‘Back in the day’ the Number One distraction of vehicle drivers was changing the channel – or the volume - on the factory installed dash radio. After that, it was the chorus from the back seat that caused drivers to take their mind off the road.

These days, the predominant distractor is mobile phones. While we still refer to these digital gadgets as ‘phones’ we all know that our smart-devices have a greater range of functionalities. We can make or accept phone calls, use them for GPS navigation, listen to streamed music, browse social media, or send texts and emails - among other things.

So, when I read last week that, in Victoria this year, the road toll has risen to 137 deaths (up from 88 deaths for the same period last year) it made me wonder what’s the reason for the increase in fatalities.

While ‘official’ figures state that 20% of road deaths are related to phone use, surgeons in hospitals say that the numbers are far higher. And this sounds likely given the results of a recent Transport Accident Commission (TAC) survey. In this survey of 1,742 Victorians aged between 18 and 60 years, one-third of respondents said that they had used their mobile phones illegally while driving. Further, statistics of death tolls don’t account for the thousands of people hospitalised due to serious injury. Last year, 8,007 people lodged claims to the Victorian TAC after hospitalisation.

The issue is so bad that experts met last Friday in Victoria for a State government Road Safety Summit - otherwise known as a crisis meeting.

The issue of mobile phone distraction is another example of the regrettable population expansion of –what I like to call - Homo urbanensis. These are those souls among us who seem to have been sucked into a vortex of urbanised living. With a desire for immediate gratification, the priorities of Homo urbanensis revolve around technology. And their sense of self is increasingly defined – not by what they’ve done for the betterment of society, but by what society is doing for them.

With an overwhelming desire to remain socially connected and to multi-task, these people have probably forgotten that it’s far better to arrive safely to the family than it is to call or text them (or their mates) on the drive home. As VicRoads spokesman Chris Miller put it recently, “as little as two seconds of phone use at 50km/h on a residential street, and you've travelled 27 metres completely blind!”

At the risk of sounding like my dad - when I was a learner, the importance of driver courtesy and concentration were drilled home. We were encouraged to maintain a three-second gap from the car in front, and to double-it in dark or wet conditions. When we indicated to turn, we did so 30 metres before we we actually turned. When we were changing lanes, we allowed our indicator to flash 3 times before we did so in order to inform the driver behind of our intentions.

I’ve no doubt that drivers are being told the same things today. The question is whether, in their increasingly over-stimulated brains, Homo urbanensis has enough mental bandwidth left to comply.

Whether or not we count ourselves among the urbanised techno-dependents, perhaps it’s time we all slowed down a bit. And I’m not necessarily talking about lowering our speed. I’m talking about how we approach the task (and responsibilities) of driving. We can turn the car’s in dash radio back-on to listen to the news or the local music station. Alternatively, we can listen to an informative pod cast and educate ourselves while we’re driving. While we won’t get the immediate social stimulation that comes from posting to Instagram a photo of ourselves sitting in a traffic jam – we may just find that we’re more interesting people to socialise with when we reach the people that we’re driving to see.

And as an added bonus – both you, and I, reach home safely to our loved ones and kids.

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