My surprise at how easily I was distracted at the wheel

Something as small and innocuous as taking a sip of water from the bottle can send you off course. It happened to me during the week as I was mooching along in tight city traffic.

I reached out, without taking my gaze from the road, but there was nothing in the cup-holder.

I had put the bottle in the slot in front of the one I thought I’d left it in – and where I usually leave it.

Silly of me, of course, but I had – instinctively – to glance down and sideways to get the bottle.

And that took my eyes off the road for a second or two. That perturbed me.

Luckily I was travelling slowly and came to no harm but, as I say, I was amazed and a bit disturbed at how such a simple thing could affect my driving.

Distraction of any sort is dangerous; we normally blame screens and infotainment displays. But, as I found, danger lurks in many areas.