FROM Management 86

It has recently become official: while our Red Devils cherish the healthy ambition of becoming European champions next year, we Belgians have already been crowned European champions of texting while driving. Every morning I see the bravest of all Gauls risking life and suffering on the E40 towards Brussels, while they heroically provide their employer or mistress with the necessary traffic or other information or – of course unaware of any wrongdoing – calmly absorb the latest Facebook news. Call me a scaredy-cat who prefers to keep his hands on the wheel and his attention on the road, but: it drives me crazy. No less than 37 percent of drivers admit that they sometimes endanger their own lives and those of others by texting or calling while driving. Even professional van drivers who are quickly called about a new assignment or are asked when the customer can expect his or her delivery, all too often wander around the Belgian roads like an unguided missile. And this while the manufacturers and track & trace companies offer roughly 427 technological solutions to communicate hands-free and safely with the back office. That is why, dear friends of the Flemish government, this scared little prude would like to make an appeal: isn't it time for pink Ray to get a smartphone? Kristof Winckelmans,