It's a man world!

A few years ago, while making port at Mumbai, I had a very nervous harbor pilot board my craft. He was jumpy and restless and the last straw was when one of my officers on the navigation bridge, fished a mobile phone from his pocket and was checking if there was a signal.

The pilot told me quite curtly that he found mobile phones distracting while he was navigating, in the dense traffic of Mumbai harbor & would I be kind enough to get the officer to put the instrument back into his pocket. I found the request logical and sound so the offending phone disappeared.

A few days prior to my arrival at Mumbai, I'd read about a collision between, a submarine and a ship.The whole case was rather intriguing as most ships are very careful in navigating within the limits of a port as accidents can be catastrophic.

How did the accident occur?

Apparently, the naval submarine was outbound on an exercise at sunset and the ship was making harbor. As soon as the ship closed in and was within cell phone coverage, the officers on the bridge, got their mobiles out to make calls to their wives/girl friends & so on. What followed was the bizarre accident. Human error & sheer negligence.

What would have followed the accident, would have been torture for captains of both ships and huge repair costs.

Having now moved to Bangalore, I see the malice of the cell phone on a daily basis. From vehicle drivers to pedestrians, no body cares & in fidgeting with their phones, if they cause an accident, then so be it.Accidents have been caused by careless drivers conversing on their mobile phones.

After moving to Bangalore, I too was sucked into the habit on occasion and had a couple of close misses. The latest was when I nearly hit a startled cow, on a busy road causing it to run into a two wheeler, who was also on a mobile phone.

Several surveys have actually concluded that using a phone behind the wheel is more dangerous than drink-driving and more likely to cause a car accident. It can be seen, therefore, that the seemingly harmless act of talking on a phone really can put lives at risk.

There is no doubt that having a mobile with you in the car can provide security and help in the case of a breakdown or an emergency but the temptation to answer it if it rings or to reply when a text message arrives should be avoided at all costs.

Hands-free devices and dashboard cradles are better than actually holding the phone but their use can still cause a lapse in concentration and so increase the risk of a vehicle accident. Driving a car requires your full attention at all times and, although it might seem like something that comes as second nature, even a couple of seconds of not watching the road or thinking about something else is enough to cause death or serious personal injury.

Rules are never meant for us, so why bother is the credo that most adopt.Though the police do act, in the event that they catch a person breaking the 'mobile rule', the fine of Rs 100 is so minuscule that most are not concerned if they are caught.

I found the following case quite interesting...

Going Back for a Mobile Phone.

Apparently this problem of going back to get a mobile phone and then ending up in a car accident is neither rare nor new. Back in 2003, there was a man in Austria who managed to get run over by his own car as a result of needing to go get his mobile phone. He had left the phone inside the house so he exited his car, went in and got it. When he came back, he saw his car rolling down the driveway where he’d left it running. His solution was to throw himself at the car and the result was a series of broken limbs. But at least he had his cell phone to call for help.

As for me, I find rules on land can be broken with far greater impunity than at sea and shudder to think of the effects of a growing urban population.Being smart I have found the perfect solution:

Get my wife to drive! It allows me talk on my mobile phone while sitting in the car.

Its a mans world you see..........