A few thoughts on the topic of "attention at the wheel"
03/21/2023
This sentence from a Tages-Anzeiger article on the traffic accident statistics for 2022 is thought-provoking: "The most common cause of a traffic accident is still a lack of attention and distraction, according to traffic police chief Iseli. Around a quarter of all accidents are caused by using a smartphone, radio or navigation device, eating or smoking while driving."
So it is not excessive speed or not being in control of the vehicle that causes the largest proportion of accidents, but distraction. This is probably not only the case in the Zurich conurbation, but generally in our latitudes.
Anyone who drives a modern car is not surprised. Quickly turn off the seat heating in a Fiat 500e? Requires two clicks on the touch-sensitive LCD screen in the middle. You have to be pretty accurate and look closely. Even for this trivial operation, your gaze quickly wanders away from the road for several seconds. This is not an isolated case, more and more buttons are disappearing.
How soothing the dashboard of a classic car is. There is at least one toggle switch or pull-button for every function, usually easy to feel if you know the car. And the range of functions is manageable anyway, once you're driving, there's hardly anything left to adjust. In any case, classic drivers are probably more attentive on the road than modern functional drivers, because when in doubt, the braking distance is longer and there is no electronic assistant to prevent a mishap.
