Distracted driving happens every day, in every city. Drive anywhere and you’ll see traffic coming at you with drivers who are looking down at their phones and not at the road ahead. It’s frightening.
Research has shown that because of the degree of cognitive distraction these devices cause, the behavior of drivers using mobile phones (whether hand-held or hands-free) is equivalent to the behavior of drivers at the threshold of the legal limit for alcohol (0.08 blood alcohol concentration)-according to Advocates for Highway & Traffic Safety.
The risk of a crash is almost four times higher when a driver is using their cell phone, with little difference between hand held and hands free use.
Cognitively, driving is one of the most complex things a human can do. Yet, it’s an activity that many of us take for granted as being “easy”.
It’s not.
According to Medscape News-“Driving is a complex information-processing task and is one of the most challenging activities people engage in on a daily basis. Driving is a dynamic task because the roadway information a driver must process (such as signs, signals, pavement markings, road curvature, position, and distance of other vehicles) changes constantly as a driver proceeds along his or her path. Furthermore, this information must be processed very quickly when driving at high speeds.”
Arizona is one of the few remaining states without any type of law restricting texting and driving.
Distracted driving includes more than just texting or using a cell phone. Eating, putting on makeup, reading, using a GPS, taking videos or selfies-all of these things contribute to distracted driving.
In the month of April, a national spotlight is shining on the problem of distracted driving. It’s time to put down the distractions, take back the wheel and arrive alive.
Want to take a pledge not to drive distracted? Click here https://goo.gl/NVmISO.
