RIYADH: Health Awareness of Our Society (Hayatuna) Secretary General Dr. Abdulrahman Al-Qahtani has urged drivers to stop at a safe place if they have to call or answer their cell phones.

“If a motorist wants to use his cell phone while driving or wants to answer a call, he should pull over and stop at a safe place along the road,” Al-Qahtani said.

Al-Qahtani made the statement while recently participating in the third episode of a radio program “Talking Before the Accident” adopted by the Disabled Children’s Association (DCA) with the cooperation of the General Directorate of Traffic.

He said that a motorist who uses his cell phone is three to five times more susceptible to accident than someone who is concentrating on driving.

Citing a foreign study, he said that mental distractions such as problems in the office or at home could also cause distractions while driving.

“According to the study, mental distractions caused by a mobile phone while driving is equivalent to someone driving while under the influence of alcohol,” he said.

Al-Qahtani added that the study claims the use of a mobile phone while driving reduces brain activity by 37 percent.

“Based on statistics, Saudi Arabia ranks second among Arab countries and 23rd globally in terms of deaths due to road accidents,” he said.

He added that according to statistics, a car accident occurs every second while 17 people are killed in crashes every day on average in the Kingdom.

Sultan Al-Zahrani, secretary general of the Committee on Traffic Safety in the Eastern Region, expressed optimism about the future in the field of traffic safety in the Kingdom when he called the radio host at the end of the program to give his opinion on road accidents.