Half a century ago car manufacturers started offering radios in their new vehicles. Many people considered this a distraction which would increase road accidents.
Decades later the mobile phone improved communications for the masses, but laws were soon in place to restrict their use while driving. It quickly became apparent that those texting or holding a conversation were more like to crash while their attention was diverted.
Now we have another electronic marvel - the navigation device which uses satellite technology to match the position of the vehicle with a map - and instruct the driver to reach the intended destination.
If talking on a mobile phone is an illegal distraction while driving, how can peeking at a screen or listening to an instructing voice be any different ?
The authorities have been slow to grasp the importance of this new menace. More and more vehicles have satellite navigation fitted as standard equipment - and mass production has reduced the cost to less than four hundred dollars - making them economically available to most people.
It seems that they could become indispensable in our crowded and fast expanding cities but what rules should apply to their use presents a thorny question.
Ideally, they should be used by a navigator accompanying the driver, but if laws are put in place to make this requirement they are likely to be widely ignored.
Despite heavy fines and loss of demerit points drivers persist in texting and talking on mobile phones while driving. Short of a draconian solution - such as having offenders face a firing squad - there seems no alternative to curb the practice - and now a navigational aid will increase the danger !
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