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Today, I continue my plea and caution against the temptation or habit of using your cell phone and related hand-held devices while driving.

The law prohibits it. But it is dangerous and threatens your very life and those of others. So, why wait for the police force you to stop it? You will observe that just too many of us are driving with one hand and our phones in the other. We are always talking or even texting on the highway while doing plus 60 kilometres per hour.

Regulation 107 of the Road Traffic Regulations 2012 prohibits “holding, using or operating” any “hand-held … communication device in one or both hands” while on the wheels. But who is exacting compliance?

I was in Bolgatanga over the weekend for a celebration of a burial of my dad who passed the previous weekend. In Tamale town, in Navrongo and in Bolga, I was shocked to see people do what I confirmed was receiving phone calls on motorbikes. How dangerous!?

My casual checks showed motorbike accidents are responsible for a good number of emergency cases in the major hospitals and amputations and lost limbs of the young energetic population. In fact, from Bolga to the Tamale airport, I had cause to tell the bus driver to stop picking up his calls while in motion on the highway. I watched him do it once, twice, but couldn’t be silent thereafter, seeing he placed his phone in a manner to allow him see who was calling and to pick the next call easily.

That call, text, whatsapp, whatever certainly can wait. Don’t drive and use your phone. It can kill or land you in jail! Road Safety Commission, IGP, who is enforcing this beautiful law?