Whiplash road accidents can be caused by stuffing your face

This morning on my way into work along the "whiplash run" as I ambled past the even denser, angrier traffic gridlocked in the opposite lane, I spied a portly woman stuffing her face with a bucketload of fried chicken. She was doing so in gluttonous haste; probably retaining only half of it for mastication, the remainder just cascading down her chin and bust in a blur of rusty coloured grease.

Suddenly, and unexpectedly, the traffic in her lane started to move. I saw her jaw gape and with it her fistful-sized mouthful of chicken, followed by the sight of her pendulous uvula swinging. Finally her little Ford runabout jerked into motion to an accompanying chorus of impatient beeping.

Aside from the immediate squeamishness caused by staring down her lipid maw, I couldn't help but wonder just how many collisions are caused by eating behind the wheel. With this in mind, I arrived in the office and googled the phrase "car accident eating driving".

I quickly discovered that eating while driving is behind an astonishing 80 percent of crashes in the US (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration); aside from obvious stereotypes about overeating Americans, there is no reason to believe that the UK figures would be any different.

Despite the obvious risks, there is little in the way of public information about the dangers. A Brunel University lecturer comments, "There ought to be specific advice and a publicity campaign about the dangers of eating and drinking while driving. However, legislation would be very difficult because where would you stop? Would you ban people from changing radio channels?"

And it seems that eating while driving is bad for us in other ways too, "Nutritionists have expressed concern that eating at the wheel is unhealthy, since the kinds of foods drivers eat at the wheel are typically fast food - and consequently high in fat and salt," he said. "Psychiatrists suggest that patients with eating disorders are more likely to binge-eat while driving."

The issue should be viewed as a very serious: it is not only whiplash-style accidents that are caused by eating behind the wheel; in just the past few years it has been the cause of a number of fatal crashes too.

And there can be little excuse for filling your face while driving. If you're not worried enough about whiplash, perhaps remembering that police will hand out fines and penalty points for "eater drivers" will be enough to put you off a noshing while driving.

Can I claim?