Do You?

THE world is divided between those who do and those who don't.

Those who do, do it all the time believing it's safe and they'll never get caught. Those who don't are vehemently opposed to it.

The source of the divide is using a mobile phone while driving - not just for phone calls but for text messages.

Research shows that people who send text messages when driving increase the amount of time their eyes are not watching the road by up to 400 per cent.

They might drop back from the car in front but they seldom reduce their speed and are more likely to drift between lanes, according to motoring group NRMA.

This lapse in concentration on driving means texting drivers are more likely to increase the risk of a crash. Yet people still do it, much to the amazement of Joel Neilsen.

He's the managing director of Safe Drive Training, a Brisbane-based organisation that does advanced and defensive training for groups from schools to corporate clients.

Over the past 15 years more than 40,000 students have taken part in the company's driver education program.

Neilsen says the biggest problem is getting young people to understand the risks involved in using a mobile phone while driving.

Too often when shown images of drivers using a mobile phone, he says the students are more concerned with the make and quality of the handset than the potential dangers.

"The message seems to escape the young drivers," he says.

"They don't associate with the warning message if they see that the phone is uncool."

One way he tries to get the message through to them is to challenge them to send a text from their mobile phone while walking through a busy place.

"If they can't text and walk then why do they think they can text and drive," he asks.

Neilsen recalls watching a man walking through Cairns airport lounge who was trying to send a text on his mobile phone, and he walked straight into a post.

Just imagine if he'd been driving.

Queensland police last year caught 28,498 drivers using their mobile phones while driving, up 5748 from the previous year.

No doubt many were using the phone for texting.

Under Queensland law, all drivers are banned from using hand-held mobile phones while driving.

A survey of almost 800 people carried out by Queensland University of Technology found two out of five people admitted to using their mobile phone at least once a day while driving.

Of those about a quarter (27 per cent) said they used the phone for receiving a text, and a fifth (18 per cent) used it for sending a text.

"Most people didn't believe there was a very high chance of them getting caught or fined," psychologist Shari Walsh says.

She was one of the researchers who worked on the study in 2006-07.

"Most people we spoke to had developed strategies to hide the fact that they were texting and driving, doing it under the steering wheel so they couldn't be seen from the outside," she says.

When asked why they used their mobile while driving, most argued it was a good use of their time.

"They believed driving was unproductive time so they could use that time to catch up with friends or make work appointments," she says.

"The thing that struck us the most was that people were either very against using the phone, or quite for it and didn't see it as a problem.

"It was two extremes."

Walsh agrees that the public perception of texting and driving needs changing with an ad campaign needed similar to the "bloody idiot" drink- driving campaign.

"A lot of people are not aware that their insurance won't pay if they're found to be texting and using their phone when driving," she says.