IT takes the slightest distraction to run up the back of another car.
It happens a lot in Singleton because the roads are very congested but it also happens because people are not obeying the road rules, and talking on a mobile phone is one of them.
To think police netted almost $20,000 in fines in just one day because people couldn’t resist using their phones while they were driving is mind blowing.
If your phone does ring when you are driving a car, resist the temptation to pick it up.
Wait until you arrive at your destination or find a safe place to park, turn your car off and remove the key and then return the call.
A few minutes to respond is not going to make any difference in the scheme of things where as a fine, demerit points or worst still, a crash will.
Mobile phones can quickly start to rule lives when they are permanently attached to someone’s hand.
Try turning them off occasionally, putting them down and taking a walk.
A sad scene during a recent holiday was a young father playing on the beach with his two children.
The phone rang and he immediately stopped the game and started to concentrate on the phone call - it was obviously business by the way he was speaking and pacing the sand.
The kids kept playing, looking towards their father a few times before they shrugged their shoulders and continued on with the game.
Was the phone call that important that the game had to stop?
Just because we can be contactable 24 hours a day, seven days a week, doesn’t necessarily mean we should be every day.
Time in the car and time with the family are those occasions when we should all have some down phone time.
