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Harvard University's Center for Risk Analysis recently released a study showing that the number of road deaths related to cellphone use has risen to a rate of 2,600 deaths per year, compared to around 1000 such fatalities just two years ago.
Compare that to a study done in 1997 by the University of Toronto published in the New England Journal of Medicine in February of that year.
In the Toronto study, 699 drivers who were involved in car collisions and who were using cell phones at the time of the accident were investigated and each person's phone calls on the cell phone on the day of the collision and on the week previous were analysed through detailed billing records.
Their further investigation in the Toronto study showed the following: calls close to the time of collision were particularly hazardous-4.8 for calls within 5 minutes of collision, 1.3 for calls placed more than 15 minutes before; and --watch this-- units allowing the hands to be free offered no safety advantage.
After studying 26,798 cell phone calls made during the 14- month study period, the Toronto study came to this conclusion.
The risk of a collision when using a cell phone was four times higher than when driving without it.
Notice that the collision did not necessarily occur at the time of the phone call. It occurred within 5 to 15 minutes after the call. Whether the phone was hand-held or not did not matter.
Now, in the Harvard Study done in 2002, these are their conclusions.
The editorial of the Miami Herald with regard to this news item added this:
This is further evidence that drivers who chat animatedly with a cellphone in one hand while navigating a vehicle with the other - in addition to keeping an eye on the road - are an increasing menace to fellow travelers.
What's the bottom line? Lost concentration.
How important is concentration? Apparently, for cell phone users in a moving vehicle, it can be a matter of life and death. In life's journey, it may be a matter of life and death, too.
The Bible has a funny name for it. It calls it the "one thing" principle. The psalmist said, "one thing have I desired" [Ps 27:4]; Jesus when he spoke to Martha said "one thing is needed" [Lk 10:42]; St Paul, the apostle in his letter written to friends in the city of Philippi said, "But one thing I do-..." [Philippians 3:13-14].
I'm not a Greek expert, but the Greek experts say that in the original language when St. Paul wrote it he really wrote it this way. "One thing" What does that imply? That means it is not only one thing I do, but one thing I am, one thing I have, one thing I see, one thing I think.
That means CONCENTRATING really means being narrow. And being narrow means recognizing things and being willing to exclude those very things which don't add to the achieving of a goal. A wise man said that there are some things that must be narrow in order to be powerful. A knife must have a narrow edge to be of use. It is the narrowness of the river that creates its power. And it's true, isn't it? When a river eats up its banks and becomes too broad it often loses depth. And I guess it's the same thing with us. When we become too spontaneous, we allow anything to enter our schedule, our routine.
That's why I get inspired by Sir Winston Churchill. Some people think he was a genius, but Sir Charles did not. Sir Charles? Who was he? Sir Charles Wilson was actually Churchill's personal physician. And from his unique perspective, the man saw Churchill as few others did. In his memoirs he asks himself this question:
What is the ultimate secret of Winston Churchill's mastery over men? How came it that this man who, in the time of peace had been an isolate figure, trusted by no party, was... allowed in the war to do as he pleased?
And this is his answer to his own question.
There was in him something that was not to be found in other men. He was not I think a sage. He does not seem to have been a soldier of genius. He was not... a born administrator. There is left only an extraordinary concentration on one purpose... it amounted to obsession... on victory whatever it might cost. It was that single-mindedness which gave him his incomparable power during the war.
And it's the same thing with the journey of life. What gives us power in the spiritual journey is concentration. First of all, concentration on God and next concentration on our calling, our mission in life. It's very easy to get "de-focused" from God. Friends distract. Relationships distract. Business sometimes distracts. Pleasure distracts. Even failure distracts.
But we have to keep going back to the one best thing that we can do by saying "no" to the many good things that we could do.
The good things are not wrong; they are simply like a call on the cell phone while driving.