I think most of us are guilty of taking the occasional quick glance at our handsets while we drive. Perhaps it’s just to see if anyone replied that important email we just sent yet, or maybe it’s to see if your boss has discovered that you’re late for work.
But when people talk about the dangers of using your smartphone while driving, it’s no joke. In this latest motorway accident involving four cars in our neighbouring country Singapore, the main cause has been attributed to an iPhone charging cable getting tangled in a car’s steering wheel.
Right now, details of the accident remain vague, but according to news site The Straits Times, a man lost control of his car while he was driving because his iPhone’s charging cable got tangled in the steering wheel, causing it to jam up.
The man referred to only as Yeo, then shot into the right lane and collided into another vehicle before both cars went crashing into the centre divider. The impact caused the divider to break and several metal rods from the divider was sent flying to the opposite side of the road.
One rod impaled itself into the front bonnet of a third car two feet from its driver, known only as Goh, while another hit a taxi.
Goh, who was a private hire car driver, told the Straits Times that he had pulled out to overtake the taxi that pulled over to pick up a passenger before the incident took place. He said that had he been driving faster, the rod could have been impaled him instead.
Despite what looks like a pretty serious accident, there have been no reported injuries according to the Singapore Civil Defence Force. Police investigations are currently ongoing.
Perhaps saying that the accident was caused by the iPhone cable isn’t the right word here because the cable is an inanimate object, while the driver isn’t. The way we see it, this could have happened in any number of ways.
First, the driver could’ve left his phone on a holder mounted near his steering wheel and decided to charge it because it was running low on battery. The resulting fumbling could have caused the cable to get caught up in the steering wheel.
There’s also a chance that while the phone was already charging on the cradle, the driver thought it would be a good idea to take a quick peek at his iPhone.
Either way, the important lesson everyone should walk away with here is that we should all be super careful of our smartphones and their cables when driving. And we should also not, under any circumstances, be fiddling with our devices when we’re driving on the road.
Drive safe, everyone.
[SOURCE]
