Crash. Bang. Wallop. What a video! Yes, we may be a nation obsessed with grainy TV footage of idiot motorists doing dangerous things on our roads, but have you ever thought there might be a correlation with our online safety too?

What? Do what to myself? Well, that's rather rude. A simple "no" would have sufficed. Sigh.

Fear not, though, as help is at hand from anti-virus vendor par excellence PC Tools, which has commissioned some research into the matter.

The study of 1,000 motorists, which (cough, splutter) just happens to coincide with the firm's sponsorship of TDS Racing and partnership with the World Series by Renault, found that dangerous drivers are FIVE times more likely to suffer identity theft. FIVE!

It doesn't end there, though. Oh no. They are eight times more likely to click on links in emails from unknown sources, five times more likely to open emails containing viruses, and twice as likely to reveal personal details to fraudulent web sites. Idiots.

Oh, and they're about a billion times more likely to end up on an achingly bad ITV4 copumentary series while a failed newscaster patronises their driving style from a nearby studio.

So what's the takeaway from this? Don't type while driving? Er, probably not. Ah, hang on, Sneak's got it: if you drive dangerously, get the hell off the internet before you kill someone!!!

24 Aug 2011