Paul Horton: Distracted Driving

Distracted driving might not seem like that big of a deal until you get into a car accident and severely hurt yourself or someone else. I’ve seen it as a Car Accident Lawyer. While there are all types of reasons to get distracted while driving, here are three categories of distracted driving you should be aware of.

Visual Distractions

This type of distracted driving involves taking your eyes off of the road. Even for a few seconds. These include

– Checking the kid’s seatbelts
– Looking down at a mobile phone
– Fiddling with a GPS tracker
– Changing DVDs, CDs or the radio

While all of these situations above are considered strictly visual, mobile phone use and texting also carries over into manual and cognitive distractions.

Texting and driving is becoming a nuisance across the globe, especially in the US. According to statistics, around 660,000 drivers per day are driving and attempting to look down or text while driving.

Some cell phone statistics:

– One out of every four car accidents that happens in the US is because of texting and driving.

– Over 330,000 accidents a year are caused by driving and texting.

– 94% of drivers are FOR an overall ban of texting while driving and 74% are FOR banning any use of hand-held phones while driving.

– At least 11 teenagers die every day because of texting and driving.

Manual Distractions

This type of distracted driving deals involves person someone removing their hands from the wheel for any particular reason.

– Eating or Drinking while driving
– Getting something out of their wallet or purse
– Adjusting their briefcase in the other seat
– Putting makeup on
– *Looking down at your phone or texting
– Getting dressed in the car – yes it does happen!

Let’s be clear here. When you get into a car, you shouldn’t be doing anything but driving and while it would be nice to know everyone else is following the same rules, they probably won’t be. Eating or putting on makeup should be done before getting into or after getting out of the car and yet so many people do it.

– In 2013 alone, over 3,000 people were killed due to distracted driving

– Also in 2013, 10% of all of the accidents that happened was because of distracted driving of a driver between the ages of 16 and 19.

Cognitive Distractions

A cognitive distraction is one that happens when your mind is not focused on the task at hand. Whether it’s driving, turning, stopping at a stop sign, or anything that requires your full attention. A cognitive distraction can happen if:

– Someone else in the car is talking to you
– Your phone is ringing
– *Texting
– Daydreaming
– Even having the radio up too loud can be considered a cognitive distraction

Make it a rule that if someone drives with you, they have to let you concentrate on the road. Always make sure you keep your music off or at a low level. Also turn your ringer off while in the car so you can concentrate better. Lastly, make sure that if you are traveling someplace new and using a GPS that you set it up before you take off in your car.