That taxicab you got into with a dozen smartphones hooked up onto the dashboard, the driver manoeuvring the wheel one-handed while swiping a screen and talking into a headset? That may soon be a thing of the past, thank heavens.
The government is now studying the effects of technology on safe driving, and may soon regulate smartphone usage by drivers. In 2000, a law was passed to prohibit drivers from holding mobile phones in their hands or between their heads and shoulders; however, it does not prohibit reading information or swiping on a phone placed on the dashboard.
The government now is collecting statistics to see if smartphone usage and the use of multiple phones can increase the risk of traffic accidents before passing new laws. To which lawmaker Wong Kwok-hing, of the Federation of Trade Unions, retorted: “Is it that you won’t do anything until someone dies in an accident?”
Source: SCMP
Photo: Joi Ito, Flickr
