April is Distracted Driving Awareness Month
The four types of distractions are Visual – looking at something other than the road. Auditory – hearing something not related to driving. Manual – manipulating something other than the steering wheel. And Cognitive – thinking about something other than driving.
FIVE FACTS YOU SHOULD KNOW BEFORE TEXTING AND DRIVING
- You’re at a huge risk
Text messaging increases the risk of crash or near-crash by 23 times.
- Teens are at a huge risk
The fatal crash rate for teens is 3 times greater than for drivers age 20 and over
- Teens are not better at texting
Driver distraction is responsible for more than 58% of teen crashes.
- Most people are hazards
Over 80% of drivers admit to blatantly hazardous behavior while driving, such as changing clothes, steering with a foot, painting nails, or even shaving.
- 5 seconds is a long time
Sending or reading a text message takes your eyes off the road for about 5 seconds, long enough to cover a football field while driving at 55 mph.
Each day in the United States, approximately nine people are killed and more than 1,000 injured in crashes that are reported to involve a distracted driver.
WHY DISTRACTED DRIVER AWARENESS MONTH IS IMPORTANT
- TEXTING AND SWERVING- People who text and drive, statistically spend 10% of their time on the road, outside their lane. Yikes!
- IT’S ILLEGAL- 43 of America’s 50 states have laws prohibiting texting and driving. South Dakota, New Mexico, Mississippi, Texas, Oklahoma, and Missouri have laws regulating it. Arizona just extended their reckless driving laws to cover texting.
- TEXTING IS WORSE THAN DRUNK DRIVING- Texters are six times more likely to wreck their car than drivers over the legal drinking limit. How horrifying is that? Answer: Very.
Drive responsively and wait to make that phone call or text until after you have finished driving. You could unintentionally kill someone else or even yourself!
