steering for both the hands: Cars can have the
sensor that would beep if one hand is taken of steering of the
car
With the use of adequate technology and innovation, below small steps can be
taken to address the problem through a social innovation approach:

Social Innovation
Approach
Strengths Weaknesses
The social innovation approaches
are more inclusive in nature. It
means it include various
stakeholders
The implementation could be a
challenge as it needs consent or
discussion from various
stakeholders
The impact is HIGH with social
innovation approach
The need of initial investment to
get the things started
The return of Investment is also
HIGH
The processes with social
innovation approach can be
cumbersome in nature (Chapanis &
Chapanis, 2017)

Cost Benefit Analysis
Conventional Approach
Social Innovation Approach
Less Costly as established
measures are used (Hughes, et al.,
2015)
It would need initial investment
for awareness
Beneficial only in short term
Beneficial in long term
No need of increased
investments
Would need incremental
investment
Less ROI (Chapanis & Chapanis, 2017)
High ROI if used effectively

Government Policy around the
use of mobile phone
People are not supposed to use mobile phone while driving.
• Drivers who break this law in Victoria face an on-the-spot fine
of $476 and will incur 4 demerit points.
• The license can be suspended if the demerit points reach 5
• Learned driver with P1 & P2 can not even use hands free
devices while driving
• It has a positive impact on overall problem or issues as
people do not want their license to be suspended.
Source: https://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/safety-and-road-
rules/driver-safety/mobile-phones-and-driving

References
• Chapanis, A., & Chapanis, N. P. (2017). Cognitive dissonance: Five years later.
In Attitude Change (pp. 116-153). Routledge.
• Hughes, B. P., Newstead, S., Anund, A., Shu, C. C., & Falkmer, T. (2015). A review
of models relevant to road safety. Accident Analysis & Prevention, 74, 250-270.
• Jain, S., Aggarwal, P., Kumar, P., Singhal, S., & Sharma, P. (2014). Identifying
public preferences using multi-criteria decision making for assessing the shift of
urban commuters from private to public transport: A case study of
Delhi. Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, 24, 60-
70.
• Mobile Phones, technology & driving (2017). Retrieved from:
https://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/safety-and-road-rules/driver-safety/mobile-phones-
and-driving
• Techly (2017). Apple’s next move will destroy the ‘text and drive’ culture.
Retrieved from: Apple’s next move will destroy the ‘text and drive’ culture
• Petroulias, T. (2014). Community attitudes to road safety: 2013 survey report (No.
INFRA2137).
• World Health Organization. (2015). Global status report on road safety 2015.
World Health Organization.