Monday, January 14, 2013

Ltes Help End Distracted Driving


The Problem of Distracted Driving

                If someone asked you to close your eyes while driving on the highway for around five seconds, more than likely you would never comply. However millions of Americans are doing just that every day when they text while driving. If you are driving fifty-five miles an hour and take your eyes off the road for five seconds, you will have traveled one hundred yards; all the while being blind to your surroundings. The following are some pretty scary statistics to think about, especially when preventing these life-threatening situations is as easy as focusing while driving.

• 80% of all collisions and 65% of near crashes have some form of driver inattention as contributing factors. That is over 4,000,000 crashes per year in North America that are caused by driver distraction.

• Cell phone use is attributed to 18% of fatalities in distraction-related crashes.

What makes up the other 82%? Putting on lipstick, reaching over to grab a drink, changing the music, reading a roadmap, eating on the go: The distractions are endless. But they don’t have to be.

• Talking on a cell phone makes a driver 4 times more likely to have a crash or near crash event. Texting makes them 23 times more likely to have this happen.

• Texting slows driver reaction time even more than alcohol! In fact, even making a phone call delays reaction time about as much as having a .08 BAC (Blood Alcohol Content)

                There are many unpreventable dangers when driving, but driving distracted is not one of them. It is a driver’s responsibility to prepare for their drive before they put the car in drive, whether that means making sure the radio is turned to a satisfactory station or that you will not be tempted to answer any messages from your cell phone while driving. Safety of yourself as well as fellow drivers can be a difficult thing to control, but keeping your eyes and thoughts on the road can help keep you safe.

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