RSA Advocates For Making Driver Distraction Unacceptable

RSA had their big Road Safety Conference today at Dublin Castle and they talked all about how bad it is when drivers get distracted. They said we need to totally stop distractions when driving. They had lots of experts talking about how using phones while driving is super dangerous.

Dr. Kiran Sarma from the University of Galway talked about why people can't stop checking their phones even when they're driving, like they're afraid they'll miss out on something important. That's called FOMO and it makes people do risky stuff like texting while driving.

They did this study in 2023 and found out that 9% of drivers are using their phones while they drive, which is more than last year when it was only 6%.

Professor Michael Regan was talking about new rules in Australia where they're trying to catch drivers who use phones with special cameras. Professor John Lee said that even though tech can help make driving safer, it only works if people use it right.

There was also this guy Kees Verweij from the Netherlands Police who said that it's really important to make sure drivers know they can get caught if they use their phone while driving.

James Lawless, who works at the Transport Department, said that we need to teach people, make better car designs, and have strict rules to stop people from using phones when they drive. He said no one should ever use their phone when driving, no matter what.

Liz O’Donnell, who is in charge at the RSA, said that we have to stop making it okay for people to use their phones while driving. It's not cool and it's very unsafe.

Sam Waide, who runs the RSA, said that distracted driving is something we can stop. He talked about new ways the police are going to catch people who text and drive, like using big trucks that are hard to notice.

The conference ended with them saying that all the talks and slides from the day will be up on the RSA website.